Last stop....Lucerne

So, our last stop in Switzerland is Lucerne (or Luzerne). It looks like this is about two hours and fifteen minutes on the train.

Lucerne is a popular tourist destination the scenery is supposed to be breathtaking, the town is dotted with medieval structures, shopping opportunities abound, and mountain and lake excursions are nearby - including Mount Pilates. There are mountain excursions up Mt. Pilatus with the world's steepest cogwheel railway, Mt. Rigi, the Queen of the mountains, with Europe's oldest cogwheel railway, Mt. Titlis, the highest peak of Central Switzerland, covered with eternal ice and snow all year round and Mt. Stanserhorn with its revolving restaurant offer spectacular views over one of the most breathtaking landscapes on earth. After spending 3 days in the Bernese and then 2 days in Heidiland I'm not sure we will want another mountain trip, but we may!

Historic houses decorated with frescoes line the town squares as they do the ‘Weinmarkt’ square in the car-free old town. Lucerne is a city of town squares and churches. The Jesuit church dating from the 17th century is regarded as Switzerland’s first sacral Baroque building and the twin towers of the Hofkirche form an integral part of the townscape. And with its 112-metre-long Bourbaki panorama, Lucerne possesses one of the world’s few maintained, mammoth circular paintings.

Lucerne has 2 medieval covered bridges: Kapellbrücke bridge is the oldest road bridge in Europe. The bridge bends as it leaves the shore, then angles across the river past a stone Water Tower that is believed to have once served as the lighthouse, after which the town was named. The Kapellbrücke--"Chapel Bridge" in English--was built in 1333. The Kapellbrücke was nearly destroyed by a 1993 fire, and much of what stands today is a restoration.

Just downstream, the Spreuerbrücke is also worth a look for its macabre “Dance of Death” roof panels. The succession of images shows a grinning skeleton leading kings, gallant princes, lawmen, nuns, merchants, prostitutes, peasants and maidens alike to their inevitable fate. The final panel, predictably enough, shows a majestic Christ vanquishing bony Death.

Lucerne's famous carving of a dying lion is found in a small park just off Lowenplatz. The carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss guards who were massacred during the French Revolution.

They have an old medieval wall (Musegg Wall) that has 9 towers that have all been preserved. You can walk the wall and go up into at least 3 of the towers. I think all the towers are different because they all had different purposes.

There is a transportation museum that is supposed to be great. It is the most visited museum in Switzerland (I'm not sure a museum just on transportation and communication is my cup of tea, but it might be others).

There is also the New Museum of Art - there are temporary exhibitions, showing significant modern works of art, as well as exhibits from the museum's own collection with an emphasis on 19th and 20th century landscape painting and international art from 1960.

The Rosengart Collection - The Collection comprises well over 200 works by 23 different "Classic Modernist" artists. These include over 100 works by Paul Klee and some 50 by Pablo Picasso. Other artists represented include (in alphabetical order) Bonnard, Braque, Cézanne, Chagall, Dufy, Kandinsky, Laurens, Léger, Marini, Matisse, Miró, Modigliani, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Rouault, Seurat, Signac, Soutine, Utrillo and Vuillard.

There is also a history museum.

Of course you can do tours on Lake Lucerne. I believe there are ones that are covered by our Rail Pass. You can take a steamboat tour, I'm assuming it isn't covered by our pass.

We leave from here for the Zurich Airport for our trip back to Montana/Alsaka/Vermont. It is about an hour by train to get there.

So....now we should all have an idea of what we will see and what we can do!

Less than 30 days to go!!!