Lost Together: Lucerne, Switzerland

We didn't originally plan on spending much time in Lucerne. It was only going to be a day trip from Zurich. We had been looking for accommodations in Zurich a couple days before we got there, but weren't able to find anything cheap. We decided that when we arrived we would just spend an hour or two walking near the station to find a cheap place. This plan worked well in Munich, but luck in Zurich. The cheapest we could find was a dreadful looking place that was $110 CHF per night!

We ate lunch near the river and started calling a few places in Lucerne. We found a place for almost half the price so we were gone.

We spent 3 nights in Lucerne and it was one of the best stops we made. It was the smallest city we stopped in, I think it was around 12,000 people. The town is built around a gorgeous lake. We spent one day exploring the old town. The hostel gave us a free city guide map with a route that covered all the attractions so we spent the afternoon following it. We stopped by a few churches.

One of the stops was an amazing Lion Monument carved into the natural rock formation. It stands as a tribute the Swiss Guards who died while defending Marie Antoinette in the French Revolution.

We walked along the famous bridge and watertower. Most of the original burned down in 1994, but has since been reconstructed as close to the original specs as possible. Some of the original artwork that lined the bridge was recovered from the fire.

We continued on to what we thought was an old castle, but turned out to be a hotel designed to look like an old palace, haha. (On the hill in the top right corner):

When we finished the tour we grabbed a quick bite to eat back at the hostel then we were off for a Sunset cruise!! Our rail passes gave us free admission on the boatlines along the lake, so we took advantage and hopped on board a 3 hour cruise.

The cruise was amazing! We got to see the beautiful countryside from a different perspective. We watched the sun fall down behind the mountains and continued along beneath the clear sky. On the way back we saw a couple shooting stars (sorry no pictures, haha).