Day 18 - Lucerne

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We got a bit of a sleep in today (thank goodness) as on a Sunday things don't open until 10:00am, if at all. We caught the bus into town paid for by contiki. Leona first took us on a brief walk round the town, across a few stunning bridges to the lion monument.
After this we headed to Harry's. Harry is about the only thing that is open here on a Sunday other than the supermarket. He sells all the Swiss army knives, Swiss watches etc. A lot of people bought up big here as in comparison to home it was really cheap and they did engraving on things too. After there we had some free time so Mary and I went for a walk around the very, very pretty city. It' stunning. Old buildings, all colours, flower boxes on windows. We walked to the train station to go to the supermarket to get some lunch to save some money. We got some rolls and salad etc and went down to the river bank and sat with the swans to eat. After a little while it started raining so we had to retreat so the cover of the train station but it was lovely while it lasted. After we caught the bus back to the hotel (after heading for two stops in the wrong direction) to use the net and get a power nap in before we headed back in to the city to do our river cruise at 3:30pm.
The cruise was amazing. Simply stunning way to see the city. It went for about an hour and by this time the sun had come out so there was nothing to not like about it. The captain pointed out various things along the way like castles, beachs and monuments which was cool and we also got to have a bit more of a chat with other people on the tour that we hadn't had a chance to chat to yet. After the cruise Leona had organised one of the other bus drivers to give us a lift back to the hotel. So we stayed there for a few hours doing some washing etc before getting picked up again at 7:20pm for dinner back in the city.
We went to this place that was very similar to the Cuckoo Restaurant in Melbourne. It had a set menu and people yoddling and playing strange instruments and getting the crowd involved. It was funny because it wasn't just our group there, there was also a Trafalgar tourr group there. For anyone who doesn't know Trafalger they are the 'older' version on Contiki. There were very chatty. Some from Melbourne, some from Perth, it really was like a Contiki tour is 30-40 years time haha.
After the dinner we came out and a thunderstorm had hit so it was pouring with rain so we had to bolt for the public bus. We got saturated but thankfully it wasn't too cold. We had to wait around for about 10-15minutes before the bus came and we headed back to the hotel for a quiet night in ahead of our busy day tomorrow.

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