"Butts Up" In Lucerne

Heidelberg, Germany > Lucerne, Switzerland
All smiles upon arriving in Lucerne bout 8:30pm.
AlWhat's happens after you spend a full day site seeing, ride a train with a few connecting trains and arrive in a new city at night, when it's raining and your hungry and, well you get the idea.




Minutes later, moods and energy levels changed as we couldn't find an info desk, a place to exchange money and we had no idea where our hotel was except we'd been told "close". And then came the rain...




Walking to our hotel...
Amazing how bunk beds can improve moods considerably!




Scott and Jana left the girls to shower and went back to the grocery store in the train station (about 5 blocks) to get "dinner". Too pathetic to really warrant a picture but there was breads, meats & cheeses and a salad or two and we all ate in our respective bunks.
Saturday morning found us sleeping in, so much we missed all the specialty morning sweet treats at Heini's Cafe (a chain we later find out) but managed to enjoy the basics on the menu; caffes and hot chocolates and croissants that greet you as you sit down. We had to do some heavy convincing for Syd to believe they were on the table for us to eat.
Look how nice the Swiss are, and clean, storage for wet umbrellas at the entrance.




Next stop, chocolate tasting! We sent the family conniseurs...




So many chocolates to choose from!




Ironically, many of these are sold at home. However, they don't look nearly as beautiful or expensive on Albertson's shelves!




"Thank you Karen & Jim! Look what I got! My very own Swiss Army knife in Switzerland engraved with my name. I got the Camper's version." Love, Shelby




Another beautiful building we saw as we turned a corner in town. Turns out it's The Collegiate and Parish Church of St. Leger in the Court Lucerne and the front is a landmark of Lucerne. It was built after a fire in 1633.




This ones for you Grandma Dorothy!








A beautiful walk along Lake Lucerne to The Automotive Museum despite the girls arguing. Flowers in bloom all around, lush greens, no trash and peaceful.












From the minute we arrived at the Swiss Museum of Transport, we knew it was going awesome! According to brochures, it's Switzerland's most visited museum and now we know why. The front desk clerk at our hotel recommended it and we figured what the heck since rain was predicted, we've got an hour or so spare. Well, 4 1/2 hours later, we still hadn't seen everything but what we did see and experience we sure did enjoy;




Outside of the Automobile Exhibit




And inside, cars stacked in several racks. When a visitor selects a car, it's brought down via hydraulic lifts and showcased in front of visitors while a video about the car plays on a big screen.




This area let kids do construction and mining




Our interactive experience in the Flight & Aerospace - Jana sleeping in first class.




Not only was there a Planetarium, history of Trains, interactive maps, simulators galore and more, they loan visitors umbrellas for free when it rains.




Oh and did I mention you can ride scooters all around and embarrass your children?!




In the end, double thumbs up and a big thanks Mom & Dad!




Random sculpture on walk to the dock for our boat ride back to Downtown








The Chapel Bridge or Kapellbrucke as The Swiss call it, was constructed in the first half of the 14th century as part of the city's fortifications. Named after nearby St. Peter's Chapel. The paintings added inside the eaves of the bridge in the 17th century illustrate scenes of Swiss and local history including biographies of the city's patrons saints, Leodegar and Mauritius.




Jana saw this tower off in the distance and thought she saw people on it so we walked towards it and so glad we did!
It turns out it is called Museggmauer Musegg Wall. It was built in 1386 and contains the oldest city clock; built in 1535 by Hans Luter. This clock has the privilege to chime one minute before every other clock in the city every hour.
Most of the wall built to protect the city is intact; we walked along much of it on our way back to the city.
Our run in with a bachelor party. Yep, I paid 5 francs to wax his back.




And then later, we see this bachelorette party. These Swiss girls did it up, with costumes and a big paper mâché piggy bank. The bride was selling small bottles of alcohol and would put her earnings in piggy bank on the rolling cart.
Sydney would not let me leave our table to ask abut the costumes or buy a drink. Apparently I'd already reached my embarrassing acts quota (See Below) for the day. Could it be, these two Swiss folk could be destined for happily ever after together?




Sydney would not let me leave our table to ask abut the costumes or buy a drink. Apparently I'd already reached my embarrassing acts quota (See Below) for the day. Could it be, these two Swiss folk could be destined for happily ever after together?
Outside our hotel - Hotel Falken




FPOD (Favorite Part of the Day)
Shelby: The museum and seeing all the modes of transport. Leaning the history made it interesting.
Sydney: Definitely the museum and how interacting it was.
Jana: Walking along Lake Lucerne despite the girls bickering.
Scott: Enjoying a relaxing day, buying chocolate and being pleasantly surprised by how fun the museum was.
Best line of the day, Scott to the girls: "I'm,very "lucerned" about the weather preventing us from doing the rope park tomorrow."
Inspiration for today's blog title....All the swans go "butts up" when looking for food.




NOTED: We must get food before we think we need! Deciding where to have dinner when everyone is hungry and tired does not go well.
How many times Jana embarrassed Syd today:
*Crashed first "Kasse" on the train (First class). The ticket guy let us stay!
*Riding the scooter at the museum
*Tried exiting through the enter turnstile
*Waxed a man's back
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Location:Lucerne, Switzerland