Hotel by night... the same one where my grandmother always stayed when she visited Lucerne!
The Jesuit Church where we went to mass... and you guessed it, my grandmother went here too.
I loved all the paintings and trompe l'oeils on the buildings. Very beautiful and a nice change from the monochromatic gray-ness where I live in Besancon.
The whole building is an Advent Calendar!
Swans must be the official bird of Switzerland... first Geneva, now here!
Lucerne's famous Chapel Bridge.
Mini-excursion to Mount Titlis and Engleberg. Mom on a ski lift!
So we were some of the few people riding the lifts that weren't actually skiing. Lame. But hopefully I'll be skiing soon enough!
Not just a cave... a GLACIAL cave. Bonus!
Top of Mount Titlis. 3,238 meters. Cold. Actually felt a little hard to breathe.
I can definitely see now why my grandmother loved the mountains so much.
The final leg of the journey up the mountain was the Titlis Rotair... the world's first (or only?) revolving cable ski lift.
Forgot what this was called, but it's a local sausage, potatoes, and onion sauce.
"I'd like a table with a view, please." Dining at 10,000 feet.
View of Engleberg! Another town with a great, cute name.
frozen river... brrrr!
Engleberg.
Sleigh bonus!
The Lion of Lucerne. Wikipedia said it best: It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, France. The American writer Mark Twain (1835–1910) praised the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."
Lucerne self-guided walking tour.
I love seeing houses with smoke coming from their chimneys.
Stone guard on the city's wall fortifications.
I think that everyone in my family will recognize this guy. He's the mascot of Casagrande, the store where my grandmother always bought our souvenirs. I remember all of our presents wrapped in bags and paper with him on it, scattered among edelweiss and cowbells.
Another church. Franciscan, I think. We skipped all the Protestant ones.
Swiss Transport Museum. Planes, trains, and automobiles.
Also, boats!
Still pretending that I ski.
Seriously cool display. You could call up on of these cars and the lift (the yellow thing on the far left) would search it out and bring it to eye-level. The cars spanned from 1901-2007!
This is how the French hunt ducks, in a boat called canardiere. They would float up to where the ducks were and it was actually outlawed because it was TOO effective.
The secret is Swiss... child labor in the form of an interactive museum activity.
Model trains.
Official Swiss Dinner #1: Fondue, specifically raclette.
Raclette fixin's.
Toblerone chocolate fondue!
We always find mom a market.
Chapel Bridge view #2.
Fancy hotel coffee drink and chocolates!
Post-spa birthday cookie and coffee drink!
Our hotel from across the lake. Mountain bonus.
Pre-birthday dinner. Isn't mom cute? Notice her little swiss cowbell earrings. Present from my grandmother many years earlier.
Birthday dinner: the location.
Birthday dinner course number one: Cheese croquettes.
Birthday dinner course number 2: Lamb with potatoes au gratin.
Birthday dinner course #3: Lemon sorbet. No birthday cake with candles, but I did wish upon a starfruit (which aren't that tasty, by the way)!
Mom's Swiss chocolate mousse.
Heading to France! Best train ride yet!
