We awake to Gimmelwald engulfed in a cloud. The world outside is thick with fog and mist.
Preparing another breakfast with our remaining supplies, we sit down to egg sandwiches with cheese, sausage and steaming cups of coffee. Owen is excited to have scrambled eggs again and eats quite a bit on his own.
We shower, finish packing, and then head out. We’re early to catch the cable car and when it arrives, it’s nearly empty. The ride down is breathtaking as it slides towards the mountain’s edge and the drops over into the valley. It’s raining in the valley but the bus arrives soon and delivers us to Lauderbrunnen.
We’ve arrived early on purpose to make arrangements for the rest of our rail travel in Switzerland and buy tickets back to Paris. Because our Eurail pass has now expired, we learn the full cost of the rides we’ve been taking and the sum is staggering.
The train pulls in just a few seconds after we’ve departed the rail ticket office, leaving a small fortune behind. We board for the short ride to Interlaken.
In Interlaken we’ve got some extra time and take Owen across the street to a “Coop” grocery store. It’s very large, modern, and offers everything you could imagine. We’re on board to our last train to Lucerne or “Luzern” before you know it.
This is a pretty journey through the foothills of the Alps, passing villages clustered at the edges of blue green bejeweled lakes. The color of some of the water here is so startling- a deep greenish aqua that I’ve never seen before. Much of this country reminds me of the lake country in Austria, outside Salzburg. I pass the time writing posts while George reads “Sophie’s World” and Owen watches “101 Dalmations” on my iPhone.
We arrive in Luzern feeling fairly relaxed but I can tell Owen is tired. When it’s mid to late afternoon, traditionally nap time, he gets really loud, very unreasonable, and has sudden bursts of frantic energy. We use the momentum from one of these bursts to propel him to the hotel, which is a good distance off from the station or bahnhoff.
It’s in a lovely, residential area of Luzern where the houses have balconies full of flowers and are painted friendly colors. The roofs have turrets and all sorts of white marbled and gingerbread details, along with the traditional red-orange tiled roofs we’ve seen all over Europe.
Check in is easy and this hotel seems fairly large but simple. The walls are all painted white, the floors bare, the side tables glass and every linen white. The only spots of color in this cleanly designed landscape are the throw rugs and lamps, which are a coordinated shade of sky blue, and the quaint, retro Swiss tourism posters. I like these and think they provide charm to an otherwise stark style.
We head out to the city almost immediately, eager to see and experience Luzern. Our initial plan is to investigate a short cruise down the mountain lake upon the tip of which the city sits. But one look at the fares pushes us on to stroll through “old town”instead.
There are several bridges that span the lazy river inlet that runs through town. One of them is incredibly famous and very old. It’s a wooden, covered bridge used only for foot traffic now. Red flowering and trailing plants cling to its aged sides and a turreted tower juts off of it halfway across the river, making it seem like something out of a fairytale. Legions of swans float regally past in the waters below, completing the picture. We stroll across this bridge and into “old town.”
This area is a few cobblestone streets filled with trendy shops and cafes. Many of the buildings are beautiful and have intricate murals painted on them from bygone times. There are several pretty churches including one picturesque clock tower and a pair of glass onion domes that fill the skyline of Luzern. They also have their own white castle on the hill and an ancient fortress wall with turreted towers that marks the end of the historic area. We climb up a small hill to visit a monument to Swiss independence, an exhausted warrior lion carved out of a stone cliff. It’s actually It;s actually hollowed out of the cliff side and is very dramatic, with a circular pool of water at its feet.
Owen has fallen asleep in his stroller and we take some time to stroll through the “old town” shops. They have a delightful confectioner’s shop where a dazzling array of sugared perfection lies behind glass. We pick a selection of some of the most delectable chocolates- dulce de leche, pistachio and nougat truffles.
Next we head up the hill to the fortress walls to check out the views from the towers. Walking up the steep incline is unpleasant but we do get the pleasure of watching several cows, strange beasts with long hair and crooked horns, frolic and graze with their fluffy cows. I would swear that the farm animals that I’ve seen here in Europe, grazing freely in large pasture areas and grass fed, seem happier and more aware of their surroundings. The views of the city and the lake below from the fortress wall are very pretty and we climb back down hungry.
On the way through the old city to find a restaurant, we happen upon a vintage second hand store. I fall in love with a few items I know I’ll never find again and spend entirely too much money acquiring them. We wander a bit, growing tired, before finally settling on a little Thai place off one of the squares.
There seem to be a lot of Thai places in Luzern for some reason, most of them small places that serve take out or in Europe “take away” food. This one is reasonably good although expensive like everything else in Switzerland. It fills up fast with local teenagers and they have a TV that broadcasts cheesy, over dramatic Thai music videos which Owen becomes enthralled with.
It’s still early when we arrive back at the hotel, so we shower and then settle in for the night. Owen is extremely excited to return home in the next few days and asks several times for clarification about exactly when we will fly the airplane back. George and I, on the other hand, try not to think about being back at work later this week and instead focus on tomorrow and Paris.
