Switzerland, where you can buy a penny for a quarter!

Luzern, Switzerland
August 28-30

Sunday the 28th was our first long train trip. After our lovely stay in Salzburg, we were heading west to Luzern, Switzerland. For this journey we would take two trains, one from Salzburg to Zurich and then a change of trains in Zurich for the short trip to Luzern. The first leg is a very popular route so you need to make reservations, even if you have a Eurail pass. We had booked reservations for the 8AM train so that we could get to Zurich mid-day and Luzern by early afternoon. The whole trip took around six and a half hours, but the scenery was absolutely beautiful and the company was great. Shaun and I took advantage of the longer leg in the morning to write our blog entries for Salzburg. The train didn't have wifi, but we could still upload pictures, write the entry and get everything ready so the post could just be uploaded when we arrived.

I absolutely love traveling by train in Europe. To start with, the views are amazing. You really get a feel for a country by passing through the small towns and seeing the people going about their business in the farms and villages. Plus, the convenience can't be beat. Shaun and I bought a Eurail Saver Flexipass for Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France before we left the states. It's good for two months and we can pick 9 days to travel within those two months. The Saver part is a discount for two people who will be traveling together. On a travel day, you just fill in the date and hop on the train. You can take as many trains as you want on that travel day. Of course, there are some gotchas, like reservations for busier routes, but it's all very easy to understand.

The view out the window on the train from Salzburg to Zurich

Another lovely thing about traveling by train is that you often meet other travelers, especially on the long routes. On the train from Salzburg to Zurich, we happened to meet someone who heard us speaking English and asked about the train to Luzern. When we got off in Zurich he walked with us to the Luzern train and we invited him to sit with us. His name was Marc Caro and he is a journalist. Apparently the Chicago Symphony is doing a tour of Europe and Marc, who is the entertainment reporter for the Chicago Tribune was assigned to follow them and write about the experience. We told him about what Shaun and I were doing and we all chatted for much of the train ride. He has a brother who lives in Phoenix (like John does) and he lived in Inman square in Cambridge for a while (like Shaun did). It is a small world indeed.

We arrived in Luzern on a beautiful, sunny afternoon and at first glance we thought we were going to love it as much as we loved Salzburg. When you come out of the train station, you are right at Lake Lucerne (or Luzern as they spell it). The lake is surrounded by mountains and the water is that beautiful green that you can only get from glacial waters. There is a footbridge dating back to the 1400's that crosses the area where the lake narrows into a river and it is covered with flower boxes of pink, purple and white impatiens all the way down the length of the bridge. And if all that isn't enough, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of swans that call Lake Luzern their home. It all seemed like it dropped out of a fairy tale.

The Chapel Bridge- note the swans!

What's not to love right? Well, you know those scenes in cartoons when something is so surprising that the cartoon animals head spins around and his eyes pop out from the sheer shock of it all? Well, I think that may be what happened to me when I saw the prices on the first menu we came across. It was insane. I knew Switzerland was expensive but there is a difference between expensive and highway robbery. At first we thought maybe it was just the area we were in, but we traveled far and wide and saw the same thing. The swiss franc had a slightly better exchange rate than the euro, but that didn't make it worth charging upwards of 30 and even 40 francs for an entree! That first night we were exhausted from traveling, and we walked for close to an hour before we found a Thai place that had a few entrees in the 25-27 franc range. We ordered a pad thai and a chicken curry dish and split them between the three of us. We washed it down with a couple of 8 franc beers and paid the bill. I will say the food was delicious, and it was nice to get away from the fried meats for a change.

The second day I was determined that we would not let Luzern get the best of us. We got up early and took a walk looking for coffee. The previous day we had ordered two coffees from a cafe for what we thought was a great bargain at about three francs. I believe we were served about 4 tablespoons of coffee for that price. So when we found that the Starbucks on the water was selling a "grande" for 6 francs, it truly was the bargain of the century! I took my coffee to the side where the "fixins" were located and added cream and sugar as usual. Then I added cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and chocolate from the shakers. Shaun and John were laughing at me but I was going to get my money's worth everywhere I went today! We left with our coffees and picked up a slice of quiche and a fruit tart and spread out a blanket along the river for a picnic.

After breakfast we went in search of Luzern's famous lion. The monument is called "the dying Lion of Luzern" and it is a monument to all the fallen soldiers who went to aid in the French Revolution and an ode to Peace. Mark Twain had it right when he called it "the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world". For anyone who has read or seen the Chronicles of Narnia, it is very reminiscent of when Aslan dies on stone table.

Shaun looking at the Lion Statue- It was very moving

Right next to the monument is a Glacier Museum. My brother Paul is a geologist so I felt it was our duty to check it out and take some pictures. (He's a total rock geek, he even wears T-shirts that have rock jokes on them that only a geologist would get!) The museum showcased these "potholes" that had somehow been formed by glaciers 20,000 years ago. It was cool, but somehow everything we did was tainted by the prices we had to pay. We took lots of pictures for Paul and then left in search of lunch.

Coming down the hill from the glacier museum, we saw lots of college students sitting around eating out of little black plastic take-out containers. Everyone knows college students know where the bargains are so we started looking to see where they were coming from. (By the way don't ever send your kid to college here. They will need a thousand dollars a weekend just to have fun!) We soon spotted the source- the Coop grocery store. We walked in and it was like one of those religious experiences where there's bright lights and music and everything goes fuzzy for a minute. Cheap food nirvana!!

We bought roast chicken, nectarines, plums, waters, an iced tea, a big salad and some bread for less than 20 francs! We were all joking around that the same meal at a cafe probably would have cost 742 francs. Then we took our food to the banks of the river and had another nice picnic. They don't charge for the view! (Yet!) Satiated by both the food and the great bargain, we decided to enjoy the beautiful day and just stroll up and down the banks of the river. I think we walked about 12 miles that day. We just walked and walked and enjoyed the gorgeous views.

Our cheap and tasty picnic lunch!

It was our last night in Luzern and John's last night with us (for now) so we finally decided to say "the heck with it" and get a nice dinner to see him off. It has been unbelievably helpful to have him here with us. He is way more fluent in German than he ever let on and Shaun and I have had him tutoring us as we go so we can at least be polite. We now know Bitte (please) and Danke (thanks) which are the two words you should know in any country you are visiting. We know enough things on a menu to be dangerous and we know that an EisKaffe is not what you think! We know that if you follow an Einbahn sign you will only be going one way! We know that the central train stations are always called Hauptbahnhof and we know lots of other useful words and phrases. So we certainly needed to put aside our Luzern bias for the night and enjoy a nice dinner together.

We looked up places on Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet and settled on a place called La Terraza. The view was great and the food was even better. Pasta Bolognese for me, Pasta Carbonara for Shaun and their house Lasagna for John. We ordered a bottle of wine and an appetizer as well. I may have to work the streets in Paris to make up for this on the budget, but it was worth it!

Luzern on our last night

We took a leisurely walk back to the hotel, stopping by the amazing Needle Dam facility that regulates the level of the lake. We said our goodbyes to John and headed back to our rooms for a good night's sleep. It was off to Freiburg, Germany for three nights tomorrow! It would be the longest stop of the trip so far and Shaun and I were so thankful that those three nights were not in Switzerland. As Shaun said the last night, "Salzburg stole my heart, Luzern stole my money!"