Today we had a sleep in (8.30 - woohoo!) and then met at the tourist information centre for our 2 hour walking tour. Our guide was Blanca, she was really nice and knowledgable. There were some really nice people on the tour too! We became quite friendly with a man called Craig from Chicago whose wife is working in Zurich so he's travelling around. There was also a young recently married couple who live in south bank. Good to talk to some other tourists :)
Our tour started at the arch in front of the station. It turns out the station before this one burnt down in 1971 and this arch is all that's left of it. We then looked at the modern Kongress und Kultur Zentrum that has a music hall and conference centre. Next we went to the chapel bridge again. The other day when we walked across it we were looking for the famous paintings depicting Lucerne's history and couldn't find them so thought we were going mad. It turns out these have been covered for the next few weeks by other pictures! On Thursday the 7th of February Lucerne's famous carnival begins. This goes for 6 days and it sounds like it's a good thing we are missing it because there are 100s of thousands of people here especially for it, all the shops close and crazy drunken people rule the streets! This is why the paintings are covered up, so they can be protected and be carnival themed. This also explains why there are weird masks and characters all over the place, we did think that was a bit strange!!!
We continued through the old town district where we saw many buildings with murals painted on them. Then we walked over another bridge (same deal, paintings covered!), the State of Lucerne office and the Jesuit church. The walking tour was really good because as nice as it is walking around by yourself, it's even better to have some information about your surroundings.
Mum and I walked back up to the Museggsmauer again, all the snow from 2 days ago had disappeared! We had a bit of a walk around and then enjoyed some soup at a little cafe on the lake which wasn't too expensive!
Afterwards we went to the History Museum. I was expecting a history of Lucerne but instead it was set up like a storeroom with lots of random old objects scattered everywhere such as toys, armour, appliances etc. We were given a scanner like the ones in the shops, each item had a barcode, and you scan the items you're interested in and your screen displays information. It was good, just different to what I expected!
Finally we walked around old town again and sat down by the lake. We had one last look in Bucherer and one last walk on the chapel bridge and are now resting in our room. Having dinner at a self serve place at the station later.
Tomorrow we get a train at 7.10pm Melbourne time to Zurich and arrive about 8pm Melbourne time. We are going to spend about 3 hours here, then get a train to St Moritz.
Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox
Thanks for all the news and photos Claire - I almost feel as if I have been there with you.
ReplyDeleteIan