Dude, I was in jail in Lucerne! Seriously, that's where it was! *g*
But YES. Beautiful. Awesome. I would love love LOVE to go back there, if for no other reason that we were there on a weekend and very little was open, so we felt rushed with the time we did have.
Definite things to do - take the tour of/to Pilatus (named so because it's supposed to be the mountain Pontius Pilate climbed, looked down and saw the huge lake kinda shaped like a cross, couldn't handle the guilt anymore, and threw himself off). Do the big one where you get the cogwheel up the mountain and the gondola ride down the other side (possibly with a boat ride across the lake to get there). But only do that if the weather is decent, 'cause if it's overcast, you won't be able to see anything anyway.
In the city, you can walk up to the fortress wall, which is pretty cool. We weren't able to find an open tower, probably because it was a weekend and getting into the evening, but it was still neat. Just wander around town a bit; it's very centralized and easy to find your way.
Definitely take a city tour. There are so many buildings with gorgeous, GORGEOUS murals tucked away here and there, and a tour is really the only way to definitely see them all. Make sure you also get a tour of the bridges, especially Chapel Bridge with all of the paintings. And you'll see some of the biggest freaking spiders this side of HP2.
The river is pretty neat - that's where we watched the people surfing in the middle of a land-locked country, and also where they had the awesome benefit "race" that Saturday morning that basically consisted of thousands of people with inflatable toys jumping off bridges for a however-many-k float down a glacial river.
Shopping looked awesome, but just about everything is closed on Sundays. Except for places like Bucherer, which is this big fancy department store. We had 'coupons' for free souvenir spoons from there, but that might have been a tour thing. The second floor has more affordable souvenirs and is open on Sundays. There are of course other little touristy shops around there, but also a ton of nifty shops, including a damn good bakery/sweet shop on the edge of the downtown area, up the hill from the river... *g*
The jail was close to the river, and I'd recommend staying in that area 'cause it's very centralized. There was a lot of more modern stuff, some close and some a bit farther away, but we really didn't do any of that. The jail's kind of trendy so it could be expensive, or it could be really cheap because dude, you're sleeping on a cot in a cell - if it's the former, I'd check around for something near it. But if it's cheap, then if you can handle a hostel, you can handle the jail. As long as you're not claustrophobic... That area's really convenient, and iirc, the other side of the river is more ritzy.
I'm subbing tomorrow, so I'll take my pictures to work and try to get them all scanned, and dig up my info/journal to give you more details. Now I'm all wishing I could get over there to go with you - I always said that was one of the places I definitely wanted to go back to. There's definitely a night life, which I didn't care about, but it just had a very nifty atmosphere day and night. I liked it bunches and bunches. As you might have been able to tell. *g*
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-02-11 04:29 am (UTC)But YES. Beautiful. Awesome. I would love love LOVE to go back there, if for no other reason that we were there on a weekend and very little was open, so we felt rushed with the time we did have.
Definite things to do - take the tour of/to Pilatus (named so because it's supposed to be the mountain Pontius Pilate climbed, looked down and saw the huge lake kinda shaped like a cross, couldn't handle the guilt anymore, and threw himself off). Do the big one where you get the cogwheel up the mountain and the gondola ride down the other side (possibly with a boat ride across the lake to get there). But only do that if the weather is decent, 'cause if it's overcast, you won't be able to see anything anyway.
In the city, you can walk up to the fortress wall, which is pretty cool. We weren't able to find an open tower, probably because it was a weekend and getting into the evening, but it was still neat. Just wander around town a bit; it's very centralized and easy to find your way.
Definitely take a city tour. There are so many buildings with gorgeous, GORGEOUS murals tucked away here and there, and a tour is really the only way to definitely see them all. Make sure you also get a tour of the bridges, especially Chapel Bridge with all of the paintings. And you'll see some of the biggest freaking spiders this side of HP2.
The river is pretty neat - that's where we watched the people surfing in the middle of a land-locked country, and also where they had the awesome benefit "race" that Saturday morning that basically consisted of thousands of people with inflatable toys jumping off bridges for a however-many-k float down a glacial river.
Shopping looked awesome, but just about everything is closed on Sundays. Except for places like Bucherer, which is this big fancy department store. We had 'coupons' for free souvenir spoons from there, but that might have been a tour thing. The second floor has more affordable souvenirs and is open on Sundays. There are of course other little touristy shops around there, but also a ton of nifty shops, including a damn good bakery/sweet shop on the edge of the downtown area, up the hill from the river... *g*
The jail was close to the river, and I'd recommend staying in that area 'cause it's very centralized. There was a lot of more modern stuff, some close and some a bit farther away, but we really didn't do any of that. The jail's kind of trendy so it could be expensive, or it could be really cheap because dude, you're sleeping on a cot in a cell - if it's the former, I'd check around for something near it. But if it's cheap, then if you can handle a hostel, you can handle the jail. As long as you're not claustrophobic... That area's really convenient, and iirc, the other side of the river is more ritzy.
I'm subbing tomorrow, so I'll take my pictures to work and try to get them all scanned, and dig up my info/journal to give you more details. Now I'm all wishing I could get over there to go with you - I always said that was one of the places I definitely wanted to go back to. There's definitely a night life, which I didn't care about, but it just had a very nifty atmosphere day and night. I liked it bunches and bunches. As you might have been able to tell. *g*