25. Lucerne

Wow, what can I say. We have found the Switzerland we were looking for!!
We woke up today to a hazy yet warm day and quickly headed to Lucerne to explore. We were struggling a bit as we had no phone sim card sorted to plan the trip,so we followed our P4N app to a recommended car park to get the bus into Lucerne.

The Short 20 minute drive was so scenic with the Alps peaking through over the beautiful lake next to the city. We drove through the middle of the town, which yet again was slightly stressful, but we arrived safely. We left Maddy in the van today as we weren't sure how dog friendly Switzerland is and she does stop us visiting shops together.

We got on a very expensive bus (it was a short 10 min ride and cost us £14), we both said the bikes should have come out. Arriving in Lucerne was so exciting after the sneak preview we had earlier. The town is very old and has a 14th century wooden bridge which crosses the river. On the roof of the bridge was original paintings which were mad to see, sadly in 1993 they had a fire and 5 paintings were ruined and you could see where the flames had affected the bridge. In the middle was a tower which was used as a dungeon. This gave us a cool insite into the citys history.

We had a bit of a wander through the colourfully painted streets and went to a souvenier shop to buy some badges and magnets for our collection. One thing we have learnt is how expensive Switzerland is , you can really tell that the wages are high here when a small sandwich is £10 and a bottle of coke is nearly £5. Mental really, so we headed to a local supermarket and brought some lunch there and headed to the Lake to eat and enjoy the view.
As the day went on the Alps made more and more of an apperance and the view across the lake was literally amazing, the best view we have seen since our Himalayan trek.

We got some Swiss sim cards so we can plan our trip and managed to get a fairly good deal, suprisingly. Afterwards, we headed along the lake front passing the Casino and some very posh hotels and resturants. Pasta dishes for £35 was funny to see.

The last stop was a trip to a famous lion monument which was built for the soldiers who died during the french revolution. The sculpture is cut into the cliff and was very intricately designed. We took some photo's of us stroking him and slowly headed back towards the van.

After letting Maddy out and sorting recycling out, we headed onto our next free park up and the route there, well we can't explain how scenic it was! This made us both realise that this was the exact reason we built a van, it felt like this was the moment we had been longing for over the last 3 years building the van, cruising through the mountains , music blasting on our soundsystem, sun glasses on. It was such a hype and we loved every second of the journey to the park up. We have found another free gem park up in Switzerland, the view from our windscreen is insane.

We played basketball and had a kick around with the ball for a bit, Maddy decided to eat some disgusting things and we headed inside when it got dark and cooked a lovely noodle chicken dish.

Then spent the last 2 hours updating Penguins before chilling and ready for our next day in Switzerland. Weather not looking great tomorrow, Heavy snow at times so that should be entertaining.Read more