Lucerne, Switzerland

There are two similar sounding towns in Switzerland Lucerne - German pronounced Lutzurn and Lausanne - French. We were at the German one - the more famous on Lake Lucerne. It is far more attractive than Zurich with an older, brighter feel. Our first stop was information, and we were very disappointed to learn that we couldn't possibly afford to go up any of the mountains. Around Lucerne there is Mt. Pilatus and Mt. Titlis, but the cable cares are about $20.




We decided to walk to the camping ground at Lido beach. Lucerne has an old town on one side of the lake and a new one on the other side down the sides of a narrow section. Then the lake widens to a see-like width, and we walked around on the wider section. It was still cold and the walk was about 30/40 minutes, but very beautiful. Snow sprayed mountains with Swiss houses on them, the lake and brilliant green trees with pink and white apple blossoms. There were daisies and daffodils everywhere. We found the camp ground and set up our "Igluzelt", for the first time very successfully. Then we snoozed until 4pm and decided to go see the city. The sun stayed up until about 9pm so we got in 4 hours of sightseeing. We bought a bus ticket for 4 Swiss Francs which lasts for 24 hours, so that we could do our normal trick of using the local bus as a tour bus around the city and get to see where the real Swiss live. Paz also wanted to find the hotel where she had stayed 17 years before with her parents.