On to Lucerne!

 or...Luzern...in Helvetica type, as Helvetic is Swiss for...uh, well, Swiss....much more appropriate!

We took the train from Zermatt, the trains are very nice, with tables so we could have lunch and do some work as we rode. It's hard to stop looking at the scenery though, and I'm glad we were able to spot a few interesting animals...Buffalo at one point and yaks at another, sorry they went past too quickly for photo documentation! We also saw lots and lots of cows. There were many farms, and what I believe were some vineyards...

                                     Terraced farming                                The Alps

The train ride was about 3 1/2 hours, and we made it to Lucerne by around 1pm. We went to the hotel, Hotel Central Luzern, and they were kind enough to let us check in early.  We had a wander around the olde town and across the bridges.

  

                                     Hey look it's us!!                 A street in the Olde Town

We came back to the hotel for an afternoon of work, and then went out to dinner. Walking back was beautiful crossing the river.

  

On Tuesday it was rainy in the morning, so we went to the Swiss Museum of Transport, since Mario is a HUGE fan! We were hoping for a lot of cars, but found instead more on flight instead. Apparently we missed a huge part of the museum, because I was distracted by the SWISS CHOCOLATE ADVENTURE!! Which we certainly had to explore. It was actually a ride similar to one I've been on at Hershey Chocolate World in Hershey, PA. A very interesting process involving crushing the cocoa into a very fine powder before liquifying it. Now I need to go back to Hershey and compare notes!!

Once we came out of the museum the weather had cleared a bit, so we walked to the Lion monument, a tribute to the Swiss Guards who died in the Storming of the Tuileries in Paris in 1792.

  

     

After the monument we walked back to the center of town and got onto the Lucerne City Train. It was a great way to see the city and learn about the different areas. I especially loved the Lucerne Gate in front of the Railway station from both sides!

   

The architecture in Lucerne is absolutely beautiful, and there is so much to see!

But the view of Lake Lucerne with the Alps in the background is stunning!

  

Definitely worth a trip if you can! That's all for today, next stop in Zurich!

Welcome back to Gordon's Grand Adventure!

 So after a nearly 10 year hiatus, we are back!

The kids have all grown up and are in/out of college, so now it's time for Mario and I to do some exploring on our own. In honor of our 25th wedding anniversary last month we are wandering around central Europe. Our trip will be taking us to Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Germany, and Austria.

To begin, we flew from New York to Madrid, then on to Zurich. After a night there we took the train to Zermatt, a lovely little town at the base of the Matterhorn, which we could see from our hotel room! When we arrived on Saturday the weather was pleasant, but rain was in the forecast for Sunday. We thought briefly of taking the train up the mountain for a better view, but unfortunately it was too late in the day. It would have cost us about $125 for an hour round trip ride and about 15 minutes to take in the view.

            

The Matterhorn from our room            Glacial runoff?                

Part of the town surrounded by the Alps

On Sunday we wandered the town and relaxed, it was our first day without travelling, and we took advantage of it! I even got a massage at the spa at our Hotel, the SchlossHotel Zermatt. A beautiful hotel with wonderful staff! We had an excellent time there and plan to return to explore a bit more. They also had a fabulous breakfast, I thought the honeycomb was very interesting!

Next stop Lucerne!