TELGEN VACATION REPORT
Switzerland, October, 1999
This was
one of those serendipitous trips we organized at the last minute. Bill had
meetings in Zurich on a Friday and a Monday, so David and I used some of his
abundant frequent-flier miles to join him for the weekend. We arrived late
Friday evening, and first thing Saturday we took a train south to Lucerne (or
Luzern, as the German-speaking locals spell it). My parents had spent four days
there during their trip in August, so we had heard lovely things about the
area. Having a five year old along meant a slightly different focus to our
visit, however, and we spent the first afternoon in the Swiss Transportation
Museum. It featured halls filled with boats, trains, cars, and airplanes, among
other gadgets, as well as an IMAX theater with a show on space travel. This
place scored very high on David's cool-o-meter.
We two grownups didn't really mind spending half the day
inside, however, as it rained all afternoon; when we finally emerged it was fairly
clear. We walked through the city, got a good peek at the lake and the
mountains, and strolled up the river to Lucerne's most famous landmark: the
Kapellbrücke, or Chapel Bridge. This covered wooden bridge was built around
1300 and once extended all the way to the city's church instead of just across
the river, as it does now. You can see the octagonal Wasserturm (water tower)
behind Bill and David, which was built in the 13th century and once was used to
store loot and hold and torture prisoners. Now it's a souvenir shop, of course.
Much of the bridge and its paintings were destroyed by fire in 1993, but it has
since been restored and is a busy and popular site where we saw visitors from
all over.
Besides
wandering about the riverside, we also spent some time wandering about some
ancient city walls. The Museggmauer, as the wall is called, was built between
1350 and 1408 and features nine towers, each built in a different style. You
could actually go up into a couple of these towers, and walk along the top of
the wall in spots as well. From there we got this picture, and you can see how
spectacularly the city of Lucerne is situated, sitting on a lake with mountains
in the background. Lake Lucerne (or Vierwaldstätter See, "Lake of the Four
Forest Cantons") is one of the largest lakes in Switzerland, and certainly
one of the twistiest, making a trip on the lake full of scenic inlets.
On
Sunday we took a trip on Lake Lucerne as the first stage of a journey up to
Mount Pilatus, which is near a neighboring city. We travelled around the lake
on a steam paddleboat (with the beautiful, big, shiny engine right in the
middle of the deck) to get to the base of the mountain. Then we utilized the
ultimate in transportation: a cog railway. This steep (sometimes 48 degree) ascent
up the mountain was twenty minutes of sheer heaven for David. It also gave us
some beautiful views of mountains and lakes as we slowly ascended to the top of
the mountain, some 7000 feet high. After reaching the top, we could walk around
and get some lovely shots of the Alps to the south and Lucerne and the lakes to
the north. It was very windy, however, so we didn't spend much time trying to
climb to the very top of the peak. Instead we went down the mountain via cable
car—again, another scenic trip. It just seemed that anywhere you looked in
Lucerne, you were rewarded with an amazing view.
We returned to Zurich on Sunday night by train (and yes,
the legendary Swiss promptness is not exaggerated—if the schedule says the
train leaves at 7:34, it will leave at exactly 7:34). Bill had to work the next
day, so David and I had the morning and afternoon to ourselves. Not having a
lot of time, we began the morning with a trolley tour of the city. (The red
"trolley" was actually a bus converted to look like an old-fashioned
trolley.) We had sunshine during the trip, which gave us a chance to stop a
couple of times and look around. Here we had actually stopped to see the inside
of the Fraumünster, a church featuring glass windows painted by Marc Chagall,
but the better picture was across the river. This twin-towered building is the
Grossmünster, Zurich's main church, which was built between the 11th and 13th
centuries (the domes on the towers were added in 1782). Our city tour also gave
us the chance to swing by residential areas, the world-famous university and
hospital, the shopping district, and the marina at Lake Zurich. By the time we
found the zoo it was pouring rain, so we spent a lot of time in the
"exotiquarium" futilely trying to make sense of the German
explanations of the exhibits. All in all, however, we had a good time in
Switzerland and hope to return some time to travel on the famed "Glacier
Express."
Copyright © 1999 by Diane
Telgen. All rights reserved.