Lucerne, Switzerland

Switzerland is famous for cheese, the Matterhorn, and banking. LSD and absinthe were also invented here!

There are about 7.4 million people in an area one seventh that of New Zealand.

We took a train to Lucerne to meet with Peter. We last saw each other in Thailand at the start of our travels and have kept in email contact ever since. He is retired and has been sending us photos from his travels and suggestions of places for us to visit.

As Peter's flat had no guest room, we are staying in the guest room at his 80 year old mother's house. Peter's mother Lisa, is very good trying to work out what we are saying as she doesn't speak English.

Peter lives just outside Lucerne and can see Mount Pilatus from his flat but it was so misty and cloudy when we first arrived that we told him we didn't believe him about the mountain.
Near Peter's mum's house
He took us into Lucerne and although we have both been here over 30 years ago we don't remember much of the details of the city. It was foggy so we were not able to see the city at its best so hope the weather improves enough to get some nice photos.
Kapellbruche (Chapel Bridge) in winter
Even the spiders' webs are frozen
on the 17th century pictorial panels depicting various religious scenes.

The lake paddle steamers.

The masked character 'Fritschi' emerges from a window at the town hall during Lucerne's six day Fasnacht (Lent) celebrations and is followed by bands of musicians and revellers where they congregate near this statue.

John's walking boots have split so we had to buy some new ones here. We still have to do a lot of walking in snow and ice to do yet.

We have enjoyed a typical Swiss raclette with melted cheese and potatoes- perfect for this kind of weather.

Switzerland was neutral in WW1 and not involved although it did organise units of the Red Cross and after peace was won it joined the League of Nations with financial and economic involvement rather than military. There were a few accidental bombings in WW11 but most of Switzerland was unscathed. This has meant that there are a lot of beautiful old religious buildings to see.

St Michaels of Beromunster

All churches in Switzerland are free to enter so we visited the ornate Catholic Church of St Michael on one side of Lucerne, and St Urbus at the other.
St Urbus Carved wooden pews

We visited a snow covered golf course at Sempachersee. This had John dreaming about his new unused Chinese golf clubs gathering dust at home.

Another day we drove to the central area of Schwyz and saw the kloster at Einsiedln. We were unable to take photos inside so took some shots from a book Peter has. The inside of the church was dripping with pink plaster icing and lifesize porcelain angels looked like they were about to step off the ceiling and fly down to greet you. Peter said it is popular for Sri Lankan refugees to come and pray at the black Madonna here even though they are Tamil Hindus. We saw several while we were there. For a cool wintry day there were still a lot of visitors in the city but I would imagine it is jam packed in the peak season.

When the farmers' fields are covered with snow they are marked with walking trails and we joined the walkers, mums with strollers and cross country skiers to enjoy the sunshine.