Zurich

Next stop on our adventure is Switzerland.  A train ride from Munich had us landed in Zurich.  When we were in Mexico earlier in the year we stayed at the Swiss Oasis Hotelito.  The owner, Manuela, had told us to get in contact with her good friend Conny, when we got to Switzerland.  We had made contact with Conny a bit earlier and she offered us to stay with her for a couple of days, so we caught the bus to a nearby stop and Conny was there waiting for us.

We went back to her house, which is just north of Zurich.  It is out of town a bit in some nice countryside; with the sun shinning it was fairly hot.  Conny and her boyfriend Philip had prepared an awesome BBQ for us and a fridge full of cold drinks.

 

All set for a BBQ Swiss style.

She has a large back yard setup nicely for entertaining, so we all sat outside in the sun for the afternoon chatting, eating, drinking and getting to know each other.

Conny told us she has been travelling all of her life, but her favorite place is Australia.  She has been there about 20 times and has probably seen more of our country than we have.

We talked about a lot of different things to do while in the area, however with only a couple of days here we had to narrow it down to a day trip to near by Luzern.

 

River front buildings in Luzern.

We got into Luzern about mid morning and it was still very hot and muggy, there were clouds around that looked as though it could rain.  We first of went to the information stand at the station to get a city map.  The map had a city walk outlined on it, which covered all the sights to see.

We decided to grab some lunch first before starting the walk.  Luckily we did because we had no longer sat down in a little café on the river (inside, undercover) when it began to rain.  Then thunder and heavier rain.  It went for about 10 minutes before easing off again.  It looked like it was clearing up, but had got a lot cooler so we just went for it anyway.

We started along the river then crossed an old timber bridge.  The bridge had a tower half way along it that was used as a guardhouse and there would be torture and other interrogation methods carried out on prisoners there years ago.

 

The timber bridge and tower crossing the river.

The bridge had actually partially burnt down a few years ago but was so popular with tourists visiting Luzern that they rebuilt it.

The walk then took us past the main chapel and through some of the old streets to a monument of a Lion.  Simply called the dying Lion monument – it commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution.  It is carved into the face of a huge cliff and is really impressive.

 

The chapel.

The dying lion.

Tina at the monument.

We continued to walk through the streets crossing the river a couple of time on other bridges.  We had done most of the city when it began raining again so we decided to finish up and go back to Conny’s house.

 

Some more buildings along the river at Luzern.

Conny had to go to Italy with some friends.  She offered us to stay at her house as long as we needed which was really nice of her.  She said she has been shown some great hospitality while in Australia so was only too happy to help us out in return.  We stayed the night then moved on in the morning.

Conny and Philip were great people and we will be sure to offer them a place to stay next time they are visiting Australia.