So it had been a little while since we had ventured out of the region. Since I have some time off work, we decided to get up early on Monday and catch the train to Luzern (Lucerne). We spent the whole day there, enjoyed some wine while touring the town. The weather had let up, and while it was a little chilly and maybe a little cloudy, it was a great day to take in this beautiful town.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Monument

The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. How head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.

Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.

– Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1880

the above pic inclueds 3 awesome towers of the defensive walls of Luzern, as well as a mountain, and looks like a castle to the far right in the distance. Good Job Me!

Shelly Nicole Hoffman, world traveler.
View over Luzern from the inside of those defensive walls... Mountains? check.

Above and Below: historic Jesuit chuch in downtown Lucern. With the well fed swans hangin out front.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapellbr%C3%BCcke