Tempe, AZ (Home Base)
USA
Lucerne, Switzerland
It was my last stop before leaving back for the states. It was toward the end of October. Switzerland was beginning to show signs of a cold winter and I was beginning to show signs of a major depression.
Lucerne, Switzerland looked like I felt - gray, chilly, hazy, and out of money. Well, that last part was just me I guess. Yes, the cold, hard truth was I wanted to stay longer in Europe, to continue my journey up north to Austria, Belgium, or any other country willing to take my money. The problem was, I didn’t have any left!
Through the course of eleven weeks, three days, a variety of weather, new friends, old friends, and the general potpourri of traveling solo, I found myself in a state of poverty. If only I’d worked a few extra shifts at the bar, if only I’d sold my Playstation … but I’m not Oskar Schindler and my cause was selfish. I wanted to stay overseas and explore all cities, but I’d have to settle for the dream of coming back. And Lucerne was a great and beautiful last city to be in.
I mentioned Lucerne was gray, chilly, and hazy, but through the mist was something extraordinary. A city not unlike Certaldo in Italy or Granada in Spain, Lucerne portrays a city lost in translation, masked by popular others around it: Zurich, Interlaken, Bern, and the highly visited Geneva. But Lucerne’s picture-perfect town creates for a genuinely ideal stop along my overall journey and I was alertly happy to zip up my “borrowed” Balmers jacket for one last walk around one last Swiss town.
Again, I must address how my social butterfly status beamed through every stop since my arrival in Interlaken back at the beginning of my trip. In Lucerne, it happened at the Main train station where I went to the information booth right behind another couple, Amanda and Chris, who were Australian and totally hilarious!
We wound up receiving the same hostel recommendation and in lieu of no company, I walked to the Backpackers Hostel (located not even a mile from the station) learning of my new friends’ trip and reliving parts of my own.
Stopping at a grocery store along the way to the hostel encouraged an invitation on their part to join them for dinner in the hostel’s very clean and well-supplied kitchen/dining room. A few cans of Eichhof beer and an invitation to join them the next day around town presented itself and I agreed, overjoyed to experience the town with adventurers like myself, of course with much cooler accents.
The next morning turned out to be similar to the one prior but our first coffee (we all agreed on Starbucks!) induced our brains to take in the Swiss culture and buildings surrounding us, not the gray weather covering it.
Like I said, the town of Lucerne holds a remarkable and friendly atmosphere where nothing seems pretentious or out of place. The famous Lion Monument was embedded within a neatly maintained neighborhood with colorful roofs and the monument itself enlisted a sense of humbleness no American can deny. There’s culture and history to be understood and big or small, the people of Switzerland are proud to demonstrate both. It’s displayed again, overhead as you walk through Lucerne’s biggest landmark, the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge).
The Kapellbrücke is in the heart of the town and after grabbing another café latte, Amanda, Chris and I mapped out the next part of the day on the other side of town. The sky was beginning to clear up and the morning turned into a wonderful surprise as my last days in Europe came to an end.
Amanda suggested going to see the Castle of Chillon that was on the other side of the bridge and we were off. Approaching the castle, I noticed there was a somewhat easy path up to the top and it took our breath away in both ways: it’s a trek up those steps but it’s a gorgeous view from anywhere you look down!
Hard as it was to leave the castle, our stomachs pounded with hunger and we stopped at a small but quaint restaurant behind the main road (those are usually my favorites). The beer was cold and the food was hot, a perfect blend of Swiss sausages and overpowering German sauerkraut. I love Europe. The female half of the digaree doo couple ordered mashed potatoes as a side and her kangaroo-loving counterpart ordered fried. Then they both got one order of French fries!
As for me, I declined the offer of starch and ordered onion rings. I got French fries. Ah well, it was all washed down with more beer and laughter for half of what the couple was saying, I barely understood anyway. Who says Australian and Irish accents aren’t in themselves a foreign language?
After linner or dunch or whatever you call pigging out in the middle of the afternoon to the point of your stomach looking like a floatation device, we cruised (more like dragged) our bloated bodies, through the outskirts of town, fascinated by the artistic drawings on sides of the walls and fluidity of the Swiss people going about their day.
There is so much beauty in Switzerland it’s hard to select where to go while you’re there. I skipped over Geneva and Bern and selected Lucerne on a gut instinct. It turned out my gut was right.
Go with your own instincts, but if they’re not churning up an answer, go with mine and head to Lucerne!
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