Our riverboat cruise came to an end this morning in Basel, Switzerland. We had breakfast on the ship and then set off by bus to the Zurich airport where we were taking a train to Luzern. It was kind of sad to be ending our cruise. We had a lot of fun and met many wonderful women, especially Ann and Christa from Wisconsin. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them. Also, Lynn and Christy from Florida were fun as well as Lisa and Lorraine. At any rate, the bus arrived at the airport and we said our goodbyes and gave hugs and then we were off on our next adventure. This past week, everything was arranged and done for us. We just had to sit back and let the cruise director take care of all the details. Now we’re on our own and we’ll see how well I did making all the travel and lodging bookings and whether we can figure out how to get from here to there.
Our first test was finding the train station at the airport. We intentionally did not go down the fake escalator having no steps and did the smart thing and took an elevator. There’s a pretty big train station below one of the airport terminals. I am so impressed with the transportation systems in Europe. Our bus guide said that it is possible to get to every village in Switzerland by public transport, train, tram, regional bus, and local bus. I suspect that it is very similar throughout European countries.
Having found our train platform, we went back upstairs to have lunch and wait for our train. We left Zurich at 1:15 and arrived in Luzern at 2:25. We couldn’t check into our Airbnb until 4:00, but we went to look for the address. We wandered around for an hour; it was supposed to be a 10 minute walk from the train station. We had no luck locating the address. A nice lady stopped and asked if she could help, but she wasn’t sure of the address. Christine asked a shopkeeper nearby, but he pointed us in the wrong direction. Christine sat on a bench with all our luggage and I went down an alley looking for some hidden entrance and saw a women in a shop and asked. She knew right where we were to go and led me to the entrance. We had walked by the place a half-dozen times but because the entrance was set back from the rest of the shops we didn’t notice it. I then went back to collect Christine and the luggage and by now it was check-in time.
The Airbnb is austere, but nice. Its beauty, however, is its location, right near all the major historical sites around the river and directly across from Old Town. Here’s what we can see from our window.
We rested a little and then headed out to see some sights. After a week of wonderful weather, the next few days have rain in the forecast so I wanted to see a bit of Old Town Luzern without getting wet. Luzern is the German spelling for Lucerne. This part of Switzerland is German-speaking. There are 4 official languages in Switzerland, German, French, Italian, and Romansh.
The Chapel Bridge is just steps from our Airbnb. It is the symbol for Luzern, at least it is the image of Luzern that most people have in mind. The river is the Reuss River which has Lake Luzern as its mouth just a couple of hundred feet beyond Chapel Bridge. The bridge was originally built in 1333 as part of Luzern’s fortifications.
The unique paintings in the interior triangles date back to the 17th century. There originally were 147 paintings, but a devastating fire in 1993 destroyed most of them as well as a large part of the bridge. 30 of the paintings have been restored, as well as the bridge itself.
We wandered around both sides of the river and stopped for a pizza for dinner (I know – Naples is where we should be getting pizza!). Although it was chilly, it was fun sitting outside along the promenade people watching. Luzern is very touristy, for sure, but we were excited to be here enjoying the tourist experience. Here is some of what we saw today.
These photos are of Zunfthaus zu Pfistern and is one of the very few guild houses left standing in the city. The name Pfister comes from the Latin “pistor”, which was what the Romans called their bakers. The Pfister Guild was founded in Luzern in 1408 by artisans, bakers and millers. The guild hall was where the “great and the good” of this segment of society gathered and where assemblies were held to agree on the flour and bread prices and consider the membership of aspiring guild members. It is now a master bakers’ cooperative. The building’s outside had some great decorations including a family tree.
After enjoying our stroll along both sides of the river, we were ready to head on back to the apartment. It was getting very chilly and we were cold and tired. But what a beautiful place Luzern is.
Would love to see more photos that include y’all.