While Staying in Seedorf we got the chance to take a private tour of Lake Luzern aboard one of the Gravel barges that Steffy's Fathers company operates. Our Day started at 4:00am we awoke and walked over to Cory's house (Steffy's Dad) then cruised on down to the docks, about 5-10 mins away. We arrived, went up some stairs to a big crew lounge where we met the worker, Max, who would be our guide for the day. Max Had just moved back to Switzerland after living in and operating a steak house in Northern California for the past twenty years. He was also an Elvis Impersonator in Las Vegas and Cal. while living in the US. He is Quite the character! We loaded up on the barge at around 4:45 where we met the two captains of the Barge, brothers Bruno and Yost. The inside boat was made in 1990 but you wouldn't know it by house immaculate and nice everything had been kept. There was a crew cabin complete with a full kitchen and dinning area as well as a bathroom, crew closet, and work bench/tool room all inside. Right above this was the Navigation/Pilot cabin equipped with some cool radar and all the boats controls. Our route for the day stared off with a two hour journey up lake steering during the dark with the radar then right before we arrive it was light enough to steer her in by eye site. The barge docked then unloaded its 600 ton payload of various sized gravel and sand for making concrete. The unloading process is accomplished using a series of trap doors and conveyor belts loading it to dump trucks until empty. The total process took about and hour and a half. While unloading we got the chance to ride with the truck drivers to go deliver the gravel to the plant. I got a hilarious driver named Freddy, what a fun guy he spoke very broken english and I only new a few words of Swiss German, it made for an interesting ride. The Best was how he had the inside of his truck decorated. Check out the picture. We took off and cruised back down lake to pick up one more load half way back to Seedorf. We ate some lunch while they loaded up and then we were off back to Seedorf. Max pointed out all the William Tell historic site that are along the route back. Were he shot the apple of the boys head, the patch of land were him and the small group of men founded Switzerland, also the rock where Schiller wrote the Swiss national anthem about Tell. We arrived back in Seedorf around 1:00pm with just enough time to go out and see the dredging, crushing and separating machine right off shore. The thing is quite literally a floating mine it is quite impressive! I was an early morning and long day but quite worth being able to see the Huge mountains shooting up right out of the lake for as far as the eye can see, it was quite an awe inspiring sight....like most of Switzerland.
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