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Published: September 30th 2007
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Day 7, we arrived in Luzern (or Lucerne in English), Switzerland. Luzern is built around (and surrounded by) lakes and mountains and began as a fishing village. The town is really beautiful and is famous for its bridges, the Chapel Bridge and the Old Mill Bridge. The bridges are from medieval times (14th century) and have even survived fires (one has been partially rebuilt). Swans float across the lake, and are said to be a gift from King Louis XIV as a thank you for the protection of the Swiss guards.
To us, this city is a cross between Florence and Venice. The water was reminiscent of Venice, the bustling city was reminiscent of Florence. On our first afternoon here, we visited a Picasso museum - this one was really different, however…it was an exhibit of photos documenting Picasso in every day life - with his wife, with his children, playing with his dogs, working on his art. It was very interesting, a sort of “behind-the-scenes” insight. Some of the actual Picasso works that were on display were featured in the photo exhibit, so it was interesting to see how they were made, and how they looked completed in real
life.
After that we visited the Glacier Garden Museum, which documents how Luzern was covered in glaciers during the Ice Age. Before the Ice Age, it was actually a tropical beach! They have fossils on display of palm leaves and shells as proof. They also had displays of caveman drawings and a mammoth tusk. Talk about OLD.
Next to the Glacier Gardens was the Luzern Lion Monument, a huge carving in the side of a cliff over a reflecting pool. The lion has a spear in his side and tears rolling down his cheeks and is supposed to represent the Swiss mercenaries who were killed or executed defending the French King in the French Revolution. The inscription reads, “To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss.” The monument was carved in the 1800’s.
This morning we headed out for a day trip recommended by our personal travel guide, Rick Steves (ha ha). Our first stop was Fortress Furigen in Stansstad, a small village outside of Luzern. Fortress Furigen is a military fort built inside of a mountain. Although Switzerland is and has always been a neutral country, they did not spare any expense for protection of their
land. Across the country they have a series of secret fortresses and bunkers built into the mountains. The fort was built in 1941 but was not decommissioned until just recently (1990, the end of the Cold War). This fortress was meant to protect the roads and rail lines that led from Luzern to Zurich - in the event of an invasion, the Swiss government would retreat to another secret bunker in the Bernese Oberland region. Inside, there are giant machine guns pointing out of the mountain to the roads below (you can look through the sights and take aim). You can also see the officer barracks, their dining hall, radio communication rooms, sick bay, etc. If the outside of the fortress was blown up, they would have enough food and water for all 100 men for three weeks, along with a filter (?) for radioactive material and gas masks for chemical weapons. Switzerland had 15,000 of these hidden fortresses to protect the country’s roads, railways, and mountain passes. Swiss bridges and tunnels are made with built-in explosives so they can be destroyed in the event of an invasion. In the side of mountains, airstrips are built in with camouflaged doors
that can slide open for fighter jets to fly out. With all of this knowledge, you will find yourself looking at the mountainsides suspiciously.
After the fortress we headed up to Mount Pilatus. We took a short lake cruise from Stansstad to Alpnachstad at the base of the mountain. The lake cruise was great - the sun was out and the scenery was beautiful. To get up the mountain we had to ride a cogwheel train, the steepest in the world at a 48% slope. It took 30 minutes to get up there and it seemed like we were going STRAIGHT UP the whole way! The legend is that dragons lived on Mt. Pilatus and in the lake below, so the townspeople used to fear the mountain. Everything up there has a dragon-theme now, so I guess they have released the fear and embraced the dragons. With or without dragons, the view was AMAZING. On our way down the mountain, we hopped off at the next stop to ride down Switzerland’s longest luge ride, called Dragon Speed. It is almost a mile long and it was tons of fun. You can control your own speed with the braking stick
- Jeremy said he almost flew out of his. Luckily, when you’re done with the ride they connect a cable to the back of your toboggan and drag you back up to the top (through a cow pasture, the guy in front of Jeremy almost ran into a cow). So at least we didn’t have to climb back up again, since it was a pretty steep climb to get up there in the first place (we had to rest a moment at the top to catch our breath). From the luge ride stop we jumped on a gondola (tiny cable car, VERY high up) to get to the bottom of the mountain.
All in all we had a great experience in Luzern with a couple of jam-packed days. My cold has unfortunately turned into a sinus infection, but so far it hasn't really slowed us down (I'll be fine, Mom!). We are excited because tomorrow we are picking up our rental car and heading out to the autobahn. We are stopping at two castles on the way to Munich - Oktoberfest here we come!!! I hope they have enough beer and sausages to feed Jeremy…
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what up german fools
Where ARE you guys!!! Seriously.. it is THURSDAY.. have the German mafia eaten you or WHAT