To Luzern

We set off from Moerel to Luzern in great spirits

(who could blame me for being happy to travel with this good-looking man?!)

Which way?  Towards the train station!

I like that the benches have labels, declaring who paid for them.

In this case, "Riederalp Moerel Tourism". 

Sadly, I had to say goodbye to my favorite little sheep ever!

And his pile of family members and friends. 

It was a warm day, and this little goat was seeking shelter from the sun

in his little goat cabin. 

We made it to the train station!

This is track 1.  It's odd that they labeled it, because Moerel is so small that there is only one track. 

We were happy to be in a train that had luggage racks in the back of our car. 

It didn't take us long to get to Luzern,

where I snuck into the M Express (a smaller version of Migros)

and bought lunch for Greg and fizzy water (Wasser mit Gas) for me. 

We enjoyed our meals while watching the trains go by.

And we then enjoyed sorting our garbage and recylceables into these handy containers!

It was very hot and had rained a bit, so my hair was looking weird,

and I worked hard to get it into a braid at the back of my head.

It's a very awkward angle!

Then we took off to enjoy our first glimpses of the city of Luzern. 

This restaurant near our rental apartment had big wooden silverware in their garden!

We walked over the train tracks that were exiting the train station and

watched a couple of trains leave for - who knows where?

There was another political sign I found interesting:

"Robbery from the federal budget

Milkcow Initiative: NO!"

I'm assuming they have a subsidy program for dairy, much like the US does. 

The buildings in the city are beautiful.

I love windows with round glass because it usually means that each pane started out as a ball and then was flattened to make the window.  It usually means the windows are extremely old.

I saw this little shop that had its byline written in Swiss German.

By reading it out loud (in my head), I caught on.

"kafi ond meh" = "Kaffee und mehr" = "coffee and more"

We reached the Reuss river (which is a beautiful shade of green) 

and there was the famous Kappellbruecke! 

("Chapel bridge", probably called that because of the triangular roof structure). 

It was originally built in 1333, but much of it was destroyed in a fire in 1993.  

There were swans swimming around the bridge. 

There's the "Wasserturm," called "watertower" because it's in the water,

not because it holds water. 

Can you find me? 

How about now? 

And now? 

Greg took those photos from the sidewalk by the river. 

The bridge has little flower boxes all along it, where beautiful plants are growing.

I wonder when the gardeners do their job? 

The bridge is famous for being very old, but also for these paintings

in the roof that detail important events in the town's history. 

They were in Gothic script, which is extremely difficult to read, and they were at an awkward angle and not painted very large and I completely failed at reading most of them. 

This guy was playing a really cool drum thing

and there was also a saxophone player, who was frustrated that this drum guy was playing, too. 

We crossed the bridge and explored the other bank (still Luzern).

The city center had beautiful painted buildings that depicted history. 

This one is one of the most colorful.

It's been repainted since the middle ages. 

The back of the statues make me laugh.

Why, for example, does this knight have a black bird sitting by his butt?

This is the Peterskapelle (= "Peter's Chapel").

It is an 18th century (1700s) church built over the remains of a much older building that was built in the 1100s. 

 Here's the Zytturm (clock tower):

Eventually, we got some food and headed back to our apartment,

enjoying the scenery (but also in the midst of slight grumpiness from being overhot and over hungry/thirsty). 

The trash cans remind people that "Luzern glistens" -

so we should keep it that way!

Here's a little tour of where we stayed while in Luzern.

It was really tiny, so it's messy!

We were on a busy street (quiet at night - yay!), which

was interesting to watch.

After eating, drinking, and cooling off, we were definitely able to enjoy the rain and the double rainbows that appeared in the sky! 

Happily, our apartment had laundry facilities, so I washed pretty much everything we brought with us and hung it all over the place to dry. 

We got a good sleep and anticipated seeing Mt. Pilatus the next day!