March 5 to 8, 2019 - Jacksonville, Florida to Zurich, Switzerland

We put the RV into storage and flew to Zurich, Switzerland to attend the wedding of our second exchange student, Stephan. Our flight from Jacksonville was late so we missed our connecting flight in Newark. UGHH. Fortunately, they booked us on another airline and arrived only four hours later than scheduled on March 6.

Our first exchange student, Thomas, lives near Zurich now, so he picked us up and we spent the day with him and his lovely wife, Anna. We got to meet his beautiful children. We walked all around Schaffhausen and enjoyed dinner together before returning to our hotel.On the 7th, we  took a train back to the airport and picked up our car for the remainder of our trip. We booked a small VW Golf, but they didn’t have any. They wanted to give us an SUV but we wanted something small. We compromised on an Audi A5 which Tobey loved driving! Fast and lots of gadgets.We headed south to Lucerne where we spent the next two nights. After checking in to the hotel, we followed a self-guided walking tour of Lucerne. There are two old pedestrian bridges which were built as part of the city’s fortifications. This is the Chapel Bridge and Water Tower which were constructed around 1300 AD. There are painted picture panels under the covered walkway which were added in the 17th century portraying scenes of Swiss and local history. This is the Needle Dam which was installed in 1859/60.  The water level of Lake Lucerne is still regulated manually by the removal or insertion of its timber needles! On the left side of the dam is a chute, for lack of a better word, that used to contain a water wheel for grain millers. The wheel and mill are gone now, but they had some interesting signs explaining the history of the area.Looking back you can see the Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church) on the right with its two green spires. It was the first large baroque religious building erected in Switzerland.The inside of the church was as ornate and beautiful as the outside!The Museggmauer (Musegg Wall) has nine towers and forms part of Lucerne’s historic fortification. It was built around 1535.We enjoyed looking at the different architecture in the city. Many of the buildings have elaborate paintings on them.Of course, every city has its shopping districts. We chuckled  at the statue outside the store selling eyeglasses!You could pick out masks for many of your formal occasions here!The “Dying Lion of Lucerne” is one of the world’s most famous monuments. It is carved out of a rock wall and commemorates the heroism of Swiss soldiers who died attempting to protect the Tuileries Palace in Paris in 1792 during the French Revolution. Our last stop before heading back to the hotel was the Hofkirche (Hof Church). It is dedicated to the patron saint Leodegar and is the parish church of Lucerne. The altar below, The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is a side altar and has a relief panel dating from 1500. The carving was saved from a fire in 1633. We walked back along Lake Lucerne to our hotel. You can see sailboats out enjoying the day.This is a view of our hotel, high on the hill.We took a “funicular” tram six stories up to reach the lobby rather than walking up the hill.This is the view from our balcony looking out over Lake Lucerne. It was beautiful!We headed to Zug for a pre-wedding day dinner with Stephan and Ashley and their families.

Friday morning we went back to Zug for the wedding and lunch. Everyone headed to Lucerne after lunch and we enjoyed an hour long afternoon sightseeing cruise on Lake Lucerne. These are views from the cruise. The wedding dinner was at our hotel Friday night and was amazing. We are so honored to be invited and attend.