2001.03.30 Switzerland Travel Diary: Lucerne (Luzern)
One nice thing about being posted to Milan, Italy...
The location here is great: an hour's drive to Switzerland, two hours to Austria, three hours to France...
Basically, anything within a 300 km radius can be planned as a day trip...
Every evening after work my wife and I would talk about which country to visit on the weekend ^.^
This time...we went a little farther, to two spots: Lucerne (Luzern) and Mount Titlis
We drove through what was then (in 2001) the world's longest tunnel, the Gotthard Tunnel, and arrived in Lucerne...
The Chapel Bridge was built in 1333, originally for Lucerne's defence. It is the oldest surviving wooden bridge in Europe and is now the city's landmark.
Inside the covered bridge hang about a hundred and twenty paintings of Lucerne's history, made in the seventeenth century.
Most of the Chapel Bridge burned down, however, in a 1993 fire caused by a boat collision; fortunately it was rebuilt the following year and restored to its original look.
The 140-foot-high octagonal brick water tower in the middle of the bridge was once used as a prison, torture chamber, watchtower, and treasury. These days it seems to open for visits during certain periods...
This Jesuit Church was built in 1667–1677 and is the first church in the Jesuit style in Switzerland.
Crossing to the old town on the far bank, you can see how distinctive European architecture is...and the pace of life is very relaxed too...
The photo below is a wine shop; on a weekend morning the owner had invited some friends to play an impromptu performance at the door ^.^
Also, now that we were in Switzerland, we really ought to try the so-called chocolate fondue...
But watching others melt chocolate over a flame, stir in cream, and then dip fruit, biscuits, or bread on a fork to eat...it looked like it would be cloying and not very filling...
So we played it safe and ordered the beef fondue instead @.@'"
This monument was built to honour the Swiss mercenaries who died defending King Louis XVI's household during the French Revolution of 1792, as a prayer for world peace.
Look at the broken arrow stuck in the lion's back and its pained, sorrowful expression...Mark Twain once praised Lucerne's stone lion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."
Next, following the tourist map, we came to the Swiss Glacier Garden (Gletschergarten). The brochure said it has landform remains formed by Quaternary glaciers, plus a glacier museum showing the history of the ice age.
There are also swirl-shaped caverns containing fossils of various tropical plants and animals, along with rocks from the glacial period.
Hmm...these two "holes" look like the swirl-shaped caverns left behind by the ice age @.@'"
The Glacier Garden also has a mirror maze and a lookout tower.
And the "lookout tower" that nearly wore me out to climb up to...
After leaving the Glacier Garden, we headed back to the old town...to check in at the hotel...
Before it got dark, we squeezed in one more sight: the Musegg Wall (Museggmauer)
The Musegg Wall was originally Lucerne's old city wall, first built in the 14th century; today only an 800-metre stretch remains...
Nine watchtowers are still preserved on the wall, three of which are open to the public, and from the top you can look out over the whole city.
Before heading back to the hotel, we made a special detour to the upper reaches of the Reuss River...to take one last shot looking back...
Related reading:
Switzerland Travel Diary: Mount Titlis
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