After our celebration of Swiss Day in the Alps, we hopped aboard a train, a cable car, and eventually the Golden Pass railroad to Lucerne.  The windows in our rail car were panoramic, and provided awe-inspiring views of the lakes and mountains on our way across Switzerland.  Unfortunately we were on the right side of the train and the best views were from the left where these two moronic American college girls wasted their whole time watching a movie on their Macbook with their backs to the windows! Imbeciles.

To be fair, the view was somewhat wasted on us as well because we were so hung over from our celebration of Swiss Day the night before.  So much so that when we arrived in Lucerne, hot, tired, and exhausted, it was hard for me to feel any enthusiasm for this undoubtedly charming medieval city.  It did not help that the “hotel” we were staying in was a shitty hostel in which our room was half the size of my dorm room from college and to be frank, it was rather gross.  To make matters worse, we couldn’t check in before 4pm so we had to throw our luggage in a locker three flights up the stairs from reception.  Half heartedly, we headed out to explore the city of Lucerne.  With its scenic bridges, cobblestone streets, and waterfront eateries,  Lucerne has an old world charm to it that is hard to resist, even in the pathetic state of existence we were in.

After a quick bite to eat by a riverside brewery, we found a chocolatiers shop and bought some delightful truffles.  Now I am not the biggest chocolate afficionado, but I have to admit that I could grow to love this stuff in Switzerland.  The hazelnut and champagne truffles were to die for!

That night, we headed out to the Lion’s Monument; a tribute to the Swiss Guards of 1792 who tried to protect Marie Antoinette.  Afterwards, somewhat sick of Swiss food and still feeling terrible from the previous night’s activities, we had dinner in a Lebanese restaurantdown the block from our hostel that did not serve any alchohol, thankfully.

The next day we decided against going to Mt. Pilatus because we didn’t want to spend our only free day riding on another train, no matter how scenic it war.  It helped confirm our decision when we woke up to a cloudy morning which would have likely prevented any views we may have had.  We decided instead to rent bikes and bike out around the lake.  The trail we took was about 12 miles round trip, leisurely at times, going through beautiful waterfront neighborhoods, and eventually winding up at a “beach” where you could swim.  We opted not to go in the water and bike back to Lucerne and continued to explore the old section of town via bicycle.  One of the more interesting things we came across was a little square called Wienmarkt (wine market).  Here there is a mural painted on the exteriors of one of the buildings that depicts the scene where Jesus turned water into wine at the Feast of Cana.

That evening, we wanted to try different fondue and so wound up at a place called Fondue House, which offered a 3 course menu that you could split between two people.  We had cheese fondue which was heavenly, then meat fondue which was reminiscent of hot-pot in China, followed by a chocolate fondue that was not the greatest.  Though the dessert was not as good as we had hoped for, the rest of the meal was delicious.

We had a stop over in Zürich today which consisted of much the same activities, exploring the old town by foot, eating cheese raclette for dinner (which was excellent), and buying and tasting chocolates from the world renown Sprungli.  Though cheese is, and will most likely remain one of my favorite all-time  foods, and I have grown to appreciate a fine chocolate when put in front of me, I can say with all certainty that after Switzerland, I am done with cheese and chocolate for at least a month.   Then again, tomorrow is another day.

Here are some pictures from Zürich: