The beautiful and charming…LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND
You know, a lot of people tell me, they love Bern. I really want to visit it. Still, I haven’t gone. It’s not far from where I live. I just haven’t gone, at least not yet. I keep choosing Lucerne over Bern. It’s not a matter of distances, like I said. It’s a matter of scenery. Unlike Bern, Lucerne is nestled around the beautiful Mount Pilatus and its Lake Lucerne! It fascinates me to us to look at them or being around them. I’m drawn to their beauty. So I visit Lucerne!
Lucerne is “a must” tourist destination in Switzerland. It’s full of character! You have Lake Lucerne with views of Mt. Pilatus and Mt. Rigi, and you have the old town displaying one of its most famous attractions which is the Chapel Bridge dating back since the 14th century. In 1993, a fire damaged over 65% of the bridge including the wooden board paintings. Although some of them were restored, you can still see the damage on the bridge caused by that fire. You will also notice that the city is very crowded. So be aware of this should you decide to visit the town on a weekend. No matter the season, it will be crowded! Don’t worry, there are plenty of “Parkplatz” around the Altstadt of Lucerne.
Once you have found a place to park, (it might take you a couple of rounds around the block, sorry! Maybe 5 rounds?), then make your way to the Chapel Bridge. For us, it has always been the starting point. We view the scenery and take pictures. Then we make our way to the Town Hall and take more pictures. By then we normally like to go for some ice cream, so we take the Rathaus-Steg (Bridge) to the other side and walk along the Reuss River to an ice cream parlor located right on Reusssteg, (it’s not mispelled). Afterwards, we walk towards the 2nd bridge, the Spreuerbrücke or Mill Bridge. On this bridge, you will find a little chapel and more beautiful wooden board painting that depict the “Dance of Death”, (It means that nobody, not even the king, the beautiful lady, the priest…NOBODY…can escape Death). Beautiful paintings, I tell you!
But moving along! Once you cross to the other side, you arrive at the Mühlenplatz. This is a another Square surrounded by restaurants full of people having their lunches, afternoon coffee, or just gossiping about God knows what…
Keep on walking and you reach the Weinmarkt. Oh, you can’t miss it for it’s a street full of stores: Benetton, Manor, Marc’O Polo, Mammut, etc., but I don’t shop in Lucerne. Well, that’s not true! I do shop for one thing; CHOCOLATE. I always buy chocolate. There’s a Läderach shop right at the corner of Weinmarkt and Kornmarkt.
Shopping for Chocolate!
Once I’ve gotten my precious chocolates, we go down to the Rathausquai! Now, here is where you want to have a lunch or dinner. Rathausquai faces the Reuss River, right by the Town Hall and the Chapel Bridge. It gets very crowded because of the location and in our case, they had Street performers playing music and entertaining the crowd. Besides, after all that strolling around the 1/2 timber houses, the bridges, the shops, etc., you’ll get hungry, believe me! So, time to relax some more. We stopped for some wooden made pizzas accompanied by some Red wine. And like everyone else, you take your time and enjoy it.
As always, this was a short afternoon trip we made to Lucerne. However, if you are traveling to Lucerne, and this is your first time visiting, you really need to do serious touring. Make sure you take time to do an excursion to Mt. Pilatus. You can also do daily excursions to Mt. Rigi or Mt. Titlis, (Glacier…been there!!! A MUST IF YOU HAVE THE TIME!) and Brunni (also been there!-GREAT FOR CHILDREN) in Engelberg. To learn more about the endless ways you can explore Lucerne and these other locations, visit their official website: http://www.luzern.com/en
Here are some pictures of the places I just mentioned above:
Just a tiny, little advice:
Switzerland is not cheap, on the contrary, it’s very expensive. So, if you’re on a budget, keep this in mind when planning your trip to Lucerne, (or anywhere in Switzerland!). Otherwise…cheers to Lucerne!
