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=0=| Our next stop was Lucerne, Switzerland which was a very beautiful city. The city was very clean and neat as well as having many historical buildings. This is a building with a clock tower. Below on the left is another building with a little snow on the roof. Lucerne was also pretty chilly in December (and expensive), but the youth hostel we stayed in was quite nice. Next to that is another building which was decorated with paintings around the windows which we thought was very pretty. |
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| Above on the left is a building which was decorated with a depiction of the last supper. The city as a whole was quite peaceful. Next to that building is another that was built across a roadway. We also went to visit the old wall around the city, but the guard house that we wanted to tour was closed as it was the off season (and our literature made no mention of that). |
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| Above on the left is a picture of the view from the top of the city wall of the river that runs through the city. There were a couple of wooden bridges over the river and the picture next to is of one of those bridges. These bridges were considered part of the fortifications and were semi-fortified. There were arches under the ceiling along the bridge and they were painted with pictures of scenes from the black death or the plague that decimated Lucerne during the Renaissance. It was also called the dance of death. The Eurorail passes we got had many side benefits one of which was the ability to ride the ferries around Switzerland, so we did, of course. The passes cost a little more than it would have been if we had just flown into the different capitols, but it was nice to be able to see the country as we traveled. Also, we got the cheapest passes there were which were three week first class passes. It would have been a little more to get two month second class passes, but we weren't in Europe that long, so that would have been no use to us. That also allowed us to catch any train any time by just getting on (though we did not have reservations and would necessarily get seats). It simplified our travels and gave us increased flexability. Also, when we visited the youth hostel in Lucerne was closed, so we stayed at the one in Zurich which was open. We took the train back and forth each day, but that was only about forty five minutes and we made the trip before things were open in the morning or after it was dark in the evening, so that was no problem. This picture is from the ferry from Lucerne and this is the hotel, the Schweizerhoff, that Barbara and her family had stayed in when they visited Lucerne when she was in High School. It was a very nice hotel I was told. |
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| Knowing we could ride most any ferry, we just went to the wharf where we thought the ferries left and aksed if our passes would let us take a ferry (without any fees, of course). They said sure so we just blithely got on the next ferry to leave (about 15 mintues). Above on the left is a view as we were leaving Lucerne. The view of the rivers with the mountains on each side was absolutely geogeous as you can see next to that picture and here. As an aside I might mention that at that time (1977) air fares were very regulated and your fare was pretty much constant no matter how many stops you made along the way. It was a bit more expensive to go back by way of Europe (rather than the Pacific), but after that we could stop pretty much wherever we liked along the way (allowing us this extended tour). With today's competitive and deeply discounted fare these open tickets would be most pricey.... The Army only reimbursed us for my fare back (Barbara went to Korea at our own expense) by their discounted price, but that helped in any case. |
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This page was last updated on January 26, 2006.
