A Day Trip to Lucerne

Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

WE STARTED the trip with an pretty full schedule of events. A walking tour nearly immediately on our arrival in Zurich. A full day the next day, including a tour and boat ride on Lake Lucerne, in the "storybook" town of Lucerne. The Switzerland-tour website describes Lucerne as: ". . . a charming city on a picturesque lake surrounded by the majestic mountains." It is no wonder I (and probably the majority of others visiting Switzerland) wanted to visit there.

Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

WE HAD (that is - the proverbial "we" - my wife does most of our travel and tour arrangements and she is very good at it. Many say she should be in the business, but like me and my photography, her thinking is that if she had to do it, it would suck all the fun from it and our travels) purchased train tickets from the Hauptbanhof to Banhof Luzern (the main train station in Lucerne). I described Zurich as a "compact" inner city. By comparison, Lucerne is just plain small. With an urban area of 220,000, the city population is just 82,0000. About 25 miles (as the proverbial "crow flies"), the city is largely medieval in its architecture and layout and was once a walled city. Much of the wall remains intact, and can be seen from parts of the city. We saw a fair amount of it during our walking tour.

Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

I HAVE read the numerous accounts of the vaunted German and Swiss efficiency in many of the accounts online. With our small sampling (we spent roughly 50% of our 2 weeks in Germany), I will say this: Germany cannot begin to compare with Swiss efficiency in even the smallest detail. I will offer more thoughts on "German efficiency" in upcoming blogs about our experiences in Munich and Berlin. We were duly impressed by everything we encountered in Switzerland. While our sampling was small compared to the spots we did not see (Bern, Basel, Lausanne and Geneva are on our future travel list), what we did experience was in complete accord with what I had read. If, for example, a Swiss train schedule says the train will arrive at 9:23, it will arrive at 9:23 (not 9:20 and not 9:25). Departure times are equally precise. We found the Swiss trains and trams to be clean and relatively modern and a very good method of transport.

Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

SADLY, WE were greeted by a steady, medium rain as we departed the train and exited the train station to meet our tour guide. Reflecting back, I think Lucerne was the soggiest, wettest day of our trip. We put on our raincoats and did our best to put on a "happy face." The tour would go on - rain or shine - and there was not going to be any "shine" on this day. The rain was pretty much relentless. Every time it would stop for a minute, we would have optimistic thoughts, and it would start up again. As I mentioned in my introductory blog for this trip, it is difficult to make photographs in the rain. When I am on a dedicated trip, I have a few "tricks" including a "rain jacket" designed for my camera and a full-sized poncho which I can set up my tripod underneath. Here, I had to make do with my raincoat and a golf hat (I needed the brim to keep the rain off my face. I felt a bit like I was in a submarine with only a mono-vision periscope). Worse, though, was that I got raindrops on my camera lens. Even if you wipe it, it is not always apparent when shooting that your image will be impacted by raindrops. Afterward, though, when you are looking at the images, it becomes readily apparent. When we visited the Lion Monument, for example, I wasn't aware (something I hope I have learned from) of a large raindrop on my lens, which meant I didn't really come away with any good shot there. What I have posted here is the best I could salvage.

"The Lion" Monument - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

MOST OF our walking tour covered the Luzern Altstadt (Old Town). From the train station, we walked on the south side of the river, until we reached the first - and most famous - of two walking bridges that cross the Reuss River: Kapellbrucke. to This late14th century covered bridge crosses the river diagonally, from the New Town (south side) to the Chapel (hence, its name - "Chapel Bridge"). It is so-named as its "Old Town" entrance is right at the St. Peter's Chapel, a picturesque white chapel with a distinctive spire.

St. Peter's Chapel (with Kapellbrucke in the foreground) - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

KAPELLBRUCKE IS the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, and the oldest truss bridge in the world. It has become Lucerne's iconic symbol for tourism. Many of the interior walls of the bridge were decorated with (post-reformation mainly promoting Catholicism) paintings. In 1993, a tragic fire destroyed most of the bridge. Reconstructed and re-opened in 1994 only some of the original paintings were restored. Some of the charred remains are still in place today, presumbably as a reminder of the fire.

Kapellbrucke - Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

THE OCTOGON shaped tower, which features prominently in most pictures of the bridge, was used historically as a prison and torture chamber, and in more modern times, a municipal archive. Today, it is closed to the public.

Chapel Bridge and Tower - Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

FROM THERE we trekked up (mostly an uphill grade) for what seemed like at least a mile (actually just under 1/4 mile :-) ) to a road that followed the old medieval stone wall, high above the street level at the Reuss River. Views from up there would have been splendid (had we been able to see through the fog and clouds) and would have included views of the (perhaps snow-capped) Alps behind the city. As it was, we had to satisfy ourselves with views of the wall, which was itself impressive. Containing 9 separate towers, the Musegg wall was built around Lucerne as part of fortifications for the city, built in the 13th century. Most of it is intact today.

The Musegg Wall - Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

THE WALK was nice, but us "older folk" thought at one point we might have to be airlifted out. It was a steady, uphill grade, with views of the wall, a "city farm," older housing, and new construction. If the walk didn't give me cardiac arrest, the answer I got when I asked about housing costs nearly did! Most of what we were seeing was multiple family housing in many stately old buildings. The average cost to purchase a condominium-like apartment was about $3 million swiss francs (at current conversion, nearly $3.5 million U.S.)!! The cost to purchase a single family home is at least 10x that! What is more; this is apparently somewhat consistent throughout Switzerland. I said it before and I would repeat it a few times (and probably will again). Everything about Switzerland was impressive, but it was also the most expensive place we have ever visited.

Old Town - Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

OUR TOUR ended after walking all the way back down that steep road and back down to the river level, where our excellent guide gave us some recommendations for places to get lunch, good beer, and other foods. We were in the mood to share some fondue, so we followed his recommendation for a nice restaurant for that. There is a "story behind the story." The previous day at the end of our walking tour of Zurich, we followed a recommendation for a restaurant in Zurich's Old Town. Unlike every other experience we had in Switzerland, this one was less than pleasant. Perhaps not anyone's fault but our own. It was our first exposure to the sticker shock we would experience in Switzerland. We knew - and had discussed - that fondue was a Swiss specialty (cheese and chocolate: who knew? 😋). We started with a drink and were somewhat taken aback by the cost (the single exception to what soon realized was an expensive food and drink experience was beer, which was cheap everywhere we went). We found that to be the norm in Zurich and Lucerne, and when you compare it to a nice meal out in the U.S., not really so much out of line, in retrospect. What set us back a bit though, was we couldn't "share" a fondue for the table - or even for 2  (and perhaps order some other appetizers). The "policy" of the restaurant was that everybody had to order a separate entree. Tired from our extra-long day (we had just gotten off of an hours long, overnight flight), we just weren't up for a huge meal. We left, much to the displeasure of our waiter, after paying for our single drinks. We ultimately ended up at the hotel bar, where we were able to find some light fare.

Our "Fondue Spot" in Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

SOMEWHAT "GUN-SHY," we were happy to learn that we could indeed share a 2-portion cheese fondue among the 4 of us. We also got a meat and cheese tray and one of us got fish and another some soup. The guys opted for the local beer. It was cold. It was good. The fondue was excellent. If it wouldn't have been incredibly gauche, we might have licked the pot clean. 😋

The average cost to purchase a condominium-like apartment was about $3 million swiss francs (at current conversion, nearly $3.5 million U.S.)!!

OUR TOUR included a ride on a boat in Lake Lucerne. Once again, weather made this experience less than optimal. But fortified with a good lunch an a couple beers, we boarded the S.S. Minnow for a 3 - hour tour (really, it was the Saphir and it was about 45 minutes). Fortunately, the tourist boat was mostly covered and I was able to use my camera. The photography was not memorable (unless your memory includes black, white and grey). I made some anyway, of course. Time will tell whether I use any of them. Our guide recommend we try to visit, or at least see the Hofkirche St. Leodegar if time permitted. Its twin steeples were visible from where we were, and or boat launch was on the pier right in front of it. I was able to get a snapshop of the building from the boat as it left its mooring.

Hofkirche St. Leodegar - Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards - All Rights Reserved

THERE WERE some decent views of the shoreline in spots, but the weather just didn't warrant a lot of photographs. I could see that on a different weather day, a cruise on Lake Lucerne could be a pretty good experience. This time, it just didn't meet expectations. As my wife said, I will just have to wait for next time. I am virtually certain that we will be back to Switzerland, and likely to visit both Lucerne an Zurich again. In the meantime, I made the best of what we did get and as I always am, when I got home and began to work through my photographs more seriously, I was pleasantly surprised at many of the results.

Lucerne, Switzerland - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

WE TOOK the train back to Zurich, walked back to the hotel, and changed into some dry clothes. It took my wife's tennis shoes 2 days to dry out. I had waterproof shoes. So I had that going for me. I spoke to one of the delightful young ladies behind the desk and got a restaurant recommendation in the old town. It was about 3 blocks from the hotel, and easy to find. We had a very nice dinner, sharing a couple pizzas, and then retired for the evening, to rejuvenate for yet another busy day. Coming up, our trip into the Swiss Alps.