We planned our day around the weather forecast. The forecast has been changing frequently and sometimes dramatically over the last few days. But when we woke up it said that it was going to be good in the morning and raining by 4 pm. So we were off for town pretty early.
We started the day at the wooden bridge that is one of Lucernes’ tourist highlights. When we went by on Sunday it was teeming with people so we passed on walking across it. Today was much quieter so we enjoyed crossing it. In addition to the pretty exterior there are paintings from the history of Lucerne in the cross beams of the roof. Many of these paintings were destroyed in the fire in 1994, but some were saved and luckily when the bridge was shortened in the late 1800’s some one had the foresight to put the paintings that were removed in storage so those were used to replace some of the missing ones.
Ton had done some research on the town and one of the articles she read talked about the Lombard street (the famous winding street in San Francisco) of Lucerne so we headed up there next. It was a nice walk thru a pleasant neighborhood but while the street was steep and there was one sweeping curve it was not Lombard street.
After our climb up to “Lombard Street” we headed over to another street that was supposed to have good wall paintings. Again the walk over was very pleasant thru nice neighborhoods. We really enjoyed ourselves. When we got to the neighborhood there was a row of very tastefully painted houses and one large mural on one wall. I was a little disappointed, but Ton really enjoyed the street and took several photos. So once again I learned something about perspective.
Our primary stop for the day is a place we would not have found without unlimited access to the bus system that comes with our tourist tax. Ton read that if you ride bus 10 to the last stop you get out at a beautiful park with stunning views of the city and lake.
So we were off to the train station to pick up bus 10. After a 10 minute ride up hill on narrow streets we arrived at the last stop on a dead end road. When we got off we were impressed. Behind us was a typical city street lined with houses. In front of us was green grass stretching off for a couple of miles. In the distance we could hear cow bells from a herd of cows on the hill a half mile away. It was quite a contrast.
There were a series of hiking trails radiating from the bus stop. Switzerland has an extensive hiking trail system with well marked trails signposted at key intersections in the trail. If we were a bit younger we might take on more of them. We opted for a short walk down one of the trails until we got to a point where we had an overlook of the city, lake and mountains. There was a bench there and we just sat and enjoyed the view.
It looked like rain was coming so we decided to head back to town. We hopped off the bus in the new town and had another discussion about eating a lunch out, but once again decided today was not the day. With the clouds threatening we decided to head back to the campground.
By the time we got back to the campground the sun was out and any thought of rain was over. So after a late lunch and some time on the phone with home we walked back to the lake to enjoy sunset. It was the nicest sunset we have seen here.