Lucerne/Luzern Switzerland

 After Iceland, we boarded a plane and headed to Switzerland.  Once in Zurich, we took the train to Lucerne.  The train system in Switzerland is amazing.  The trains ran like clockwork and you never had to wait long for the next train.  We bought a Swiss half pass for the 9 days we were in Switzerland and it made travel cheap especially since the kids were free.  We decided to spend a few days exploring Lucerne or Luzern depending on the English/French spelling or German spelling.  Lucerne is on the German speaking side of Switzerland so most people spell it Luzern.  It is a beautiful city that has a lot of medieval architecture still in place.  Lake Lucerne and the mountains surrounding the city, all add to its beauty.

All ready to head to Lucerne.  

Our Airbnb had a great view of the city.

The city had two beautiful covered bridges, Kapellbrucke "chapel bridge" and Spreuerbrucke "mill bridge".  Chapel bridge was built in 1333 but much of it burnt down in 1993.  The mill bridge was built in 1408 and has a series of 17th century plague paintings called Dance of Death.

We visited Lucerne's Musegg Wall and the 9 towers that were all a part of the cities fortifications.  We enjoyed the tower with the clocks and gears in it.  Each of the towers had very narrow, steep stairs.

Great view of the city from one of the towers.

We had lunch at a farm to table restaurant that had animals on site.  The food was amazing.

The goat inside would not let the pig pass.  

The church was beautiful.

The Lion of Lucerne is a carving in the side of the mountain to commemorate the Swiss guards that died during the French Revolution in 1792 protecting the royal French household and King Louis XVI.  

Lucerne also had a really neat glacier garden that was discovered by two brothers in 1872 when they wanted to build a wine cellar.  The kettle basins date back from the last ice age, 20,000 years ago. The glacial melt waters mixed with sand and the movement of the rocks carved the holes.  

We also visited a fun mirror maze and found a park on one of our evening walks.