The cable car had brought us down from high on Rigi to the shores of Lake Lucerne. Although grey clouds obscured some of the peaks, the lake was surrounded by beautiful white snow capped mountains. A boat picked us up at the dock in Weggis and took us to Lucerne. We went out to the bow of the boat to take photos, but it was quite windy and chilly up there. To our starboard side, the massive form of Pilatus dominated the landscape. It’s a majestic mountain.
In Lucerne, the weather brightened up for a while. Rod and Cornelia took us to the old wooden bridge, which caught fire in the 1990s, causing a number of irreplaceable historic artworks housed within the structure to go up in flames. It’s also the place where Rod and Cornie first met back in 1985, so it was kind of special for them to take us back there today.
As we have frequently done over the past few weeks together, we spent some time exploring the Old Town, walking down its narrow, cobble-stone paved laneways, admiring its public artworks and statues and checking out the goods on sale in some of the shops. We finished our time in Lucerne with a visit to its famous lion sculpture – a tribute to the Swiss Guards who lost their lives defending Louis XVI of France during the French Revolution. The lion is ten metres long. A wound in its side was fatal, and the lion lies mortally wounded with a sad, pained expression on its face.
We caught the train back to Basel late in the afternoon, arriving in a bitterly cold downpour. Luckily, we hadn’t had to put up with weather like that earlier in the day for very long. We’d seen some spectacular sights today.
On The Road With Garry 