Thursday and Friday, August 7 and 8, 2014 -- Lucerne, Switzerland

We are getting better and better about blowing town.  Up, dress, pack last few bits and pieces, breakfast at the buffet, adieu to one and all and out the door before 8:45.  It's a nice day so Kat and I, prepped and loaded, head out for a half hour stroll to the train station.

We call it the "raunchy zone"  Lots of people smoking.....yuck!

We board our train and settle in for our 5 1/2 hour journey to Lucerne or as they say, Luzern, tomato, toe-mah-toe, whatever.  Time and countryside roll by as Eric Clapton and Ian Rankin keep me company.  The scenery changes from wow to WOW to... (you fill in the superlatives).

Scenery from the train

Kat in travel mode

 We arrive at Luzern central and ask a vendor if he knows where are hotel is and is it far?  He checks the address, smiles and tells us to turn the corner, walk a 100 meters and there it will be.  Damn, talk about convenient.  Check in with very polite, proper, arrow straight Swiss folks, find our room and collapse with well worn smiles on our faces.

Luzern is on a beautiful lake, historic buildings surrounded by the Alps - sounds nice?  Again, I need help with superlatives.  Our first evening is spent strolling through old town and dinner at an outdoor cafe, noted for it's splendid view of the lake and outrageous prices. The Swiss turned up their nose at the Euro and still maintain their own monetary system, the Swiss Franc.  Our dinner consisted of me - 2 meat balls with pasta, salad and a soda, Kat went with the baked chicken, fixin's and a beer - grand total - $84.00.  Yes, you read that right - eighty four dollars and not a lobster in sight.  Everything in Switzerland is overpriced including that $16,000.00 wrist watch I saw that caught my eye.

Luzern's claim to fame is a long wooden pedestrian bridge that has been there for centuries

It is very long

My expensive meat balls

We stroll through old town window shopping and trying to control our gag reflex as I don't want to loose my $84.00 dinner.  We manage to control our urges, at least until we pass an ice cream stand where we give in and each enjoy our $4.00 scoop of chocolate chip mint.

Sunset on the Alps

And reflected in the church windows

Many styles of Swiss army knives, the one thing we found to be priced reasonably

On Friday, we opt to take a boat ride on Lake Lucerne which is huge and is part of a series of picturesque lakes.  The normal day for tourists is to take the boat up the lake and take a cog wheel train (the steepest cog train in the world) up Mt Pilatus which is an exciting journey.  We though decide that swarms of tourists pushing, shoving, farting in confined spaces and other foofurah is not why we are here.  Instead, we take the boat and get off in two small villages, Weggis and Vitznau.

They had a complete underground mall that led from our hotel to the bus/train station and harbor

Fountain at the harbor

Kat enjoys the flowers

View of the old city and bridge

Leaving the harbor

Boatload of tourists.....where they go, we avoid!

Friends we met.....Ben and Emma from Michigan

They took our picture

The boat stops every hour on the hour so we walk about through gardens, wharfs, hillsides and wherever the wind carries us.  We are rewarded with interesting conversations with locals, flowers at their peak emitting aroma's that make us stop for a second whiff, eye popping panoramas of the lake framed by towering mountains.  I could go on and on, write War and Peace and yet never be able to convey the beauty we were privileged to witness.  I hope the following photo's will relay the problem with using just words.  Kat called today one of the best in her life and I can only concur with a hearty, Amen!

We came to a fork in the road and choose the one less traveled

The mountains, water, fresh air, sun, foliage, lack of tourists = a slice of heaven

A nice stroll through the countryside

We met Eva, a local who gives us insight in living Swiss

View from our lunch spot

Never is an opportunity missed to plant a piece of beauty

Me with my new Swiss cap - thought you all were getting sick of seeing my Duck hat.

No words available, other than Wow!

We took a coffee break here

We walked a mile to this thinking it a hotel/restaurant, surprise, it was a medical facility

Paradise....you bet!

The old town church in the shadow of a mountain with a Swiss flag proudly displayed for all to see.

The boat coming in to take us back to Luzern

A sweet way to end a sweet day

Some of the hoards we were mostly privileged to avoid

One very happy camper, tired but oh so happy

We returned to Luzern happy but exhausted after our 5 mile stroll.  We did our normal routine of nap and shower and then headed out for dinner.  We tried to go away from the tourist area in hopes of more reasonable prices, only to find that gouging tourists is a national past time.  Dinner was superb though and our waiter Fernando explained how everybody's wages are living wages and health care and 6 weeks vacation are the norm.  It did soothe our feelings knowing that by paying a bit more, service workers do not live below the poverty line - are you listening America!?