Luzern, Switzerland Monday, August 13, 2012 

We made it to Switzerland. The same meal that cost us 23-27 dollars in Germany cost us 55 tonight. Now that is inflation!
We took the train from Baden Baden this morning with a change on the border town of Basel. We had a 16 minute turnaround time for the train to Luzern and needed to get our Swiss Rail Pass validated at the ticket office first. I figured we would have to get the next train an hour later. I figured wrong as there was no line and we got our pass validated and walked down to the train which was there and got on with 7 minutes to spare. Pretty good. The ride to Luzern was not what we expected. Much more in the way of industrial areas then we were thinking. We found our way out of the very busy train station area to our hotel about .6 miles away. It is a little humid today and I broke out in a sweat for the first time in a while. The A/C seems to work good and the room is similar to our ETAP Hotel in Brugge, perhaps slightly larger. It’s clean and has a view of some of the surrounding hills and a mountain peak.

Bourbaki Panorama

We walked over to the Bourbaki Museum to see a painting in the round. An entrepreneur commissioned it and Edouard Castries painted it in 1881. Think of it as the IMax of the day. About 360 feet by 33 feet high, the painting depicts an event from 1871. The French having been defeated by the Prussians in February, crossed the Swiss border with over 87,000 soldiers under the lead of their General Bourbaki. The Swiss disarmed them and provided medical aid, food, and shelter through the winter months. Only 1700 French soldiers perished. This was in the early years of the Red cross development. The artist had witnessed this as a volunteer with the red cross. The panorama was nice and they had a 12 minute audio that told the story as you sat there.

Lion Monument

We then went to tourist central to visit the Lion Monument with all the bus tourist people from countries everywhere. This sculpture is carved right into a cliff and is a memorial to the Swiss mercenaries who were killed or executed defending the French king in the French revolution.

She’s Beside Herself

We then stopped in to the Glacier Garden Museum since it was next to the lion and free with our Swiss Pass. It had some glacier history, geology stuff, fossils, and some original Swiss furnishings. It would be a nice hands on museum for kids. We became kids for a short while with carnival type mirrors and then a hall of mirrors maze to walk through.
We walked from there to the old town and found a nice place to have dinner sitting outside right on the Reuss River. We were staring at the Chapel Bridge from the early 14th century and the adjacent stone water tower from 1300. Carol enjoyed her personal swan in the water right below our table. She has been excited every time we have seen swans on this trip. Maybe, when we get home, I will get her a swan and she can become crazy swan bike lady.
Dinner was good as long as I could ignore the sticker shock. The day and atmosphere, as well as the company was beautiful. Nice way to end our first day here.
CNC

Expenses
54.80SF. Swiss francs
92.40SF – ETAP Hotel
Note: most of our transportation and museums will be covered by our Swiss pass which we bought in the US and will not be reflected here.

Miles Walked – 4.75 Miles