lucerne, switzerland.

by - Date posted: 2013-01-21 - 40 comments

On Friday, I was at work and feeling pretty down from having an extremely boring previous seven days (mostly due to my wisdom teeth removal). On top of that, I had zero plans for the weekend and thus nothing to look forward to. On Friday around 4 pm, luck changed. My friend Maggie found out she had Saturday off work and we immediately decided we wanted to go somewhere – somewhere outside of Germany. Although I’ve only been back from Christmas 26 days now, I am pretty sure it is the longest I’ve ever gone without leaving Karlsruhe and I was antsy. After a long debate between Warsaw, Poland and Somewhere, Switzerland, we decided hopping on the train would be much easier than dealing with flying in the icy conditions, and on Saturday morning, off to Lucerne we went.
 
Lucerne (locally: Luzern) is a city of nearly 80,000 inhabitants located in the German part of Switzerland on the beautiful Lake Lucerne and surrounded by Swiss Alps, closest mountains being Pilatus and Rigi. Lucerne is famous for it’s gorgeous wooden bridge, The Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), which was built in 1333, making it the oldest covered bridge in Europe. The iconic bridge was victim to a fire caused by a cigarette in August 1999, and now is mostly entirely reconstructed. Inside the bridge are murals depicting Lucerne’s history.
 
Upon arrival, we wandered all about town (easily accomplished by foot). It was a foggy and chilly day where we were ‘welcomed’ by a mixture of snow flakes and rain. Our first stop was the Hofkirche, a catholic church perched up on a hill near the lake. The church as it stands today was constructed in 1633, but the original structure dates back to 733. I am always blown away by the structures built so long ago without the modern conveniences of today.  From there, we walked along the shores of Lake Lucerne, which was quite glassy due to the weather conditions. I would love to see the difference come summertime.
 
After wandering through the old town and over the Chapel Bridge, I spotted some horses that we immediately chased after. We were so glad we did because they lead us straight to a pre-Carnival parade where a crewe was celebrating the upcoming celebration (early February). After talking to some men in costume, we were informed they were off to a dinner and party hosted by the head of their group. Their friends and other onlookers cheered them all throughout their parade through the Old Town and to their dining hall. It sure got us excited for the upcoming Carnival celebrations in Germany!
 

5 Swiss Francs is about 5 USD. The fact that there is a 5 Franc coin tells me you can’t buy crap with it. Switzerland is expensive, but the scenery makes it worth the extra change.

Lucerne was just a 3 hour train ride south of Karlsruhe. We went to the border city of Basel and then changed from the German to the Swiss railways.

Hofkirche

The Chapel Bridge

After exploring the Old Town, we were off for a traditional Swiss Fondue dinner (next time…)

Where do you want to go in Switzerland? 



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

40 Comments

  1. I spent a few months traveling around die Schweiz after high school–probably one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever laid eyes on^^… mountains, mountains everywhere. Were you only in Luzern for the weekend? I miss Europe :( :( :( !

    • Ah a few MONTHS in Switzerland?? What a dream! That country is perfect, seriously. Yes, unfortunately it was only a weekend trip. But my wallet sure was thankful to get out of there ;)

  2. Awww, gorgeous pics!! I love your headband!
    Poor ducks :S Being a duck in Luzern in winter is supposedly not such a nice business ;-)

    Great that you take every opportunity to see something of Europe! I believe you have done more places in your time here than me within my whole life, ha ha! You keep life interesting :-) Makes me want to be an expat somewhere again (my parents will get nuts if I would, ha ha)

    Svenja xx

    Happybluebird

  4. Oh, yay. Finally I’ve been somewhere you’ve been. When we visited Luzerne, we took a lift to the top of Mt. Pilatusn and saw gorgeous views. I also remember a pink church that I think was after we crossed the covered bridge. We would love to go back. I continue to be so envious of you and your travels. When we think of going somewhere for the weekend, North Carolina seems doable! (I continue to read, I just don’t comment much anymore.)

    • We also went to the top! It was incredible – I’ll post that soon I’m sure! It was just a perfect little town! Hey, I’ve never been to NC so would love to make a stop there someday, too. But for now, Switzerland was easier ;)

  5. I spontaneously went to Lucerne for a day while I was living in Austria (it was only about 2.5 hours from where I was living). It’s a beautiful place. I also tried cheese fondue for the first time there :-D

    Did you get to see the dying lion? It was being repaired when we were there and there was a big wall in front of it.

    • It’s only 3 hours from Karlsruhe :) so you could do another one. Did you go to Fondue House?? We loved it!!

      We did stumble upon the dying lion since our hostel was right by it, but it was fairly uneventful. We were more amused by the icy pond in front hah

  6. So cool! I love how adventurous you are – so I can have you scout all the day-trip locations nearby, and then I can pick from all of your travel posts when I decide to go somewhere. Not such a big fan of cheese fondue, but raclette…. you gotta try it if you haven’t! =)

    • Ah I have had raclette, but the raclette at the restaurant we ate at was done WAY cooler than the table one’s with the trays I’ve done here. We also had a couple meat fondues and a chocolate one :) And you probably have much better day trip ideas than me, so share share!

  7. I spent a few days in Saas Fee a couple of summers ago… it was amazing! Straight out of a storybook. We also stopped in transit in Montreaux, and I’d love to go back and spend more time there.

    • Definitely worth a top and I can only imagine how gorgeous it is when the sun is out. And I’ll post about it but our sledding adventure was just unreal!

  11. Lovely images and it’s so nice you had the opportunity to just get away to another country for a weekend! It’s been over a decade since I’ve been to Lucerne (and only in the summer) but it looks lovely in Winter as well!

  13. love! i went to lucerne two summers ago and i loved it so much! We took a boat ride around the lake, beautifullll. :)

  16. My 30 year old daughter lives in Karlsruhe with her German husband. They were married two years ago in Worms, and we flew over from Indiana for the wedding. We took a side trip to Lucerne and those ducks were out in force during the summer. I can’t believe they stay in the winter. You must go back in the summer and see the cows that live up on Mount Pilatus.

    • Ah is she the one that emailed me about a salon? Very cool! We went to the top of Mount Pilatus and sledded down, but definitely didn’t get to see any cows ;)

    • Just wait until you hear about the fondue and the sledding – so worth a trip! Well, you can sled lots of places, but Switzerland is amazing all around.

  22. Another place I have never been to but it looks beautiful! The dialect is so funny, I just can’t understand it but it makes me laugh!

Leave a Reply

*

*

CommentLuv badge