Switzerland Day 7: Lucerne

The next day we traveled to Lucerne/Luzern!

The train trip was pretty, as usual.

My Mom was coughing and feeling icky, but she kept a good attitude.

The train trip was beautiful, as it always is in Switzerland!

When we got to the Hauptbahnhof in Lucerne, we started looking for lockers that could accommodate our luggage.  Our hotel was a bit further from the city center, so we needed to take the train to get there.  There was no reason to cart around all our luggage all day (not that we could have succeeded at that!)

The lockers were mostly full and it was tense for a bit.

Hin und weg = there and back/round trip!

Welcome to Lucerne!

Wilkommen in Luzern!

The famous Kapell Bruecke (Chapel Bridge) is very close to the train station.

But we saved that for later!

We had a boat ride on the agenda!

We walked across the lake to the other side, where our pier was.  We hadn't ridden on these boats before, so we were a bit confused about how to choose and how to board and if we needed ticket (or if our Swiss Pass would cover the boat).  We tried to figure it out online the night before, but the websites were surprisingly confusing and unhelpful.

I waited for the kiosk to open and asked the nice man inside.

We chose this boat trip.

While we waited, we enjoyed the views and some snacks.  It was hot.

But we did find a bench under a beautiful tree!

Not too bad!

My Dad likes to "accidentally" drop things for the birds

so there are usually lots of birds around!

Including this cute and persistent duck:

And her husband!

Here's our ticket!

We were hot and tired and it was nice to sit down for an hour or so and watch the scenery go by!

Boats often have cute bathrooms!

This one wasn't especially cute, but it was nice that it existed!

Rain was expected all day this day, but we didn't get any until we were safely tucked up in our accommodation!  We did see the clouds rolling in over the mountains.

Can you spot Greg?

The water was a very pretty greenish color thanks to glacial meltoff.

There's the captain!

Fancy homes along the shore:

A little chapel:

Can you see 3 familiar faces?

Then the boat headed back to the pier where we started.

We headed off to see the Lion Memorial right away (even though we were all very tired, we wouldn't have another chance to see it, and it was very very close - just a 10 minute walk!)

This is the Lion Center!  So we knew we were near.

And then we were there!

The Glacier Garden and the Lion Memorial!

Lots of cobblestones and even some pretty leaves!

First view:

They even matched clothes on this day!

(Notice how red and hot we all were - it was a very humid and warm day!)

This monument is a memorial in honor of the Swiss Guards who died while guarding the French King, Louis XIV (who later was guillotined during the French Revolution).

Greg pretending to look for things . . . 

with his patented crinkled-up nose expression!!!

You can find out more about the dying lion memorial here:

Or here.

Wooden sculptures shop:

Then we headed over to walk across the beautiful OLD Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge).

From Wikipedia:

"The bridge itself was originally built c.1365 as part of Lucerne's fortifications. It linked the old town on the right bank of the Reuss to the new town on the left bank, securing the town from attack from the south (i.e. from the lake). The bridge was initially over 270 metres (890 ft) long, although numerous shortenings over the years and river bank replenishments mean the bridge now totals only 204.7 metres (672 ft) long. It is the oldest surviving truss bridge in the world, consisting of strutted and triangulated trusses of moderate span, supported on piled trestles; as such, it is probably an evolution of the strutted bridge.

"The Kapellbrücke almost burned down on 18 August 1993, destroying two thirds of its interior paintings.[9] Shortly thereafter, the Kapellbrücke was reconstructed and again opened to the public on 14 April 1994 for a total of CHF 3.4 million."

All in a row!

Look how beautiful it is!

We watched a dog play in the water - it was a hot day, after all!

Don't worry; we did not pee on the bridge!

The paintings above are almost all reproductions because of the fire, but they are still beautiful!

I need to brush up on my Gothic script because I have a hard time reading it and translating from the old Swiss at the same time.

It's pretty busy on the bridge.  Sometimes musicians come there to play.

This wall painting on the building reminded me of my time studying in Austria, where MANY of the buildings have beautiful paintings on them.

A more modern bridge for cars.

I love that the bridge has flowers planted all along!

You can catch a tiny glimpse of all four of us!

I think this bridge is beautiful!!!

There was a life-saving ring available just in case!

Then we had to grab our stuff and head to our accommodations!

It always felt like a lot when we had all our stuff, but it wasn't that bad.

This was the only time I almost cried on the trip.

It was HUMID and HOT and I was pulling all my luggage for a looong way because we hadn't figured out the bus situation and we walked to the hotel instead of taking the bus (the bus stop was right across the street!)

BUT we found it and it was air-conditioned and it was beautiful!

We had left my parents on a bench at the train station, since we didn't want to make them follow us when we didn't know where we were going.  That was good.

The view was beautiful from all the windows!

We went back to get my parents and saw this lovely little slug!

Out one window was Lake Lucern and mountains (across a sports field!)

Out the other side of the room was a view of cute buildings and mountains.

Greg and I got my parents settled and we headed out to get some groceries and dinner for my parents.

There's my Dad up there!

We got some yums at Coop!

On our walk, we saw this cute wooden frog:

We got a couple of pizzas for Greg and my parents:

Guten Appetit!

I LOVE the word "querung" (crossing)

Fire trucks exiting

I got some more soy yogurt and had some sandwiches.

Then we watched a storm roll in over the mountains and the lake.

And to end the post today, here's Bernd Das Brot! (Bernd the Bread!)

He is the mascot of a children's television channel and he's AMAZING and HILARIOUS!

I didn't know anything about him until I saw him in his crazy space suit sadly floating in space and I couldn't stop giggling.  I laughed until I cried.

And then we tried to sleep in spite of the celebrating and fireworks outside.

The next day was the longest suspension bridge in Europe!

https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/experiences/europes-highest-suspension-bridge/

xo