VTT Postcard - Day 12 - Lucerne, Switzerland

The next day saw us making our way to the Swiss city, Lucerne. Switzerland was the second last country on our itinerary and so the mood was sorta somber as we realized the tour would be ending in a few days time.

We arrived in Switzerland in the late afternoon and were brought to the Lion Monument or the Lion of Lucerne. The monument commemorates the Swiss Guards which were killed during the French Revolution. Right about now it started raining but that did not stop the tourists (that’s us!) from taking pictures around the monument.

The Lion Monument, Lucerne

We were then shown around a shop specializing in Swiss watches and Swiss knives - two items which have made Switzerland very famous aside from the Swiss bank accounts :-). The watches were a bit pricey and so I settled on a Swiss knife as a gift for my husband. It came with free engraving.

We went to our hotel, which was a jail-themed hotel. Basically, what it meant was that we were going to sleep in jail cells that have been turned into rooms. The jail turned hotel was not all that bad but the surroundings around the hotel were eerie which added to the mystery of the place. The rooms were tiny, the tiniest we had on tour.

After dropping our bags, TM gave us a few hours to do some shopping. There was a whole street of shops just up the road from where the hotel was. I went around on my own and decided to buy some chocolates as presents for my kids. I came back just in time for dinner.

After dinner, a couple of people in the group decided to walk around the city. We were really amazed at how clean everything was. You could see right through the bottom of the river where the ducks were swimming along. There were lots of snow on the ground and we managed to make a snowman out of it.

Mr Swiss Snowman

We visited the Water Tower and the Chapel Bridge which was one of the oldest covered bridge in Europe. Some parts of the bridge burnt down a while back but have been rebuilt. It was a nice walk that night as everything was not far from where the hotel was.

The Chapel Bridge and Water Tower, Lucerne

When we went back to our hotel rooms, my roommate and I slept with lights on the whole night. I didn’t sleep well at all because of the ticking sound the heater pipes were making all throughout the night. Nevertheless I just had one thought – tomorrow Paris!