Lucerne

Booking a hotel online with no previous knowledge is not my favourite pastime. Too many things can go wrong and occasionally they have. Add to that the financial outlay required for a night in a Swiss hotel and the pressure really is on. The Gasthaus Zur Weldegg however was an excellent choice. Located in Horw, a quiet suburb of Lucerne and at the foot of Mt. Pilatus, it is within a 5 min train ride of the city. The room is modern, spacious, air conditioned and very comfortable and breakfast is included.

There is a sweet spot with hotel breakfasts that I rarely achieve. Having my usual light breakfast isn't an option as it represents such poor value for money. On the other end of the scale is to eat so much that you don't need to shell out for lunch and somewhere in between is eating more than usual, but not so much that you feel sick all morning and can't contemplate lunch anyway. It is fair to say that the sweet spot was missed today.

The weather was kind to us and we had a gentle 4 mile stroll along the lakeside, punctuated by a number of stops on shaded benches to bemoan the level of breakfast consumption. Of the available tourist sites, we selected Lucerne's famous Chapel Bridge, constructed of wood and dating back to the 17th century (or 1993 if you take into account the fire that destroyed about ⅔ of the structure). The bridge has been fully restored and does look splendid.

Our other must see was Lion Monument, or the Lion of Lucerne, a 10 meter by 6 meter relief of a dying lion carved into the rock face. The sculpture, said to be one of the saddest monuments in the world, dates from 1821 and commemorates the 600 or so Swiss Guards massacred while defending the French king during the French Revolution.

Like a lot of picturesque Swiss cities, Lucerne is situated beside a lake and surrounded by low mountains, or high hills. I have to confess to spending too much time on Google trying to figure out when a hill becomes a mountain. There appears to be no unique global consensus although there are broad alignments between countries around 2000 to 2500 feet. Having been married for 43 years I have a much clearer grasp of when a molehill becomes a mountain....Read more