After our time in Zermatt and in Zurich, Bridgette and I continued forward with our journey and headed to our next stop–Lucerne! Lucerne is just a short 1 hour train ride from Zurich, so that was a fairly easy transition us. The trains run like clockwork in Switzerland, and it’s really the best way to get around. Plus, Bridgette travels free since she’s under 16!
With Alan gone, Bridge and I reverted back to our more frugal ways of traveling. We booked a small bedroom inside a family’s home for our stay in Lucerne, at just USD $50/night! The family had 2 extra bedrooms that they were renting out, and we would share a small kitchenette and bathroom with the guests of the second bathroom. While sharing a bathroom with strangers is never ideal for me at this age, it’s just one of those things I have to get use to in order to role model for Bridgette on adaptability and flexibility! 🤪
Our little room turned out to be quite spacious and cozy for the two of us, and we quite enjoyed our stay there!
During our 3 days in Lucerne, we pretty much hit all the “must visit” spots, which I’ll go through one by one below:
CHAPEL BRIDGE– this wooden cover bridge is the oldest of its kind in Europe, and is a major symbol of Lucerne. It spans diagonally across River Reuss in the center of the city and everyone who visits Lucerne makes a point to walk across it. While walking on the bridge, you’ll be treated to really nice views of Old Town Lucerne all around you!
OLD TOWN– this is pretty much the area right by the Chapel Bridge, and considered central Lucerne. Bridge and I found ourselves back here at some point during the day nearly every single day! There are a ton of restaurants, cafes, and cute little shops. There are also some bigger brand names like Rolex, so tour buses carrying Chinese tourists would drop them off during the day for some serious shopping.
There are also a lot of places to eat around Old Town, and we stumbled upon some excellent ones such as 100 Fondues (and they literally have 100 different kinds of fondues to choose from in their menu!!) and Burgerstube, a
SWISS MUSEUM OF TRANSPORT— this was one of our favorite places in Lucerne! It’s a really cool museum that features all types of transports, from locomotives to airplanes to ships to ski lifts….basically anything and everything that can be used as a form of transport from the historical days to modern day.
SWISS CHOCOLATE ADVENTURE— Located inside the Swiss Museum of Transport, this is a fun little ride that takes you through the history and manufacturing process of chocolate. Best part? The ride ends with the dispensing of a variety of Lindt chocolate straight into your hands!!
LAKE LUCERNE– this beautiful lake is hard to miss if you go to any of the places I mentioned above. I would highly suggest walking from Old Town to the Swiss Museum of Transport as it takes you around a portion of the lake, and provides a very scenic and relaxing walk. There are also boat rides that take you around Lake Lucerne, but we opted not to do that.
LION MONUMENT— this is a very famous rock relief in Lucerne that commemorates the Swiss Guards that were massacred during the French Revolution. The design and construction of this piece is amazing, and when you walk close to the dying lion, you really feel moved by its sadness! Mark Twain once proclaimed that this monument is “the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.”
GLACIER GARDEN OF LUCERNE— Conveniently situated just steps from the Lion Monument, this is a place where you can learn about the history of the glaciers, get completely lost in a fun mirror maze, and see a magnificent view of Lucerne from high up!
And that concludes our 3 days in Lucerne! While we could’ve opted for day trips to venture further out, such as to Mount Rigi, we decided to make our time there more leisurely to fully experience the beauty of the area. We’re so glad we did that because it gave us renewed energy for our fourth and final stop in Switzerland, to Bern!
Our other Switzerland posts include our time in:
