From New England to Old England : Beautiful, but Expensive, Luzern

Luzern was one of the most beautiful, most expensive cities we visited. The most expensive actually, even more so than Stockholm! We were relieved to find out that we could check into our hotel room upon arrival instead of waiting until the afternoon because we were feeling a bit like the weary traveller type. Getting to Luzern included my first overnight train, which of course meant not a whole lot of sleeping occurred. After getting settled in our room a greatly needed quest for coffee ensued. Not quite sure what we would find, rounding a bend and seeing Starbucks emerge from the woodwork was a pleasant surprise. What wasn’t so pleasant but came as a huge surprise was the 10 swiss franks (which are about equal to a dollar) we each ended up paying for the venti frappuccinos with an extra shot of espresso. Oh the amount we will pay for coffee.

Luzern is a small gorgeous city, which does not have all that much to do, tourist wise. So the first day we meandered through the Old Town and saw the major sites. Luzern has a famous bridge, Chapel Bridge, and attached to it is a famous hexagonal shaped building.

In front of the Lion of Luzern is the location where Liz and Grace took public naps each laying on one of my legs. The poor things were still so exhausted from the night train and it was so warm that they couldn’t help but lay down and fall asleep. It was fascinating to watch the hordes of tourists coming and going to take pictures of the famous war memorial.

Switzerland is known for a few things, one of which being fondue! So of course we had to find fondue for dinner because that was our only night in the city. Needless to say it was extremely expensive and we ended up paying close to (don’t freak out, dad) 40 franks each for cheese and chocolate fondue. The cheese was amazing. The chocolate, however, was not so great. We all agreed we could have done without.

The next day we did some shopping for souvenirs. I now have a real Swiss Army knife from Switzerland! Liz and I both got one and I must remember to put that in my checked luggage… We also rented a paddleboat and set out into the lake. The weather was beautiful and warm and the view of the Alps was absolutely marvellous. The swans in the lake were extremely aggressive. They would swim very close to our boat and as we were paddling in to the dock one got really close to me and another hissed at Grace! I never knew they could hiss. Good things swans don’t have teeth because just a stretch of the neck and they could have bit us. It was a bit scary.