Cheese, chocolate and t-shirt towels

As much of a blast we had frolicking through the hills of Salzburg (we didn't really frolic), the time came when we had to pack up our backpacks yet again and move on in our journey. We hopped on a train to Luzern, Switzerland. The train ride through Austria and Switzerland was beautiful! Look for the next post on Geneva, when we took the rest of our ride. The Swiss countryside is amazing!

When we arrived in Luzern, it was of course raining. We trekked to our hostel, which sat pretty much on Lake Luzern. After being spoiled by pensions and cute budget hotels, Backpackers Luzern was a bit of a culture shock. In all honesty though, it really wasn't bad and we learned to make the best of community showers and no towels. PDA Blog Life Lesson #1: Dirty t-shirts are perfectly capable of doubling as towels. Cotton absorbs like you wouldn't believe! So after checking in, we dropped our backpacks and went out to face the rain and cold and find some food. Switzerland is a bit of catch--the exchange rate is great, but everything is expensive. We found a little pizza place in the Old Town and were able to see the historic bridge over Lake Luzern. We called it a day pretty early, and after a few rousing rounds of Rummy, went to bed in our little room.

We spent the next day sightseeing, heading first into Old Town to see the Lion of Luzern. It is a monument honoring Swiss soldiers who died during the French Revolution. A giant lian is carved out of stone, and it really is a neat thing to see. There's a little pool there as well. We then headed on to the city wall, where you can climb up into towers overlooking Luzern and walk along the wall above the city. There were some amazing views! We climbed up into a very high tower with an old clock bell in it, and the stairs were so steep that our legs were sore for days afterwards (little did we know, we had a 90-stair climb waiting for us at our flat in London). We had an AMAZING lunch at a Swiss Fondue restaurant. Cheese and bread, what more can you ask for? Then we were able to use our Eurail (train) passes to take a boat tour out on Lake Luzern. It was a nice break from the rain and we were able to see some of the little stops all around the lake. The water in Switzerland is so beautiful!

That day the Swiss team was playing in the World Cup, so you can imagine how crazy the city was getting. Our room didn't have a tv, and we weren't able to find a very good pub or restaurant to watch the game, so we headed for a museum to take shelter from the rain and general craziness. The museum was called the Rosengart Collection, and it was a private donation to the city of Luzern from Siegfried and Angela Rosengart, friends of the famous artist Pablo Picasso. The museum holds countless Picasso paintings, as well as photographs of the artist and his family. There were also lesser-known works from other famous painters: Miro, Wallinsky, Matisse, and others. I was in heaven. We spent a couple hours wandering around, and then ventured back out to get dinner and head back to our room. We were starving, and so we grabbed some quick and cheap things at a Coop, (or co-op, we couldn't tell) which was basically a little grocery store. Thinking we couldn't go wrong with ham and chicken sandwiches, we were relieved to be back in after an exhausting day. PDA Blog Life Lesson #2: Never assume that if you can't see any condiments on the sandwich, they aren't on it. It may sound petty, but you try eating a chicken and pimiento cheese, or ham and tartar sauce, sandwich and see how you like it.

All in all, Luzern was an interesting, fun, tiring, eye-opening experience. It's a beautiful city, and I'd love to go back one day when the sun is shining and I have room in my backpack to do some awesome shopping. We left the city early in the morning and hopped on yet another train to continue through the Swiss countryside. Look for our next post on Geneva, and then it's back to London for good!


This is the picture of the famous bridge in Luzern. The first is what we saw in the gloomy weather.. The second is what Sarah saw three years ago when it was nice and sunny. Yeah, we missed out...

We miss you all!