Nicole and I skipped the trip up and decided to take a bus into Luzern, where I managed to find the church that was home to an organ that my father in law helped build. The church is obviously quite old, with its ornate door, large columns, and arched painted ceilings. Nevertheless, the church has an app, twitter account, and facebook page.
On the way, we took a stroll along the gorgeous lake, where they were busy selling Christmas trees. It was like a scene from a postcard. After the church, we headed for the Lion monument, a sculpture carved into the stone cliff face in honour of the Swiss mercenaries that died for King Lois XIV. Can you believe the Swiss had mercenaries? Seems so against their policies.
On the way from there to the chapel bridge, Nicole and I stopped in some shops to see if anything interesting was on sale. We found some really excellent bargains, and by the afternoon, we had some very heavy bags cutting into our hands because they have super thin raffia handles. It didn't help that Nicole's feet were starting to hurt as well.
It had started to rain, so I suggested that we head to the Bahnhof station where we'd find toilets, seating, and the Christmas markets. Finding a seat in Switzerland is nowhere near as easy as it is to do in Paris. Seems the Swiss are not big on relaxing, since we even struggled to find seating at the station.
The Christmas market wasn't super impressive, but we did try some white gluewein (it's very sweet) and some jagertee (alcoholic tea) that was different. The bathroom was quite an experience. We had to pay R20 each to use it, but it was the cleanest bathroom I've ever seen. In fact, as soon as you walk out of the toilet cubicle, a lady goes in behind you to clean the loo. And this is a train station bathroom!
We headed back through the rain to the bus stop over the river, we finally got a chance to sit and rest our feet. It was cold, but at least it was dry. While we waited for our mountaineering group to arrive, I popped into a bakery to spend the last of my Swiss Francs. I got a little choc chip pretzel man that is called a hug (how cute is that?) and a little chocolate mouse stuffed with a strawberry centre. I asked Nicole if she wanted a man or a mouse, and we decided to share.
Eventually, the remainder of our group arrived, and we headed off for our Swiss lunch. At quite a snazzy restaurant, we had a fondue starter. Kaylee, one of the Canadian girls, dined with us, and it was her first ever cheese fondue. I showed her how to dig the burned cheese off the bottom the way my Swiss inlaws like to do. She loved the whole experience. Fondue was followed by Bratwurst and Rosti, accompanied by a glass of wine, and finished with more Swiss ice cream cake.
After that, Jen took us on a walking tour of Luzern. We headed back to the Lion monument, where she pointed out that the "cave" the loin is in has been shaped like a pig, symbolising the sculpture's contempt for French nobility. We then headed back to the Chapel Bridge, where she explained that some inconsiderate fool in 1996 had dropped a cigarette butt that started a fire that nearly destroyed the whole bridge.
It was very quickly rebuilt to look exactly the way that it used to, with even replicas of the murals depicting the town's fishing history positioned in the rafters. Apparently, the first time Jen was here, and she told her tour group about the paintings, it was Carnival time in the city, and the paintings had been covered with pictures of ghosts and monsters, so it looked like the town had a very scary and demonic past!
After that, everyone went to buy swiss knives and chocolates. Nicole and I decided to rest our strained fingers in the shelter of yet another Starbucks (one with a loo that we didn't need to pay to use!). We've decided that it will be our final American coffee, since we'd rather use our money to pay for tours or something fabulous to take home. I'm thinking of buying a pair of shoes in every country, but that dream may die in Nice if I can't find anything that I can afford.
By the time we left, it had begun snowing, which was really nice for us, since we'd missed the mountain snow and the tobogganing (that had left quite a few members of our tour group with injuries). It was just super cold, so we quite happily jumped back onto the bus and headed home.
We had the option to head to a pub nearby for a drink after dinner, but we decided to save some money and get to bed early. Instead, we hung out in the bedroom of the South African trio and compare tour notes on how expensive things are, how different the Aussies are to us, and what our opinions of all the places we have been to has been.
They're actually a lot of fun and had us in stitches, so I didn't get any of the blogging done that I'd had planned. Eventually, though, we had to say goodnight so that we could pack our bags for the next day and catch up on some sleep. Luckily the Aussies got home early from the pub and we slept soundly for a change. Shopping is tiring! Seems you literally can do it until you drop.It's just more expensive than the sleeping pills I've been taking before bed...
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