EUROPE BLOG April 19th, 2023 - LUCERNE

4/19/23- A full night’s sleep makes us feel pretty refreshed. With the main parts of Zurich explored already we want to venture out further into Switzerland, so we jump on a 40 minute train to Lucerne around 10:10am. The weather is decently overcast and no rain is shown to hit us until the late evening, so it should be a good day out.

Our first impression of Lucerne is mixed as it appears similar to Zurich. Cars are whizzing by as we exit the train station, the buildings are ehh and of course the sun isn’t out so the view is not phenomenal, but we make the most of it. Our first stop is through a long wooden pedestrian bridge (Chapel Bridge built in the 1300s), and to the lion monument situated several blocks away. It’s carved into the rock wall and commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution. Unfortunately, it was completely swallowed up by scaffolding and under restoration. Of course.

The walk to Old Town wasn’t far away though, so we make our way through the outdoor mall maze and hit up a McDonalds to use the bathroom (it was coded but a worker gave it to us without having to make a purchase).

Old Town was quite cool to see but we’ve experienced this so many times recently that it’s starting to get redundant. We continue on to a smaller, centuries old wooden bridge not far away (Spreuer Bridge) that has some excellent views of the riverside and the 17^th century baroque style Jesus Christ St Francis Cavier Church. It’s free to enter and worth a look inside.

We’ve now spent barely three hours walking around and already getting a bit bored. There are some amazing things to do around Lucerne but they consist of day trips away so didn’t have much time for that. We take a break at an Italian boutique and enjoy a glass of wine each while reviewing what to do next. Looking out over the water, we notice castle walls up the hill and quickly make that our next destination. The trek takes us up a long, steep street to several columns of stairs where I think Sharece almost faints, but she pulls through like a trooper. She just needed to get wine’d up first. I’m so proud of her on this trip as she’s powered her way so many times.

We finally get to the top of the first tower (Museggmauer) only to have the views obstructed by trees and such. We realize we have to continue up the wall to the far tower for the photo op, so we put our minds in concentration mode and hike on.

It took a beat to navigate the path but soon end up at the tower (Mannliturm). The stairs are even more plentiful going up, very steep and narrow. We also have to wait several times for others coming down, which allows us to rest between floors, but once we get to the top the trip is well worth it as we can see the entire city. Surprisingly, it isn’t too windy or cold up there either.

With the main parts done, we celebrate with some burgers and rest time. It’s now only around 4pm and our scheduled train doesn’t leave for another 3 hours. Hoping to change our tickets, we circle back to the train station and wait in line for customer service. After about 20 minutes, we finally speak to a person at the counter only to find that the tickets we purchased are non-refundable and a new ticket of 25 Swiss Francs (equal to $25 US) each would need to be purchased. Yeah, we ain’t doing that.

We contemplate going to a museum to waste some time, but when Sharece’s phone starts to die I say to her, “Why not just go on the 5pm train anyway. They didn’t check our tickets on the way up?” And that’s exactly what we do. If asked I figure I’d tell them I thought we were on the right train and see what happens from there.

Lucky for us, the 40 minute journey back to Zurich goes by without being asked, and we feel very fortunate to be back at our AirBnb early enough to wind down.

Oh, and since I couldn't get a picture of the Lion Monument, here's a pic of a Lion tile to hold you over.