Lucerne

On Tuesday we drove from Lindau (Germany) to Lucerne (Switzerland). We were hoping not to have any issues at the border, but you never know what to expect with the pandemic … and these foreigners 🙂 Well, we were at the border before we knew it (landed up in the extensive truck queue at first), then we had an option of “transit” or “LVW” or some combination of three letters of the alphabet – decided “transit” didn’t sound like us, so we followed a car in front of us to the three letter lane.

We were grabbing our bags to fish out our passports only to find the checkpoint unmanned – so we just kept going. Appears the “transit” cars were being stopped – so clearly a good choice. Wondering now if we could have snuck into Austria in the same way.

We had planned on doing some laundry on arrival in Lucerne and going sightseeing the next couple of days, however – rain was forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, so we decided to go through to the sights in the city centre this afternoon.

First stop was the Lion Monument. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris (possibly the first and last time the Swiss were involved in anything?). At 6m high and 10m long it is an impressive sculpture with the saddest and most pained expression on the lion’s face.

Next stop was Chapel Bridge – a covered wooden footbridge spanning the river Reuss diagonally. The last time I was here (in 1994) it had just been rebuilt after a fire destroyed most of it in 1993. The bridge is unique in that it has a number of interior paintings dating back to the 17th century and is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, as well as the world’s oldest surviving truss bridge.

Views of the Altstadt from the bridge.

Had a drink at a restaurant next to the river further downstream where the water turned into mini-rapids. Unfortunately, no tubes to go bobbing downstream – someone really ought to start that!

Well, the weather did turn bleak on Wednesday, but we still took a leisurely scenic drive around Lake Lucerne – or tried to – but at one point had a truck tailgating me and honking at me because I was going the speed limit along the narrow, hairpin bends.

Switzerland is redeeming itself … the last time I was here, I was somewhat disappointed. Partly because we had been to Austria before, so the scenery wasn’t too different and therefore not as impressive, and I wanted to see cows with bells and wooden chalets on the hillside. Somehow we managed to see neither (we did however come across a field of reindeer!!). Today, at least I got my cows with bells and scenery that is impressing me much more than last time, despite the overcast, rainy weather.

This post is significant on two counts … first of all Wednesday marked seven months since we left Australia and this is our 100th post!! I think we’ll have to celebrate tonight!!