January 13, 2007

• Yesterday, I went on an ITR trip to Lugano, Switzerland.  The trip is titled as a chocolate factory tour and then some time in the downtown area.  However, the first thing was the 4 hour bus trip to get there.  I arrived at the bus at 0630 and upon walking on, noticed one thing.  There were a lot of parents with children on the bus.  I think there was one other single person on the bus, aside from our guide. 

  
  

  The trip wasn’t bad, and actually pretty scenic.  It’s the only good thing about not driving, because you don’t have the chance to look around when you drive.
   
   
  

  
  

  This is the town of Como, Italy.  Not much to say on that.

  
  

  From there we arrived at the chocolate factor, Schokoland.  Let me say a few things before I go on.  First off, when you think “chocolate factory” things like “Willy Wonka” comes to mind.  I’m sure that it does for Kristen.  I even remember going to Hershey, Pennsylvania, and going to Hershey Chocolate World as a child.  If you’ve got either of these things in your mind, you can imagine how badly I wanted to go to this thing.

  
  

  Let me just say that I was sorely disappointed.  I mean, it was an actual factory.  It wasn’t like they even had a dressed up area to please the masses.  And we couldn’t take pictures, not that there was must to take pictures of.  The BEST part of it was where I saw this one wrapping machine where the feed area kept jamming.  This guy would go over, stop the machine, clear the jam, and start it up again.  From there, he would walk away, and 20 seconds later it would jam.  This happened 6 times.  I wanted to knock on the plexiglass and point out that one of the feed wheels wasn’t turning, but this was funnier.  The high point was the chocolate fountain at the beginning:
   

  
  

  This sign was funny because as we drove in, one of the kids yelled, “They don’t know how to spell chocolate.”:
  

  
  

  Afterward, we were able to go and purchase chocolate.  One thing I have grown to do is always get SOMETHING when I go somewhere.  Today would not be an exception.  As I waited outside for the rest of the people to return to the bus, I realized that some of the parents had given chocolate to their children.  The evidence was chacing other pieces of evidence around, yelling.
  
  The little girl in the purple was originally in a stroller eating her small piece of chocolate.  Then she started to wiggle like Bruce Banner changing into the Hulk.  Her mom decided to let her out of the stroller, and as soon as she became freed from her bonds, she began literally running circles around her mom before running off.  It was like where a satellite circles the earth to gain velocity before shooting of to distant galaxies.

  
  

  From the factory, we drove down to the city of Lugano’s downtown area.  The first thing that I saw when I got off the bus was the oversized chess pieces outside of Burger King:
  
  The dude on the left is completely screwed.  I wasn’t really sure why the guy on the left didn’t just end the game by moving his knight out of the way.  That would have created a direct threat on the king with his queen, as well as the fact that his rooks prevented escape.  I was also baffled as to why this was outside of a Burger King, since the last thing I want to do while eating a Whopper, is watch chess.

  
  

  Next, I walked past the Ego Bank, where I apparently have a large account:
  

  
  

  Next, I passed by a jewelry store called Bucherer.  I assume this a description of what it would do to your wallet:
   
  So you know, 4,900 Francs is $3,927.38.

  
  

  From there, I walked around looking for lunch and souvenirs.  I took pictures along the way:
   
   
  
  This is the Church of Saint Maria degli Angioli (of the angels):
   

  
  

  I thought about climbing these stairs:
  
  That’s as far as that idea went.  I think I flashed back to Liverpool.

  
  

  After lunch, I walked up a hill and fond the Cathedral San Lorenzo:
   
   
   
   
   
  The nativity scene was made from carved stones.

  
  

   
  This head was just out in the some field near one of the main roads.  I took a picture with it for scale.  It’s called Eros Bendato.

  
  

  Lastly, I found this, which feeds into the lake seen earlier:
  

  
  

  Black 6, out.

  • 10:55 am
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