Luzern, Switzerland
Day 5 – We Started the Morning Handcuffed to a Fence
I’ve attached two pictures. Apparent my email doesn’t like to attach a lot with these blogs. (Good thing WordPress doesn’t mind!!!) The picture above is the view from our hotel room balcony of the Chapel Bridge.
Today it was raining in sheets. It felt like Seattle rain. Big drops, drenching, soaking, type rain. But out we went. We’re from the Pacific NW – if we didn’t go out in rain, we’d never get out!
We had an appointment at the Adventure Rooms at 10am, and it was only about 10 minutes walk. So we left at 8:30. Good thing because it took us over a half an hour just to cross the Chapel Bridge! The bridge was incredible, filled with paintings in the apex of the beams. The bridge itself was part of the original defense structure of the early town, and is incredibly well preserved.
I kept slowing us down by stopping in taking pictures of the buildings. I got several really incredible pictures. With my love of architecture, ironwork and patterns, I found lots to take pictures of, and several pieces of ironwork that will make lovely embroidery patterns. Luzern is a really amazing city, full of interesting streets, buildings, and churches.
We took the route along the riverfront. The river is wide, and runs with a hard, fast current. It still surprises me with the forces it travels.
The Adventures Rooms was something Sharon found that she thought looked interesting. It was essentially a live-action ‘Escape the Locked Room’ type of game. I love playing these types of games on the computer, using objects and common sense to solve puzzles to get you farther along. We had an hour to work together as a team to escape the room. We began by being handcuffed to a gate. He made sure to point out that they were real handcuffs, from the USA! He then tossed the key through the gate and into the room, and said ‘Good Luck’, and locked us in. We didn’t quite make it all the way through – we got about 80%, but it was a blast, and it really did take all of us to get that far! Sharon had the prize for the most innovative save of the day. We had so much fun that we’re going to go back tomorrow night to try a different room!
After that start to the day, we headed across Mill Bridge, another old bridge with paintings (and a chapel!), and headed for the old City Walls. We climbed the towers, and walked the walls. This, also, was part of the defense of the old town, and was incredible.
Then we went to see the Weeping Lion Monument. This was a monument to the Swiss Mercenaries who died in the French Revolution. The Glacier Museum was along side of that, so we went there as well.
We are now tired, wet, and in for the day, looking out of our (damp) balcony at the river. Although we might head out for gelato at a shop along the river tonight . . .
Luzern is a wonderful place – handcuffs and all.
Day 6 – “At least I can’t kill us”
We packed a ton into today. It rained all night and was just drizzling as we left. We began by heading out past a farmers’ market on our side of the river, for the wharf across from the train station. We caught a boat from Luzern to Alpnachstad, where we picked up a cogwheel train that looked more like a funicular. The train is set at a 45 degree angle, and it’s just like sitting on the steps of a flight of stairs. The train went up the mountain at a 45 – 48 degree angle, and we sat facing backwards. It was a somewhat hair-raising ride.
The top of Mt. Pilatus was shrouded in clouds, so we see didn’t much. From there, we took a large gondola down to an area where they had a luge ride and zip lines, although it was too damp to go on the rides. We then headed down on a 25 minute cable car ride to Luzern. The view was unbelievable.
After that, we did some shopping, and ending up collecting a variety of all of the big three – Swiss watches, Swiss knives, and Swiss Chocolate.
We then headed out for the Swiss Transportation Museum. This was a total blast. First, we did the Swiss Chocolate Experience ride. We all enjoyed it, but the descriptions varied. From riding in half a truffle, kind of like the teacup ride at Disney Land, to the Jurassic Park original movie ride where they explain the dinosaurs, to Lesley’s succinct ‘I feel like I’m riding on a Roomba’.
The Transportation Museum was amazing. It’s incredibly interactive, and a wonderful place for kids. They had a huge drill for boring tunnels, and actual funiculars and airplanes that you could crawl around on.
Among many different fun highlights, the best had to be the flight simulators. I got to fly a helicopter! Lesley and Sharon just looked at each other and questioned the wisdom of me as a pilot. Lesley’s comment of ‘At least you can’t kill us’ pretty much described it all.
While we waited, we watched the flight simulator. This actually moved as directed, turning, moving up and down, and on one rather remarkable occasion, flipping over backwards at the direction of the unsuspecting pilot. There was a camera in the cockpit, and the muffled screams from inside as the simulator physically followed their directions was hilarious.
When it was our turn in the helicopter, I managed to kill us three times before I got up three feet in the air. After that, I got up in the air, and managed to fly, with some help from Lesley. Not sure what would have happened if I’d actually had to land . . .
We headed back into Luzern by bus, and getting off at the main square, we saw a store called Bucherers. This was a watch store that we’d seen lines in front of waiting to get in. It turned out to be 4 stories of high end watches and luxury goods. We went in, just to see what it was all about. I have to say that I’ve never seen a feeding frenzy over watches before. It was unbelievable. People were three deep at the counters, pushing and shoving to get up to the front to try on watches and purchase. These watches were priced from 400 CHF up to 175,000 CHF. The comment was made that we were watching piranhas.
After dinner, we headed back to the Adventure Rooms for another round. This one we won, escaping with just 40 seconds to spare. They told us that it was very unusual for a group as small as three to actually win the game. As we talked, they told us that companies used this as team building exercises, and schools came to go through in order to teach teamwork as well.
We finished off the evening with gelato on our balcony watching the fat swans scope out gullible tourists for their next meal.
Long day, but fun.
Day 7 – Interlaken and Jungfrau
Today was a full day trip to Jungfraujoch. This is a group of three famous peaks – The Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. The point we were headed to was Jungfrau, and it was 3,454 meters (11,333 feet).
It took four trains to get to the top. The first two were on normal Swiss Rail, Luzern –> Interlaken, Interlaken –> Lauterbrunen. When we reached Lauterbrunen, we switched to the Junfraujoch Company’s private rail line. This was when things changed. This was an expensive trip, and the accountant in me was evaluating the cost of the infrastructure and maintenance, which must have been massive, against the cost charged and the volume of people going through. This trip has the reputation for being crowded, but like Versailles in France, it’s just one of the things that you do.
The views on the way up were absolutely spectacular. As we climbed, the valleys could be seen for thousands of feet in the air, and we had a great day for it. But the crowds were unreal. Not as bad as Versailles, but not nearly as well handled on the way up.
The cogwheel train from Lauterbrunen was packed, and when we reached Klein Scheidegg, the jumping off point for the top, the crowds were pushing and shoving. The train came down from the top, and the crowds were six deep. The one staff member tried to clear a way for the people coming out, and it worked for a while, but by time the last people were getting off, they were caught in the press of people shoving forward, and were very nearly trampled. I’ve never seen a crowd like that, and I hope that I never do again. When you mix several nationalities of people, several who do not have a tradition of lining up, with a company that either doesn’t expect the reactions, or more likely, doesn’t care, you have a bad mix.
After the initial climb, most of the remaining train ride was through a very long tunnel, at a steep grade. The views from the top were absolutely magnificent, and the ice caves were fun, but overall, the staff was rude, there wasn’t enough seating, the food that Lesley and Sharon got was inedible, and the place was packed. Not much value for the amount spent.
The thing that made it worse, was that the staff seemed to think that the customer had no right to complain as they (the staff) worked in the high altitude with the crowds (I was told that, no lie). What added insult to injury was that the was down was perfectly controlled and contained, with tight attention to detail. I guess that if they controlled the numbers going up, they’d lose money. Better to pack everybody in and deal with it later.
Sorry for the cynicism, but it was a tough day. Ah well, tomorrow we head to Salzburg. And tonight, we’re sitting on the balcony as the sun goes down, listening to the street musicians below and the sounds of the people from the restaurants. The swans are swimming along the river and the sun is glowing off the buildings. Luzern is a truly magical place.
