The American Road Trip I

We left early on a Saturday morning heading south on our American Road Trip (meaning a long car drive there and back).

First stop was Luxembourg City.

It is the capital of the country of Luxembourg. Kinda confusing. Like New York, New York.

On this map, you can see the tiny country of Luxembourg (Lux.) bordered by France, Belgium, and Germany. Luxembourg City has a population of about 100,000 people and the entire country has less than a half million.

The country has become a financial and administrative center and many companies have established an office or even a regional headquarters there. Like Skype, eBay, PayPal. It's not Switzerland, but I think it gives the term Swiss Bank Account a whole new meaning. Perhaps it's their legal banking secrecy laws where banks are not allowed, by law, to provide authorities with personal and account information about their customers unless there's been a criminal complaint filed, for example. Some might call this a tax haven.

Anyway, Luxembourg also enjoys the title of second highest per capita GDP in the world. Second only to Qatar (that's in the Middle East near Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - oil).

There's a lot more to see here (not just because of the fog) and I hope we can return one day.

Our next stop was Interlaken, Switzerland. Jim and I have been here before and it was just as beautiful this time.

Hannah and Ross looking through binoculars to get a close-up view of the Jungfrau Mountain in the Alps.

Interlaken is a popular ski destination. You can see the Jungfrau peak in the top center of the map and you can see Interlaken in the bottom center of this map. It lies between these two lakes, hence the name.

I can't imagine living here with this as your view.

We drove up the mountain to get a better view. This picture looks like a painting to me.

The first snow of the season had not fallen yet, but we found a little snow.

Our next stop was Lucerne, Switzerland. Jim and I have also been here before and I think it is one of the most picturesque cities we've ever seen.

The city lies on Lake Lucerne and this is the Reuss River which runs through it. The Chapel Bridge was erected in the 14th century. The Alps mountains of Pilatus and Rigi are in the distance, but the fog makes it difficult to see in the photo.

When I say "take a picture of all of us", Jim always obliges.

I guess this last one is where we said "okay, that's good enough".

Our next stop was Strasbourg, France. It lies only 3 miles from the German border and is the capital of the French Alsace region.

I just loved these Christmas decorations.

This is the Ill River which runs through Strasbourg and empties into the Rhine River in Germany. It's difficult to see every city during the day as our days are so short this time of year, but sometimes they are just as beautiful at night.

Last stop on this day was Zürich, Switzerland's largest city.

It was getting late and pretty chilly so we didn't stay too long. The city lies at the end of Lake Zürich and what's not showing in this picture are the mountains that surround Zürich.

It is a beautiful city and the Old Town area was really nice. I hope we can go back some time.