Luzern

For our first fun trip together, we decided to visit Luzern. Luzern is about an hour train ride from Basel...or it should have been. As we learned the hard way, the Swiss transportation system is extremely punctual. We were walking to the tram station to catch a ride to the train station and, as we approached, we saw the tram pull away. We also learned, the hard way, that on Saturdays the tram only comes every 17 minutes. Why every 17 minutes? We're still not sure. Unfortunately, this caused us to miss the non-stop train to Luzern. Instead of the waiting for the next non-stop train, which was leaving an hour later, we decided to take the next train leaving Basel. This train required us to change trains in order to arrive in Luzern. Little did we know that changing trains would actually take longer than if we had just waited for the next non-stop train, but I guess you live and learn!

When we left Basel, the weather was warm and sunny, but when we arrived in Luzern (several hours later!) it was bitterly cold. We bundled up with all the clothes we had brought for the day and headed out to explore the city. The first site we came upon was the famous Chapel Bridge. This bridge has crossed the river passing through Luzern since the 14th century. It is decorated with original 17th century paintings and each of these paintings includes a skeleton to remind the townspeople that nobody can escape death. Kind of creepy, but I guess things were a little different back then.
We began to stroll through the old town and we came to to the Weinmarkt Square. On one of the walls of the buildings was written the phrase, "Amor medicabi lis nvillis herbis." I told Nate that this roughly translated to, "No medicine can cure a broken heart." After Nate picked up his jaw from the cobblestone street, I informed him that I had read this in the guide book the night before!
We then decided to walk to the old city walls that run along the ridge above the old town. Once we got there, we were able to climb the stairs and walk along the top of the wall. From the wall, we climbed even higher (And I mean really high!) up to the top of a turret. It was worth the climb, because we had a fantastic, 360 degree view of the city. It was absolutely beautiful.We climbed down the turret and headed towards the monument for which the city is known. Ironically, we didn't even realize that it existed prior to our arrival in Luzern. The monument consists of a gigantic lion carved into a cliff face. The lion's head rests on a shield with tears streaming down his face. In his side is the broken-off end of a spear which is slowly killing him. The lion represents the Swiss mercenaries who were killed defending the French king during the French Revolution. It was a moving monument, but unfortunately, they were giving the lion a "bath" on the day that we decided to visit.
For the last part of the day, we walked along the lake's waterfront promenade and watched people feed the swans and ducks. We then realized how hungry we were, so we ate a delicious dinner sitting outside on a bench looking out at the lake. By this time we were exhausted, so we decided to arrive at the train station plenty early, to catch the non-stop train to our home away from home.