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.  

Iceland

 Iceland is a raw and wild country.  From the moment you land in the airport in Keflavik, you sense that the land of fire and ice is different.  We spent 4 full days exploring Reykavik and Vik, a very small dent in this large country that is one of the most sparsely populated.  

The first day we had to stay up all day in Iceland to get on their time zone.  It was not easy to do since they have 24 hours of sunlight right now.  This picture was taken at 2 in the morning.

We visited one of the lava tubes.  

The tube was formed by flowing lava from the volcano that eventually emptied and formed the cave.

Enjoying an Icelandic hotdog.  Everyone we talked to said you have to try one.  I'm not really a hotdog fan but I decided to try it and it was pretty good.  

We all enjoyed the ice cream here as it wasn't as sweet as the ice cream back home.

Iceland has fun, colorful buildings and streets in downtown Reykjavik.  

This was my favorite street with a view at the end of the church.

This is Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran church.  The church is 244 feet tall with really cool spires.  It took 41 years to build.

The pipe organs

Iceland has many waterfalls.  This one is Skogafoss falls and it's 197 feet.

Seljalandfoss falls 197 feet tall.  The picture above is the same falls.  You hike behind this one.

Gljufrabui falls was fun because it was a hidden waterfall at the end of the trail by Seljalandfoss.  Not many people ventured that far down and if they did they still missed the falls because you have to walk around a large cliff and balance on rocks to get to the falls.  

We rode horses in Vik on the black sand beach.  The Icelandic horses are one of the purest breeds, as the decedents of the horses the Vikings brought over in the 9th and 10th centuries. Icelandic law doesn't allow any horses to be imported into the country and horses that are exported aren't allowed to return.  They are a hardy breed that know 5 gaits because of the rough Icelandic terrain.  In the summer the horses run free in the highlands.  We enjoyed riding them and they weren't as intimidating because they are a much smaller breed that are very friendly and like to please.

We found a school bus renovated into a coffee shop.  It was a nice chance to get out of the rain.  Alia ordered the diabetes hot chocolate.  

We spent a day soaking in the Blue Lagoon.  The spa is located in a lava field and is man-made and a by product of the geothermal powerplant.  Superheated water is vented near a lava flow and used to run turbines that generate electricity. This water is heated and run back into the lagoon.  The lagoon gets its color from it's high silica content.  The rich minerals are from the undergrounds geological layers and pushed to the surface by the hot water.  

Here are the various landscapes and weather of Iceland.  The weather if very unpredictable there but we enjoyed the rain as much as the sun.  On the rainy days the moss really stood out and immediately dried up on the sunny days.

We loved riding scooters all through Reykjavik.    

Iceland is a beautiful country and worth a visit.