Lovely Lucerne

---

We are at the Hotel Flora Luzern, in Lucerne, Switzerland. We are next to the Reuss River, which flows out of Lake Lucerne, about 100 yards upstream. The river and lake water is clear and cold, and the river is high and rushing very fast by us. Lucerne is a very lovely city, and we have toured around it extensively. Everything is very expensive here, and possibly in all of Switzerland. Our local guide was telling us that about 2/3 of the people in Switzerland can't afford to buy a home. To buy a home is expensive, and requires a 20% down payment, which people can't afford.

She was telling us that her and her husband had lived in this one apartment for about 30 years and one day the owner decided he wanted more money, so he evicted everyone. The building was sold, converted to condos, and the starting price for a small condo was one million Swiss Franks ( CH is the designation for a Swiss Frank). One CH costs about US $1.15. Five years later, the price for the condo is now 1 and 1/2 million CH. For dinner, a small pizza for one person is about US $26. In a market, 2.2 lbs of chicken breast is about CH 40.

Yesterday Dick and I walked 35 minutes to a transportation museum, spent 3 hours walking around, then walked another 35 minutes to the hotel. Zee and Therese went to an art museum, which featured Picasso and other impressionistic paintings (yuck!). The transportation museum was huge and featured all types of locomotives, airplanes, boats, and many hands-on exhibits for children. Most enjoyable. The cost to get into the museum was CH 30, or about US $35. The ladies spent 3 hours at the art museum, so all got a lot of walking in. After dinner, Zee and I took another 45 minute stroll. She is doing so well with her knee replacement. She uses a walking stick to help with stability on all the steps we go up and down on.

Tomorrow, Zee and I go on another all-day optional excursion, while our friends will do something else. The day after tomorrow our trip ends, and we head towards home. We fly from Zurich to Heathrow, then from there to Phoenix. It has been a great trip.

Both Zee and I wash our own clother while we are on foreign trips, and we wear clothes that are designed to dry quickly. I have a suggestion for socks to get that I've found to be great on a trip such as this: Wright Sock Cool Mesh II. They are double lined, with black on the outside and a white liner. They are very cushy and dry overnight. I bought them at REI in Phoenix, and I highly recommend them.

As I mentioned, the city is so picturesque, and many of the apartments have flowers in pots on their balconies. In fact, flowers are displayed everywhere, which are so nice to view as we walk about. We rode around in an open-air tram this morning, and saw so many interesting sights. Our hotel is very nice with one exception: it doesn't have any English-speaking channel, which irks Zee to no end. If we had a choice, we wouldn't stay in this hotel again for this reason. They do have wifi, but not in our room. We have to come to the lobby, where I am now. In the evening, in our room, we listen to music from one of our old iPhones. And read a lot.

Well, this is the last of my travel blogs. I hope those of you who have read my comments get some feeling of what our trip has been like. It has been fun, we haven't caught a cold or got sick yet, and are ready to return home and to a real life. We've been so lucky on the weather, which has been great. See you when I can.....Jim

---