Luzern, Switzerland

On Saturday I took the train into Luzern. I had been told by numerous people how beautiful it was, and I decided that I wouldn’t let my foot keep me from enjoying my last few days here and seeing the sights. Plus, my foot was already starting to feel better anyway! This post will be mostly pictures and not as many words because I took so many pictures that I really want to share.

Luzern was about an hour away by train. I was kept extremely entertained by the beautiful scenery through the window the whole time (well, when we weren’t going under a tunnel at least!)

The trains became a bit crowded being that it was a Saturday, so someone did come and sit down across from me. He said something to me, and I just assumed he said “Can I sit here?” so I smiled and nodded. I tend to do a lot of smiling and nodding in Switzerland. And laughing. You become very good at telling when the appropriate response is a laugh or a smile or a nod. It might just be easier for me to say “I’m sorry, I don’t speak German” but I stopped saying that unless I absolutely had to. (I.e. someone was asking me a question that would not be answered by a smile, a nod, or a laugh).

I have an interesting story about the guy who sat across from me. He talked to himself under his breath the whole ride. Or, not quite so under his breath that I couldn’t hear what he was saying. It was constant! And it was in German so I have no idea if he was being rude or just crazy.

I took a few more pictures from the train window, but you can see the reflection in all of them and the window is slightly tinted so I don’t want  to waste valuable picture space. Ok, one more. Ever wanted to know what Swiss graffiti looked like? Wonder no more!

When I first arrived at Luzern, the indoor train station looked pretty much like all the other train stations I had been to, though it was a lot easier to find my way out of this one than the one in Zurich. I actually half expected the city to look a lot like Zurich when I stepped out of the station, but I was quite wrong!

Luzern was beautiful, just as I was promised. The buildings were so historic and attractive, I couldn’t stop taking pictures because I thought each one looked more interesting than the last!

The shopping district was built with cobblestone roads and had people walking in the streets, though I did see cars sometimes attempting to come down these roads with people slowly making way for them.

One thing I noticed about Switzerland that would drive me crazy is that the roads are SUPER narrow, and many of them don’t have the lines drawn on them to tell you that it is a two way road! Roads that look like one-way are actually two-way. Good thing most cars in Switzerland are miniature! You’d have to look a while to find an SUV here like we have in America.

This guy cracked me up for some reason. I can’t believe I didn’t think to get a selfie with him! I do need a new profile picture. Oh well.

I also found a few very interesting fountains in the streets. The first one is kind of like a totem pole… I do have a picture of it without the sun glare, but I think this one makes it look more interesting. And the second one… I’m not even sure what they were going for there. A guy smoking a pipe with a dragon sitting on it? or is the dragon the pipe? Help me out here.

And now for the interesting part of Luzern! The water (and mountain) views!

Seeing the mountains over the lake was enough to take my breath away. The pictures don’t do the actual view justice. (Mostly because my camera is terrible)

And seeing the beautifully built buildings from across the water was almost as stunning!

 

I love the Swiss flag!

It was a beautiful Saturday this day – warm (for Switzerland in March) and so many people were out enjoying it.

People sat by the lake but no one swam in it – I assume it would still be way too cold. There were roller bladers, skateboarders, bicyclists and children riding those scooter things everywhere! (Those scooter things seem to be very popular here with children. So many of them have it. It was quite often when I had to jump out of the way to allow for a pack of rolling children to get through.)  It was so warm that day, that even I got a bit hot walking around in my winter coat that day. Me! Karen, queen of cold! But I digress. Let me get back to the pictures.

Boats were all over the lake, though the only ones that seemed to be in use that day were the larger ones for paid cruises.

 

Here is one of the Dinner Cruise boats:

 

And I don’t want to forget about the Blue Dragon!

For the majority of the day I just walked all around Luzern. I did not count on how expensive Switzerland was going to be during my trip, so I had to keep my spending these last few days to a minimum. I’m very happy with the walking though, and I think I got some great pictures to share with you all. Here are a few more!

I happened to come on a day that there was a market running (it could be a normal Saturday thing for Luzern).

I was soooo tempted to buy some cheese. It smelled and looked so delicious, but I’m pretty certain that I wouldn’t be allowed to bring cheese back into the country. Dang international traveling laws.

One thing I’ve noticed while in Switzerland… there are a LOT of one type of tree. It looks so interesting when bare, all knobby and gnarled.

And it creates the BEST shadows!

They have them lining a lot of walking paths. They must be very beautiful when in bloom. Does anyone know what kind of trees these are?

There was one section of town where you could walk across a long, enclosed wooden bridge that went over the lake. The ceiling of the bridge formed a triangle, and for each section there was a different drawing with words talking about Luzern. I just now realized that they were all numbered, I wonder if it is telling the story of Luzern?  I tried putting some of it into Google Translate but I did not have a very easy time of figuring out some of those letters!

Along my walk I found Montana. You know, it’s funny. I always had heard of Montana but I never realized it was all the way in Switzerland!

 

I also saw this huge banner hanging on top of a building. I’m not sure what it was supposed to represent. A woman shooting the sun? I thought it was so strange that I had to take a picture of it. I noticed a couple of people looked at me strangely when I stopped to take the picture though. They looked at me, then the banner, then back at me again. I’m always causing mass confusion in Switzerland.

What do you think it means? There were no words. Is it a protest movement? An advertisement for something that everyone in Switzerland would know?

Anyway. I can’t get over how beautiful this city is. I’m so glad I decided to forget about the foot injury and come anyway.

This one made me think of a barn that was under water!

And now I’ll end my post with my favorite two pictures that I took that day. I spent about five hours walking around Luzern this afternoon and I loved every minute.

I’m not sure why I love this picture so much, maybe the colors and the focus on the tree branches in front, with the mountain looming in the background. And now my absolute favorite pic that I took this day! It was so much my favorite that you also probably saw it on the top of my post.

I won’t lie, I took a few (hundred) different swan pictures before I had one that came out just right. But this one worked out perfectly! Swans are EVERYWHERE in Switzerland. And I remember them being pretty plentiful when I went to England in ’98. Though I do remember the England swans being a lot nastier.

Good bye! I’ll be coming home tomorrow (11 hour plane ride) but I plan on having one more blog after I return to wrap things up. Hope you all liked the pictures!