One Short Day in Luzern!

Wow, it's been awhile since I last wrote. I have a ton of new things to share, but in order to keep from overloading you all with pictures, I'm just going to make this post about my weekend. As you can see from the title, I got to go to Luzern!

It's known in English as Lucerne, I think, and it was about a 45 minute train ride from the center of Zürich. We got on the train at 9:30, and then got to ride around Lake Zürich and against the mountains in the morning sunlight...My neck started to hurt from craning it to try to take in every sight through the windows!

One view from the train window

All together, there were eight of us (all but one were from my dorm), which I think was the perfect number, but it got kind of problematic when we realized that we had each been expecting someone else to have a plan. We stepped out of the train, and then stood in the station for awhile looking at each other, trying to choose our first direction.

Luzern is getting ready for Karneval, so the
station was filled with these displays

This one was my favorite!

In the end, we picked up a map at the information services and decided to follow the self-guided tour listed inside. (Awfully convenient - I hope the rest of the cities have these too!)

Our first stop was the massive gate outside the train station, and then we walked along the river for awhile...

The gate! 

I'm not sure what he's reaching for but it all looks so intense!

The Kapellbrücke One of the two wooden covered bridges that
cross the lake. This one is from the 14th century! 

The Wasserturm, which once was used as a jail,
archive, and treasury vault.

There were swans everywhere! And they would come right up
to the humans. They're beautiful but I'm not gonna lie, they
scare me a bit...

It was a beautiful day, so we walked by tons of stalls where
people were selling the most delicious-looking things...

Did I mention that Switzerland is gorgeous??

We finally crossed the river at the second covered bridge, which was built in 1408, destroyed by a storm in 1566, rebuilt in 1568, and then partially burned down in the 1990s during a football riot. Inside are signs to represent the different Guilds of the city, and the red Kuppel is a sort of shrine (which is really hard to see in the pictures).

That was one of the two main attractions we had come to see, so after we crossed it we wandered almost aimlessly through the streets, looking at fountains and pretty buildings and trying to follow the red line on the map.

A pretty building

Down by the waterfront on the other side of the bridge. There
were more markets here selling meats, cheeses, and even plants!

After that, we trekked further into the city to find the Lion, the other main attraction of the city (and the only one I had heard of when I started out on the trip). It was carved in 1820 to commemorate the massacre of the Swiss mercenaries in 1792 during the French Revolution. Supposedly, there is another animal hidden in the sculpture, but even after staring for ages, none of us could see it.

It's really moving, though - the longer you look, the more details you start to notice, like the fact that the lion is lying on the shield that represents france, or that the lion's face looks like he's really in pain, or that the spear sticking out of his side is broken off at the top. Supposedly Mark Twain called this the most moving sculpture, so I guess there's something to it!

After staring for a long enough time to all agree that whoever claimed there was another animal was out of their minds, we went back towards the lake to get lunch. Meals are crazy expensive here, and it was a beautiful day, so we went to Coop (a supermarket) and bought some things, and then headed to a park next to the lake.

I swear I forgot for most of the day that it was only February - the sky was crystal clear and a bright, summery blue, and the air was surprisingly warm, as high as 15°C (~60°F)! And as we walked along the lake, I simply could not stop taking pictures:

Ahhhhh I can't even handle these views!

By the way, here are some pictures of the lovely people I went with:

The last stop left on the walking tour was the cathedral, which was - again - really beautiful.

And then, before we went home, we went to get gelato, which we ate sitting on the edge of the lake, our feet dangling over swans and ducks, and a surprisingly hot sun sinking above us.

So that's Luzern in a nutshell! We only spent about 5-6 hours in the city, but I think it was definitely enough time to get a pretty good feel for the city, and to see all of the most important things. And, of course, we spent a good two hours (at least!) just staring at the alps and the lake...and everything was Swiss and nothing hurt :')