Aug. 15th - Exploring Old Town Lucerne

We decided to stay in town today. Like yesterday, it started out with breakfast at Rokka, the coffee shop on the ground floor where they also serve delicious food and beverages including alcohol. (Had the best ever espresso martini there yesterday with a noodle bowl with salmon, which Rita, Lynn and I shared since we’re not big eaters now that we are on Zepbound.)

This morning Rita and Lynn shared an avocado toast with scrambled eggs, and I had scrambled eggs on toast with lox. But the highlight was getting to know Stephanie, the waitress. Lynn is a skilled massage therapist and sensed that Stephanie could use some shoulder work, which she then performed on a grateful Stephnie. I took a picture:

We asked Stephanie where the famous Lion Monument is, because it had made a big impression on Lynn and Rita as teenagers visiting Lucerne with their grandparents. With her direction, we walked the 1/2 mile to the monument and took some pictures and videos. It’s not your typical war memorial (Switzerland has never been at war), because the soldiers being memorialized were mercenaries who died trying to protect the monarchy during the French Revolution. For 300 years, Swiss guard soldiers served in foreign countries as hired warriors. It hasn’t really ended, because the Swiss Guard are still serving a very small country — the Vatican.

The Lion Monument is carved into the wall of a one-time quarry. Here’s what it looks like:

And the following is from a plaque explaining the Latin engraving. Latin was used “so everyone can understand”:

We noticed a LOT of Asian people here as we have elsewhere, both as independent travelers and in tourist groups with a guide. This couple intrigued us. What were they up to?

So, I asked a younger Asian man nearby if he knew. I assumed, correctly, that this elderly couple did not speak English much or well. It turned out that she’s a “professor of tea” near Beijing, and she and her husband are traveling central and eastern Europe with her little suitcase with black and other Chinese teas in it. The thermos contains hot water for making tea, using teabags stored under the lid! She had little plastic cups for tea tasting and made us some tea! Here’s a video — so cute! She loves spreading the gospel of tea!

Of course, pictures were taken all around… Here’s one the husband took with my iPhone:

Following a mildly circuitous return to our hotels, we had lunch at a restaurant that sets up 20 or more tables on the cobblestone plaza outside Lynn’s hotel. (See “magic hotel” in the picture below.) There we had a most delicious lunch of seafood and pasta, followed by a couple special desserts. Rita had lemon sorbet with champagne, and I had a cafe chocolate frappe with kirsh. Yum!

I took this picture of the table set-up, which they take down completely each night and put up again for lunch the next day. You can see Rita and Lynn at the bottom left table:

Then we took a well-deserved nap since we not only had got a lot of exercise, but none of us got a full-night’s sleep last night. I probably got five hours, Rita maybe a couple more.

After the naps, I walked over the train station, where a guide book said I could rent an electric bike — not for today, but tomorrow. I found the place next to the train station, but it was closed. At least I know where to go tomorrow — if it’s not raining, which is in the forecast. I’d love to bike around Lake Lucerne. I hear it’s really beautiful.

Lynn and Rita are having so much fun together as sisters reliving their teenage visits to Lucerne. I told Rita that providing this trip for Lynn was as much a gift to her as it was to Lynn, because I knew it would make the trip more special for her.

Although there are lots of tourists, there are no cars in the old town section where our hotels are located. In the morning there are lots of delivery trucks, but that’s over by mid-morning. It feels very European in a nice way. Lynn’s hotel was built in the 1590s, and our hotel was built a few decades before that. Here are a couple pictures of buildings near ours:

The clock is telling the correct time, by the way.

Even the manhole covers are inlaid with cobblestones (but probably thin ones) to blend with the regular cobblestones, and we have seen some beautiful cobblestone designs.

There’s a chance of rain the next few days, dropping the temperatures out of the 90s, but I noticed that not a single building has a downspout draining roof water onto the streets. It all goes into the sewer directly. Nice, if the rain is heavy!

After several hours reading, playing smartphone games (Rita) and me working on my laptop, we went out for dinner at 9 p.m., ending up at the same restaurant where we had lunch, but this time all the outdoor tables were taken, so we ate indoors. Again, it was a great meal. I had a dozen escargots in garlic butter with a side of pasta. Lynn and Rita shared a ratatouille with gruyere and mozzarella on tap. We washed it down with a bottle of the same pinot noir we enjoyed at lunch. Another great meal! I repeated my cafe chocolate frappe with kirsh dessert, and Rita had a shot of kirsh with a sugared rim — something she hadn’t had since she was teenager in Lucerne.

I checked in with my seller regarding today’s open house which she hosted herself in my absence, and it was a great open house with a likely buyer — better than the open houses I had hosted over the last three months at that townhome. Maybe I should go on more vacations!