Lucern, Switzerland

Lucern is an easy trip down from Zurich (about 1 hour), just an hour by train making it a big tourist destination in central Switzerland. After about a two minute walk outside the train station it is easy to see why. The Vierwaldslatter See, Alps, fortress walls, and covered bridges make it one of the more picturesque towns in all of Switzerland. No matter the direction you look, when standing near the lake you are guaranteed a beautiful view. The water and mountains make it easy to overlook some of the architecture and design of buildings. However this attention to detail on the finishings of homes and commerical buildings alike just adds to the charm of Lucern.

Through some friends who live here we learned that Lucern is also a common place for tourists and natives to by Swiss watches. Although many of the watches are made in other Switzerland towns (Geneva topping this list) Lucern has carved out a nice little retail niche. Just a short walk from the hauptbahnoff we came across a Bucherer store where a tourguide was instructing his group how much time they had to shop before the tourbus left for the next city.

As we wandered around Lucern we came across a couple interesting sights. In one instance we saw a handful of people stopping to watch something. After stepping closer we realized that a lady dressed similar to a Vegas showgirl was being photographed by a couple professional photographers. Our amateur investigating led us to believe this was likely a promotional photo shoot for Carnivale in Lucern. In many Swiss towns (as throughout Europe) Carnival is hyped as the biggest festival of the year - as it is only a couple weeks away this seemed logical. Needless to say, this outfit was stopping men, women and children in their tracks as temperatures were in the 40s. Towards the end of our day we saw an equally ridiculous outfit from a street vendor. A man had painted himself mostly gold in an attempt to pull off a mime/clown routine. It seemed to work as this character gained just as big of a crowd (and even some Swiss Franc). This guy had a striking resemblance to Silverman, back in the States.

For a few more pictures of Lucern click here...