Lucerne

Lucerne was our first stop in Switzerland, and very nice it was, too. We arrived by train early-ish in the evening, and had a pleasant time baffling a bus driver by catching the correctly numbered bus to get to our hostel, but in the wrong direction, and hence doing a tour of the city instead of taking a 5 minute journey. The hostel was a little tricky to find - they didn't blow their budget on signage - but very nice indeed once we did locate it. It had a lovely kitchen (yay!) and our two bed room had its own balcony. We were fairly tired, so hopped into bed shortly after 9pm, only to be alerted by the sound of loud booms coming from the direction of the lake. I was convinced Switzerland was being invaded, but Robyn went and leaned over the balcony and spied fireworks through the trees. We jumped out of bed and threw our Oxford hoodies on over our pjs (classy, I assure you) and raced downstairs, out of the hostel, over the bridge, and through the woods (no, not really, I'm just getting carried away). To the lake front, anyway, where we sat on the beach and enjoyed a magnificent view of the best fireworks display either of us have ever seen. The explosions were huge bursts of colour reflected in the lake - they were enormous, and the show lasted for a good half hour. We had no idea what it was in aid of, but discovered back at the hostel that it was the anniversary of one of the train companies. We were very impressed, and thought it was the best welcome to a country we had had yet.

Wednesday morning was hot, and, on our tiki-tour the day before, we had spotted a pedal boat hire place on the lake, which we therefore made for. We hired a boat for an hour and headed our towards the centre of the lake, admiring the lovely buildings on the shore and dabbling our toes in the water. It was very pleasant, and Robyn even ended up going for a swim. Back on dry ground we headed for the Verkehrshaus (the Transport Museum), where we planned on visiting the Planetarium and the IMAX theatre. The Planetarium show was first, and we enjoyed a nice relaxing sit in our reclining chairs and leant back to watch the show. It was, perhaps, a tad athiestic, not to mention horoscopical, but interesting nevertheless, especially as I had never been to one before. Next was the IMAX, where we watched a doco called 'Alpen' (recorded in English, dubbed into German, and listened to by us in the original English via an audio guide. Terribly convoluted). It was about a chap called John Harlin III, who climbed the Eiger's North Face via a route that his father had climbed and fallen from. It was very interesting, showing his preparation for the climb and the climb itself - terribly moving. After we were done here we went to have a quick look at the museum proper before it closed. We were so disappointed we hadn't come earlier to have more time! It is an amazing complex (think of MOTAT, only bigger and better and better). There are units on trains, cars, space travel, air travel, communications, ships, and cartography. You can whizz from one exhibit to another on little scooters that are left along the paths, and the displays are filled with interactive simulations and games. We were running around like little kids until they closed, flying 'copters and manning space missions, recording TV newsreels and directing air traffic control. It was wonderful.

A wander through town the next day revealed an English bookshop - so exciting! We have the ability to spend a good long time in bookshops. . . We'd thought we'd like to have a swim so, as I remembered seeing a beach on the other side of the lake, we walked around. . . and around. . . and a little bit further. . . It turned out the beach was a lot farther round than I had thought and it cost to use it! So rude! We took a bus back to the wee beach near our hostel.

We also enjoyed seeing the Lion of Lucerne. It's a massive statue carved into a cliff face portraying a dying lion. It's amazingly well done.

All in all, Lucerne was a favourite destination. It's a gorgeous town in a lovely country.