2. 13,000 Steps; 12 Musicians; 4 Bridges — A Day in Lucerne. 8/29/22 (at midnight)

Hope all is well stateside. We are getting CNN at the hotel, but it’s not very US-focused, so we only have some little tidbits of news in the states. Maybe that is for the best.  We have been in Lucerne for two days but heading to Thun tomorrow afternoon.

We began the day with a nice breakfast at a little outdoor café located a few blocks from the hotel. I had the baked eggs in tomato sauce (sort of like shakshuka but not as spicy; Mike had a bagel with lox… and I was quite the happy camper because they had iced chai lattes. The hotel is pretty wonderful and the view from our room quite spectacular looking out across the river to the other side of the old town. Lucerne is almost too perfect – beautifully preserved with the old section pretty much intact and well-designed newer buildings (concert hall, museum, train station, etc.) located on the edges of the old city – sort of framing the precious, preserved structures. Many buildings have passageways and structures that bridge across narrow streets. And then there are the covered wooden footbridges from the 14^th Century—still in use to move easily from one side of the river to the other. We probably crossed over these bridges dozens of times yesterday and today as we strolled the city.

Lucerne is lovely (as was Zurich) with incredible vistas to the mountains, great food, the cleanest streets you can imagine… but frankly just too perfect for me. I guess I thrive on the stress of real cities and their problems… and their diversity. The New Yorker in me kicks into gear when I’m in these sweet and near-perfect places. What, no honking horns? No litter? No people sleeping in the streets? No yelling taxi drivers? Safe enough for kids, little kids to appear to be walking on their own (probably with parents not too far behind, but alone enough to feel independent). Everyone on bicycles; dozens of walking streets where pedestrians rule. But I am serious, it’s just a little too calm and soft for me; I need the edge. We’ve traveled through a lot of Switzerland over the years and while Lucerne might be more charming than many others, most Swiss cities seem to fit the same characteristics.

That said, Lucerne is truly beautiful; probably one of the most beautiful and livable cities I’ve seen in all my travels. Beautiful in that picturesque way. Now for a few points that I hope answer some of the questions some of you have asked. 

Covid: No one is wearing masks. Indeed, it’s like the pandemic never happened. While the Bay Area might have gotten lax about mask wearing, most people seem to don the masks in supermarkets, pharmacies, etc., I can count on one hand the number of masks I’ve seen in Switzerland since we arrived.

Costs: Switzerland is truly the most expensive country I know. Meals (in good restaurants) are probably 50% higher than in equally upscale restaurants in either San Francisco or NY. Good hotels are also very pricey. Our simple breakfast was close to $50; gel manicure is about $80! Not sure how Swiss salaries rank, but I assume they must be high. Obviously, many of the expenses we have in the US are non-existent here, given the social benefits – good schools, health care, university education, and more. 

Now for our day today… After walking the covered bridges, we strolled the old town including hiking up to the top of the ramparts and having to walk up and down very steep, old wooden stairs that were at a 45-degree angle to reach the top of the old watch tower from which we had spectacular views of the whole city. After deciding we really deserved some gelato, given all the walking,. I did a teeny bit of retail therapy (really teeny) and we photographed a great deal. I think I clocked in at about 350 images today—everything is just so photogenic!

The Lucerne Festival is taking place (most of August and a little of September), so we decided to go to one of the free concerts which was part of what was dubbed the “Diversity” track. We dashed to the Concert Hall which was well worth it even if the concert wasn’t going to be so great. The Concert Hall is located in a complex adjacent to the main train station and is in the same building as the major art museum. There are literally dozens of eating establishments within and outside the building. And the Hall sits at the edge of the river with water features literally coming directly into the building. And because there is so much outdoor space, people gather in the area – families, kids, older people, tourists, etc. taking advantage of the pools and the water edge. Boats are also docked there, and people literally came to the concert via train, bike, boat, walking, buses, and more—somehow terminating in this “house of culture.” 

So, we got to the concert hall just as the doors were closing. It was a very casual crowd (probably since it was a free concert) with a pretty good mix of ages. I think if we had arrived 30 seconds later, we would not have been able to get in… after all the Swiss really respect the clock! It was the “diversity” concert but the audience was all White (my understanding is that there are about 100,000 Blacks living in Switzerland – out of nearly 9 million people). Anyway, it turned out that the term “diversity” had a very different meaning from what I imagined (I thought music from Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Asia). The focus of the program was on the work of graduate students (and maybe young faculty) who were pushing the edges of their instruments—playing with different potentials of their instruments—tapping on violins, using various tools to get different sounds on large gongs; stretching wind instruments to reflect different ways to bring sound. It was interesting but I had to laugh because it was so different from what I was expecting.

Then we rushed back to freshen up to have dinner at the Michelin-starred restaurant at our hotel – des Balances. We snagged a wonderful table right at the river’s edge so we could watch the ducks and swans swimming around and the reflections of all those great buildings in the sparkling lake whose bottom you can see with the water that fresh and clean. Dinner was everything the reviewers said it would be. We opted for the fixed 5-course meals (which also wound up including numerous little “surprise dishes” over and above the 5 courses.)

First came one of those little specials… a cherry gazpacho. Then some lobster and chorizo for Mike and tuna carpaccio with ginger, wasabi, roe, and mango for me. Then we both had a chilled apricot soup that was scrumptious. Then octopus with some kind of olive tapenade and foam. And for the main course we both selected the lamb chops with vegetables which practically melted in your mouth. While we had ordered the dessert (poached peach with peach sorbet and some herbs), suddenly a pre-dessert arrived at the table. And then after the peach dish—of course on Swiss meal would be complete without Swiss chocolates which they brought to the table. 

We complemented all of this with prosecco and then wine.. I think you could have rolled us out. Good thing all we had to do was go up the elevator to our room.

I’m going to sign off now.. More tomorrow from Thun.

Fern