Another day of wonder

Breakfast in Flüelen had been a frugal affair of bread and cheese……but fantastic coffee. The owner hovered telling us we should be staying longer and that they were trying to sell the hotel……maybe not what you should be explaining to guests.

Today we woke to the sound of church bells and a beautiful view. Sorry Pauline and John. Breakfast was in the sister hotel,down the lane and across the square. A traditional European breakfast of cereal, breads cheese,meats eggs,etc. John was in trouble for going and asking for more coffee. You sit, wait until I come! Then when I asked, the lovely lady got such a shock, she dropped all the cutlery she had collected. We did get another lovely cup of coffee.
Pauline and I were in trouble in a dress shop yesterday as we dared to get a bigger size off the shelf. The owner nearly smacked our hands in his desire to make sure we knew to look with our eyes and not with our hands. We didn’t buy anything.

Today we took off on rather an unplanned adventure.Following breakfast,we headed to look at the covered bridge near the weir over the river. We wanted to beat those pesky tourists that get in your way by stopping to take photos.

Lucerne has the two oldest wooden covered bridgesin the world.Both were built originally in the 1700’s as part of the city defences. In the roof arches are paintings showing the history of the city….much was gloomy with skeletons, probably the grim reaper, featuring quite frequently.There were battles, family dramas and not too many happy events shown.    They obviously just weren’t interesting enough for the painters.  The bridges had been adjusted in length over the centuries according to the needs of the city and the changing river bank. Paintings from the shortened sections were stored until needed. This proved providential as in 1993, the main bridge caught fire and some of the paintings were damaged or destroyed. 

 The tower in the main bridge has been used as a prison and also the city treasury in past times.

Now we were quite a way from the hotel and we spied the town wall. Would we go back and collect money etc ,or continue on to see the wall, we kept going. The wall was built at the top of a hill with nine towers,including a clock tower.A hill you say, yes a hill. This meant , you guessed it, stairs.

Then to get to the top of the tower…..stairs, but ,as usual ,the view of the city took our breath away, once we stopped puffing.

 The red line, in the diagram below, shows where we climbed up and then walked along the wall. Ravens and bees have nested in niches in the wall.There is a privately owned city garden,complete with cows,sheep and llamas,in the land adjoining the towers.

The clock tower is still working and has a counter weight system.

We wandered on and found ourselves back at the hotel. Now there was a discussion of a visit to the Swiss Transport Museum. Two of the party were very keen to catch a bus or train and visit it. Two other members of the group heard the call of end of summer sales, …….check us out, you need to visit us…….come……nooooooow….. Pauline and I answered the call and visited the shops. We even found some very jazzy shoes for Pauline…..the husbands had a fantastic time at the Transport Museum, they got to drive the new Ice train on a simulator, see how they are building the tunnel from Milan to Zurich, planes and helicopters.A perfect afternoon for all.

Tomorrow we visit Mt Pilatus….train, funicular and cable car….come and see how we fair on our high rise adventure.