Switzerland beckons travelers to her snow-covered mountains in the winter and refreshing, cool lakes in the summer. It beckoned me back for a second round of Swiss culture in order to redeem the less than impressive impression it left with me about a month ago.

I visited Zurich with my mom niece at the beginning of July. It was rainy, expensive, nondescript, not distinctive, not special, utilitarian, and venders had attitudes. That paired with a lack of activity and being difficult for my GPS to navigate,  I was fine boycotting Switzerland.

City Center. Shops line the lake in a pedestrian only zone.

That was until I arrived at the Lucerne hauptbahnhof (main train station) with the exception of a rude worker in the bahnhof information office who acted as if I was invisible (Entschuldigung!  I’m standing here!), Switzerland is legit. It is devastatingly beautiful… A place right out of a dream where the sea and mountains meet. It’s a paradise for land locked countries. Here’s what I did!

Getting There

I bought my Duetsch Bahn train ticket on-line and took a 0730 ride from the station closest to my home and switched trains four times in four hours before finally arriving in paradise.

Lodging
I stayed at Casada Hotel. I chose it because it was walking distance from the train station and, from what I could tell on hotels.com, going rate on American hotel room price standards.  It was also air conditioned….don’t take this amenity for granted in Europe, you don’t always get it. At the time I booked it, I didn’t realize it was considered a 4 star hotel (on whose rating scale I’m not sure…take these ratings with a grain of salt, but it was nice).  It had modern interior decor and a Spanish-themed tapas restaurant.  On top of all the nice things I have to say about the hotel, it also had an iPod player! this is rare in similarly priced hotels in Europe. So I could jam while getting ready to go out! Winning! Only issue is that its away from all the activity. It’s walking distance in the wrong direction from the hauptbahnhof.  It was inconvenient to run back to the hotel to grab something or change clothes. However, being away from the action also ensured it was quiet. Other hotels were attached to bars and pubs or right beside them. As I walked passed the noisy bars and discos on Saturday night (don’t say “night club” in Europe…night clubs are found in Red light districts), I thanked the Lord I wasn’t staying in one of the hotels near them.  Here are some other hotel picks based off proximity to the lake and similar amenities and price:
1. Das Alps
2. Hotel Shiff
3.Hotel Rebstock
4. Hotel Mr. Pickwick & Pub (attached to an Irish bar)
5. The Palace & the Grand Hotel. Two hotels with serious Swiss luxury but prime location

What I did, keep in mind all the sights are walkable from Casada Swiss Hotel:

1. Kapell brücke (Chapel Bridge): A beautiful covered bridge is the focal point of the city center. Apparently, in 1993, someone tossed a cigaret and burned the bridge down to the lake. But it was restored to a similar glory.

2. Crying/Dieing  Lion or Löwendenkmal monument. My favorite author, Samuel Clemons, allegedly called it, “the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.” It commemorates Swiss soldiers that died in the French Revolution. I still have a grudge that Switzerland remained neutral during WWII. How can you know millions are being slaughtered right at your boarders but you do nothing? I kinda see it tantamount to living right next door to a pedophile and seeing dozens of children going inside and saying, “I’m not getting involved.”  I think that non act needs memorializing.

 

3. Yacht Tour: $25 for one hour. Absolutely stunning sites of the lake and mountains. My best experience while at the Lake. Natural beauty that surrounds the lake is Lucerne’s #1 tourist attraction. The boat ride is the best way to take it all in.

4. Rosengarten Museum (Skip this).  This cost me freakin’ $18.  I’ve seen Monet before for a lot cheaper in Stuttgart and Paris.  The Louvre is now my standard for museums. There is no reason for any art collection in the world to cost more than the Louvre (whihc is 10 euro…Free 1st Sunday of the month). Even so, it was cool, but not $18 cool. Plus, no one comes to Lucurne for art and culture…do they? Jacqueline’s portrait is the best thing inside.  Now you’ve seen it.

4. Shopping – I swore I wouldn’t shop in this expensive country but some deals I couldn’t pass up.  I got 4 brightly colored basic tanks, a basic purple cardigan, a cute evening halter (Eva Longoria would approve)  and a bath5ng suite for $112. That’s the same as I’d spend in The States for the same items right?  Shops close at 4pm on Saturday and stay closed until 1000 on Monday. Did you know Italian sizes are different than the rest of Europe’s?

5. Wedding Crashing– I am always appropriately dressed when I come cross a wedding (first time was at the Sound of Music Church in Salzburg, Austria then again in Slovenia). I think weddings are great cultural lessons.    So much the same, very few unique details like this one, something about bread on planks of wood. Not sure if it was a personalization unique to the couple or a Swiss tradition. I’ll delve more into research.If you want to wedding crash, make sure you’re dressed for a wedding on Saturdays in the summer!

Brides carry bread as an omen for good harvests and the groom carries grain for wealth and good fortune.

6. Swimming at Seebad. This is a very cool structure to swim in the lake.It features a sundeck, floating logs to play on.  The Swiss guys wear long swim shorts as oppose to the little speedos the German guys wear.  It’s 8 dollar adult entrance, $2 locker key plus a $20 or passport as a deposit.  Bring your own towel and wine.

The tour guide claimed the lake was drinking water quality.

7. Running.  I didn’t bring running gear to Oslo last weekend and regretted it so I was well prepared this weekend. Running beside the lake in the early morning, before the tourist and before the heat, was perfect. My run started at about 0730. It’s a shame I couldn’t pull myself out of my comfy bed to catch the streaks of pinks and purples across the sky reflect on the lake at dawn. 

This was actually at sunset but similar to what I imagine the sunrise view to look as well.

Pretty sure Tchaikovsky could have been inspired here.

 
Where I Ate
Mr. Pickwick Pub. Spent $32.50 on 5 chicken wings, Pommes, bitter Limon, tap water, and garlic brot (bread)

Also on the menu:

Small salad $10.50
Grilled ham and cheese with pommes (fries):  $17.50
Small nachos   $8.50
Four person platter $65
Chicken club sandwich $14.50
Chicken Club sandwich with pommes or side salad $22.50
Ben and Jerry’s mini ice cream cups $6

Remember, Switzerland’s Frank exchange rate to the USD is a 1:1 ration. They just charge a ton for very little.

At Ernesto Italian Ristorante beside the Chapel Bridge I had a Picola sized Penne Aurora, coke, rose wine and tap water for a grand total of $32.70.  Carpaccio, which is my favorite European appetizer, was $22.50!

I spent $3 on a snickers and $4 on a .5 liter bottle of water. Goodness it was hotter than blue blazes this weekend. Perfect lake weather.

Next time:
I’ll be adhering to a budget! I could have saved over $300 had I not gone post card shopping (they’re $2 a pop here), fashion shopping, and eaten out.   My goodness, in one overnight I spent $100 on food, snacks, and drinks.  Had I been prepared, I could have been making sandwiches or eating Rammen so I wasn’t starving to the point that I didn’t notice $30 was a bit much for 5 wings. Next time I’ll pack my own meals!  I know people say live it up when you’re on vacation but, I vaycay like this every weekend. This isn’t a once a year type event for me so I need to think a little more frugally. Besides, I went to two of Europe’s most expensive countries within five days. Maybe not the best financial move. Next time I go to Norway or Switzerland, I’ll make sure the rest of my trips for the month are more economical.

It was so hot I was guzzling water by the liter. Keep in mind bottled water was $5 for .5 liters…little bottles. I can get 2 liters of water in Germany for .40 cents!  From 1300-1700 was the hottest time of day. I could have napped during this time to avoid the extreme heat and spending money to stay hydrated. Then I could have been ready to party all night.

I’d pack a swimsuit. I don’t know why I over looked this important item. But they had cute affordable ones there.  I may also give a paddle boat a go, or at least convince  someone to paddle the boat for me…that’s a lot of work. Better yet, I’ll have my Idaho Beau, a sailor by trade, rent a sailboat to sail around the lake. With all that, I won’t be saving much by not eating out.

Red benches could be found all over.

What I learned from this visit

Germans and the Swiss have very different mannerisms, even though they speak the same language. And the Deutsch was understandable…none of this Schweizerdeutsch I was warned about from my Deutsche friends. But I could often identify the Swiss from the Germans.  There were a group of bachelors enjoying their stag weekend acting wild and crazy! I was excited! They reminded me of the Brits I see everywhere enjoying their final unmarried days but they were speaking Deutsch! Sure enough, they were Swiss asking for Swiss Franks and not Euros. That’s what you do in both Germany and Switzerland, you give $ to those on their stag and hen weekends.  Anyway, I expected the Swiss-German dynamic to be like the Canadian-American one…basically indistinguishable from one another at the surface glance but I was wrong, their mannerisms are distinctly different.

I talked with a father and son team of German Jehovah’s Witnesses. They chose to spend their Saturday witnessing. The son chose Spanish as the language to approach me. I actually get this regularly when I leave Stuttgart, people see me and and choose French or Spanish to initiate conversation…never English.  Stuttgart has a high American population so English is the first go-to language. But outside Stuttgart…English is not the fall back language. Sorry buddy, I don’t know enough to talk about Jesus in Spanish…which is a pity. I realized this as another reason to learn a new language, if not just enough to talk with others about the glory of the Lord.  Typically in the states, folks try to duck and dodge the LDS and the JWs when they come a knockin’ which never allows you to hear what they have to say or how they are different.  Basically, from what I gathered, Jehovah’s Witnesses are different from other Christians because they 1. Don’t think God and Jesus are one and the same. 2. Jehovah is the only name of God and should be honored just as Jesus said in his Lord’s Prayer.  In Hebrew, God was named YHVH, but since we can’t say this in our language, Christian Scholars filled in the missing letters.  3. They also think God will turn the world into a Paradise on his own without the help of people.  I asked the men how people responded to their witnessing. The German men said the Swiss are more polite and educated than Germans so they listen to what they have to say or they politely tell them they are not interested.

I learned that in Germany and Switzerland, St. Nicholas gives children toys on 6 December here. He also watches and protects the sailors on the seas. The town has a sandstone statue of him out in the lake and named a lake view church after him.

I also learned that I don’t need to pay extra to reserve a specific seat on the Duetsch Bahn.  I did this and ended up just sitting where I pleased.  What a waste. Now if traveling in a large group and you want to all sit together, by all means do it. But with two or three…its not necessary

I over pack. I could have done a weekend in 1 backpack instead of a carry-on sized suitcase and a backpack. Bathing suit, sundress, flip-flops, sunglasses and shorts don’t take up much room. that carry on could have been filled with food or with room for my new purchases. Instead I filled it with things I hardly used.  This was definitely a “take half the stuff and twice the money” kind of trip.

Lake Lucerne is a beautiful  holiday location.  Full of sundresses, flip flops, and sun tans. Short, cut-off shorts that are socially unacceptable in most places around Europe are welcome here.  Lucuren redeemed Switzerland from Zurich’s image in my mind. It’s a prefect mix of chill and party. It’s a spot I look forward to returning to soon.  I can add it to my list of favorite experiences. When you’re needed a city break, and can’t get to a beach, Lucurne is the perfect place to go.

Pedro from madrid wanted to take this picture before he started asking way too many questions. No Pedro, you don’t need to know donde es mi hotel or Dónde trabajas or if I Viaja solo . Good bye!