Visit to Lucerne

After delaying my "out of Zurich" trip more than once due to foolishly believing that when weather.com said "Rain" it would actually rain, I finally went to Lucerne and prayed that it wouldn't rain, even though liar.com said it would. Turns out, it did not rain, and the day was absolutely beautiful!



Lucerne is one of the main cities in central Switzerland and about a 40 minute train ride away from Zurich. The brother and I got there at around 12:40, and I was promptly hungry. Since we traveled there on Easter Sunday, everything was closed. Everything in Switzerland is usually closed on Sundays, but due to Easter, even the one or two cafes that are usually open were not. We finally came across an Indian restaurant, which thankfully was open. Had a good lunch and set about exploring the city.


Right behind the restaurant was the Lion Monument, which was a memorial dedicated to the Swiss Guards who served in Paris to protect King Louis XVI against the French Revolution. We stood there for a bit and saw a busfull of Indians run over to the site to take group pictures. One lady was shouting at the top of her voice in a thick, fake British accent asking everyone to gather around her for a group shot. It was all quite comical.

First up in the walking tour was a walk over The Chapel Bridge. This is a covered wooden bridge connecting both sides of the town and rumored to be the oldest wooden bridge in Europe. You can see paintings depicting Swiss life in olden days on the top of the bridge as you walk across it.

We walked along the other side of the bridge and peered into the windows of all closed stores. This took us to Sreuer Bridge, which is the second covered bridge and was used to fortify the city. Here's what it looked like from Sreuer Bridge:



We then proceeded to walk uphill, which proved to me just how out of shape I am. Trust me, running on a treadmill means nothing if you can't even climb a steep slope. I was ready to collapse after about ten minutes, and we had a ways to go before we reached Musegg Wall. The wall, with its many towers, was a part of the city's fortification plans. The main reason for the hike, however, wasn't to see the towers, it was to see the breathtaking views from atop the hill. Have a look at what we saw:



I love these pictures because it really did feel like I had been transported back in time, when the world was just simple in black and white.



Please ignore the dark circles; I didn't get my 12 hour beauty sleep, and my hair dryer caught on fire. I cried all the way to Lucerne.



Since I was about to collapse from breathlessness, a direct side-effect of my fatness, we decided to finally, thank you god, start walking downhill. The sun had just started to come out, take that weather.com, so we decided to have a cup of coffee and sit by the lake. What I didn't realize was that I was sitting behind a trash can and my brother has no photographic skills, so the only decent picture of me and my coffee has a trash can in the background.



I, on the other hand, was experimenting with my camera, and took some candids of the brother:



We sat at the cafe looking at this, talking, and just hanging out for some time.



Eventually, the real world, which in my case is almost always food, came calling, and we made our way back to the train station. Here I am, probably thinking about food and my dearly departed hair dryer on our way back:



Lucerne is really beautiful, as is, I am beginning to realize, most of Switzerland. I'm currently waiting for the weather to warm up a bit so I can go bike riding and hiking. But before that, I need to lose the fat to be able to lift myself up the mountain. Before that, I'm going to eat. Bye.