Sunday, August 3: Luzerne, Switzerland

Lake Luzerne Ferry

We woke to beautiful blue skies, but by the time we were ready to go downtown, thunderheads were all around. We took a ferry from a dock next to the campground to downtown Lucerne and walked around in the rain, admiring the Chapel Bridge and Water Tower that were part of the town's defenses from the 1500's and wandered around the old town.

Swans, swans and more swans on Lake Luzerne

Many, many bicycles

The Tower was used as a prison, guardhouse, and torture chamber

The Chapel Bridge - part of the town's early defenses.  All decked out in flowers.  We walked the entire length where they have old paintings on wooden plaques telling the history of the town

Ironwork marking many storefronts on the old town

Painted Frescoed Buildings were Beautiful

Language has been a problem here.  Although many speak English, there are few signs in English.  I liked this one - translation:  Restaurant serves food all day. 

 Jack stopped at a chocolatier and picked up an assortment of barks and we found a baker to get a nice loaf of bread to have with dinner.  We caught another ferry back and this time it was an old-time steamboat side-wheeler....

Steam engine viewable from above with the paddle wheel through the window in the back.

Saturday, August 2: Lake Constance to Lake Luzerne

Woke to a cloudy morning and by the time we were ready to leave, it was raining. We drove across the top of the Lake and then south, going from Germany to Switzerland and back to a small slice of Germany before staying in Switzerland. When we crossed the Swiss border, no border patrol was there and we sailed right through. I knew that we needed a highway sticker to travel the major highways, so we stopped at a gas station and paid 40 Euro. An hour later when we were leaving Switzerland, the border patrol stopped us and told us we had the wrong sticker. After some paperwork and language confusion, we got everything straightened out. It actually cost us a little less, but we need an overweight vehicle sticker good for seven days, not the whole year.

We spent some time strongly conversing with the GPS about where it thought a grocery store would be, but it won and we had to abandon the idea after traveling miles out of our way. Back on track, we drove south through the middle of Switzerland to Lake Luzerne. We stopped at a campground on the Lake, got our spot then headed out again to find a large grocery store. No good. This is a tourist area and all the stores are small with little or no parking. The good part was we got to drive for a good 10 miles north along the lakefront – beautiful.