1 August 2018
On the last day of our stay in Switzerland, we made a stopover at the beautiful lakeside city of Lucerne (also spelt as Luzern). Lucerne is located about one hour by train from Zurich Airport, with a frequency of two trains per hour, hence making it a suitable city for a half day visit before taking our 10.45 PM Swissair flight home.
Our train from Montreux to Luzern took about 3 hours. We had used the SBB luggage forwarding service to send our main luggage directly to Zurich Airport a few days back, to be collected just before our flight. Hence, we had only a small suitcase which we intended to leave at a locker in the Lucerne train station. The lockers are located on both sides of train platforms and were woefully insufficient for the number of visitors to this popular destination. All lockers were fully occupied with a few passengers already waiting for lockers to be vacated.
We decided to use the left luggage service located at the SSB ticket office instead of waiting indefinitely for a locker to be vacated. The ticket office is located above the platform level. We left our luggage with a SBB staff at this office. It costs 10 CHF per piece of luggage instead of 7 CHF for using a medium size locker.
Once our luggage was settled, we were ready to enjoy our visit to Luzern. We had about 6 hours. Lucerne is a small and compact city that is best explored on foot and all of the highlights of the town could literally be visited in half a day.
First view of Chapel Bridge and the Water Tower.
Like most visitors, we headed towards the river with the iconic Chapel Bridge. There are a row of restaurants along the quay by the river and we chose to have lunch at Rathaus Brauerei. This restaurant is popular with locals and serves Swiss food & in-house brewed beers.
Row of restaurants along the quay by the river Reuss which connects into Lake Lucerne.
Swiss veal Cordon Bleu with dry cured ham and fried cheese, glazed carrots and butter noodles.
Original Isenegger farmer’s bratwurst with Swiss Rosti and onion sauce.
Nuremberg roasted sausages with sauerkraut and home-made horseradish mustard.
A must try. The in-house unfiltered house beer which is golden yellow, cloudy, and a little tangy.
We chose to sit outdoors, under the shade of parasol, to have our lunch and to watch hordes of tourists enjoying themselves by the river and on Chapel Bridge.
Once lunch was done, it was our turn to get onto the Chapel Bridge or Kapellbrücke. This is a covered wooden footbridge spanning diagonally across the River Reuss and has a water tower in the middle. It was built in 1365 as part of Lucerne’s fortifications.
The Water Tower used to serve as a dungeon, an archive and a treasury vault until the 19th century.
Summer flowers decorated Chapel Bridge.
We walked along the Chapel Bridge to cross the river and to see the paintings hanged below its roof. They are triangular and depict events from the history and legends of Lucerne.
Some of the paintings in the middle portion of Chapel Bridge were gone.
There used to be about 147 paintings but a fire broke out on the bridge in 1993. Only the pillars, the bridgeheads and the Water Tower could be saved. The bridge was quickly rebuilt and reopened in 1994. We could see the surviving paintings, some with black charred surfaces on their reversed sides.
Further down the river, there are a few other bridges.
The pedestrian bridge Rathaussteg leading into the old town.
The Ruessbrucke has nice benches for a rest and good views.
The Nadelwehr in the front and the Spreuerbrucke in the back.
The Nadelwehr or Needle Dam has wooden water spikes in the river that is used to regulate the level of Lake Lucerne and to feed a modern hydro-electrical power plant.
Spreuerbrucke.
We crossed the Spreuerbrucke which is also a wooden covered bridge like the Chapel Bridge with paintings under the roof.
View of the Nölliturm from the Spruerbrucke. The Nölliturm is one of the 9 towers of the old city wall.
After seeing the bridges of Lucerne, we walked up the hill to see the old city walls. The Musegg Wall with its nine towers is part of the ramparts built in the 14th century to protect the town of Lucerne
The Zytturm or Zyt Tower is one of the few towers that are open to visitors and also served as a museum for antique time pieces.
We climbed the narrow wooden stairs up several platforms to view the displays. The oldest clock in the city dates from 1535 and is housed in the Zyt tower.
The clock tower on the Musegg Wall called the Zytturm. Two giants carry the colourful clock face on its façade.
Swiss clock engineering on display.
View from the small window behind the clock face!
Part of the Musegg rampart wall that lead to other towers.
Views of Lucerne, Lake Lucerne and surrounding mountains from the Musegg wall.
From the east end of the Musegg Wall, we followed google map, walked along Museggstrasse and headed towards the Lion Monument. We passed a tour bus parking area where busloads of tourists were disgorged and heading to the same place we were heading to. Entrance to the small park with the Lion Monument is free and this is popular attraction for the group tours.
This was the fourth time I visited Lucerne and each time, I came to see the “dying lion of Lucerne”.
Each time that I visited this monument, I felt the same pity for the sad looking and suffering lion with a spearhead sticking out from its body.
The purpose of the Lion Monument was to commemorate the Swiss Guards who lost their lives defending the Tuileries Palace in Paris during the French Revolution in 1792. I doubt I would feel the same sadness at this monument had the sculptor carved a figure of a dying soldier instead.
I also heard of an interesting trivial related to this monument. There is another animal besides the lion represented in the sculpture if you looked carefully.
As the story goes, the sculptor who was commissioned to work on the monument was not properly paid after he had almost finished his contracted work. The angry artist decided to get even and added some last minute changes to his sculpture. Out of respect for the fallen soldiers, he did not alter the sculpture itself. Instead, he changed the shape of the alcove where the lion lay to resemble the outline of a pig to represent those that betrayed him.
Look at the monument again. Do you see it now?
Having fulfilled my desire to see the dying lion once again, we went to explore the Aldstadt or old town. We wanted to have a drink at one of the cafes but almost all shops were closed since 1 August is the Swiss National Day and a public holiday. All, except for the ever present McDonalds!
The old town of Lucerne is amongst the prettiest in Switzerland. Many of the buildings are ornately painted on the outside, especially at the town squares Hirschenplatz and Kornmarkt.
We still had some time to spare after seeing most of the attractions in the city. It was good that the Lucerne Train Station is located near to the lake.
Swan and duck swimming in Lake Lucerne.
We lingered by the lake till it was time to leave for the airport. We collected our luggage before the SBB office closes and took the next train to Zurich Airport, arriving with plenty of time to spare for check-in and dinner before our flight.
Overall, we had an enjoyable stopover and walking tour of Luzern on our last day in Switzerland.