1986 Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria

Participants Nancy and Luther Hampton - Cindy (Nancy's sister) and her husband Bill

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June 16th - Monday

We rose and ran along the lake and stopped on the way back to feed the meter on the car. We had the standard continental breakfast. The dining room was on the lake side with nice views.

We all walked off to find the Banhofstrasse [left]. A very pretty street with a lion motif. Very colorful. It is also where all the expensive, classy stores are.

We headed back to pack up and check out and got on the road about 12:15. The sun was shining and the sunroof was open with Luther at the helm.

The countryside was unremarkable. It was hazy and we couldn't see far. We arrived in Lucerne at about 1 or 1:15 and found the lake and the old section of town. At first we couldn't find any street names but suddenly we blundered into the Hotel Wilden Mann, which was a romantik hotel and the first of two on this trip. We checked in and a porter told us where to park. We brought the car around and the porter took our luggage. The poor man, I thought, he'd have heart failure - that luggage was heavy! Luther was dispatched to park the car.

We were on the third (top) floor - room 69. Cindy and Bill were next door in room 68. They were very nice rooms. The baths had a marble look and were modern with all amenities. There were twin beds pushed together. We had big puffy goose down comforters again. There were maple bed and at the foot were two rose colored velvet barrel chairs next to a round table. There was a nice wardrobe and a window over in a nook at one end. It swung open and we could lean out and see the river Reuss. It was very green in color, clean and fast moving. Our room had embossed wallpaper - white on off white with peach, beige and green flowers. There was crown molding in the peach color and beige carpet. From the ceiling hung small chandeliers and on the wall, matching sconces.

View from hotel window - Lucerne
Lucerne
Lucerne Foot-bridge
Lucerne Church
Lucerne Market
Lucerne Market

Cindy and Bill's room was brighter than ours with two big windows. Their wallpaper was elegant - almost French with flowers in powder blue and pink. They also had a bigger bath with double sink. Both rooms are VERY nice.

We headed out and on the way mad reservations for dinner that night in our hotel. We did a tour around but first we had something to eat. I had a little quiche thing (spinach, bacon, egg) and a fig confection. Luther and Bill had little sandwiches. Cindy had a quiche. While we were sitting there a man came up who was quite drunk. He was asking for money. Luther commented that he'd never met a bi-lingual drunk before.

Then we sat on some stone benches and watched the river flow by. We moved to a riverside table and had some Swiss beer, which was very good and watched the swans trying to cadge some food.

Luther and Nancy on city wall
Funicular
Lunch Chateau Gutsch
Lucerne from Chateau Gutsch
Chateau Gutsch view
Saddest statue

We went shopping for Cuckoo clocks, watches and music boxes. The next day was market day which I was really looking forward to. I was going to buy a picnic for our trip to Murnau. It will be nice to spend a whole day in one place for a change. We returned to our hotel but stopped in two churches along the way. One was very ornate and fully restored, the other was older and more medieval looking. As we walked we noticed high thunder clouds building. Later it rained while I wrote my journal. This day I had seen my first Alps. Maybe the rain would wash away the haze so we could have a better view tomorrow.

The hotel has two restaurants. One more formal than the other. Originally we were going to the nicer one but had decided to go to the Old Swiss House the next night so switched to the less formal Burgerstube. The food was not so good and quite expensive. Luther and Bill had onion soup. I had escargo soup and Cindy had duck pate. Nothing special there.

Next I had sweetbreads with asparagus and rice (canned asparagus!). Luther had duck with black truffles. Cindy had veal steak with rosemary and Bill had a mixed grill. Unbeknownst to me a Germanic custom was to serve the entrees as first and the they save some back for seconds. When they offered me seconds and I refused they became quite flustered. A new thing to learn!

After dinner I had soufflé with Grand Marnier and Cindy had strawberry fritters with vanilla ice cream. Bill had raspberry chocolate tart.

After dinner we went outside. It was 10PM and just dusk. The storms had gone. The crescent moon was out among many stars. I wanted to see the mountain. We crossed the bridge - below the river was high and fast. We saw the Alps and the night was crisp and cool. We crossed the famous covered bridge back to our hotel and had brandy in Cindy and Bill's room. A nice evening (except for the food).

June 17th

We got up at 7:30 and ran along the southern side of the lake. It turned out to be a good choice. It was another beautiful morning. The alps were clearer and we saw Pilatus, the nearer one which we didn't see last night. It was HUGE. Other mountains marched off behind it with snow caps glinting. We ran to a marina and back.

I was really liking the Wilden Mann. I slept well - we left the window open and we could hear the water in the Reuss. We showered and headed off for breakfast. It was in a pretty rose colored room with gray from the chair rail down. A bit dark though. I had Musieli. It was good. They had a nice buffet. There were cold meats, cheeses, orange juice, big loaves of bread and croissants, cornflakes and rice crispies. Cindy got chocolate that I would have sworn was Swiss Miss (wink wink).

We got out our cameras and walked throught the market which had lovely fresh vegetables and breads, cheeses etc. we didn't want to carry it around so we decided to wait. We took lots of pictures. It was sunny with a few high clouds, breezy and warm.

We went shopping at Bucherer - famous for over 65,000 items. There were little tables and stools where they brought the watches for you to try on. I decided to buy a watch. It was quartz with a square face and leather band. Bill and Cindy got one each too.

We walked up to the wall and along the top and up a couple of the observation towers and snapped a few pictures. We were on our way to Chateau GŸtsche on top of a big hill with a terrace and tables. It was time for lunch. We road a little cog tram up to the top. We had a couple of beers and ordered. Bill got noodles - Cindy fried fish - me, ham and melon - Luther a cold meat platter. Canned asaparagus again! We took some fabulous pictures. The view was spectacular.

We headed back to our hotel. On the way we went in a little grocery where Luther saved they day by ordering our picnic food. Two kinds of meat, 1 cheese, 1 loaf of bread, strawberries, wine and chocolate. We also bought some Swiss Pinot Noir to take home. We stashed it in our hotel room.

Off we went to by the Cuckoo clocks. We walked to the Lion statue said to be the saddest statue in the world. And it was. We skipped the glacerium. We returned to Bucherer to buy the clocks. We had them shipped home.

Our feet were hurting so we went back to the hotel stopping at a pipe shop and a couple more shops with less touristy things.

We had another thunderstorm. We had looked at the menu at the Old Swiss House and it seemed to have a good prix fixe menu of 5 courses for 38F. When the time came to leave it was still raining so we took a taxi. It was terrifying. He drove very fast through very tiny residential streets that were cobbled, wet and slippery. It was also the long way around. He told us there was a 2F service charge. This was bull but we didn't have the language to argue.

We entered an overdone opulent dining room. Again it was rip off the tourist time. The menu that we got did not mention the 5 course prix fixe menu that we had seen. But I, however, found other menus on a shelf behind me. Sneaky Swiss, they wrote it all in German to discourage us. The regular, much more expensive, menu was in English, German and French. We ordered from the less expensive menu.

I had smoked salmon, mushroom, soup, liver, cheese, and créme caramel. Luther had smoked trout, wienerschnitzel, mushroom soup and Black forest cake. Cindy had salmon, soup and veal slices in cream sauce and chocolate mousse. Bill had cold meats, salad, veal cutlet in herbs and black forest cake. We had a bottle of white, one pinot noir and one Dore wine (red) with dinner. Then brandy and coffee.

The best part was the piano player. He was a black man from Arkansas (Jimmy from Little Rock) who had spent the last three years in Marrekesh. He was nice and played a lot of good standards and jazz.

It was one of the most fun evenings we had ever had. We sang along (I Love to go a-Wandering (!!!)) We sat at a table right by a window overlooking the street. There was a cool breeze. It continued to rain all evening so we had to return by taxi. This one didn't cheat us.

Extra Pictures

Bill at McCheaper!

Luther and Bill in the market - Lucerne

Lucerne

Lucerne bridge

Lucerne shopping