Day 10: 21/04/06 Konstanz/Luzern

Konstanz/Constance


Luzern


Luzern: Chapel Bridge

As I mentioned, the hotel provided breakfast for us every morning. The hotel's breakfast was worth mentioning: though it was almost the same for both our days there, it was wholesome: large pieces of ham and cheese, 2 or 3 pieces of bread, all kinds of jam, coffee/tea, fruit juice, and on the 2nd morning, scrambled egg. We were delighted at the sight of the eggs; it had been one whole week without eggs already.

Before we left in the morning, we paid a visit to the 2 shops featured in the first post about Triberg. Tk didn't get to visit the shops the day before because of Yj's outstanding keys, and he needed to buy his cukcoo clock before he leave. He got the clock and got it posted back to Munich, and also his All You Need Is Love, which he lugged along.

We continued on the Black Forest Railway towards Konstanz, where we could change another train for Switzerland. Our original plan was to go through Freiburg and Basel, and it was my idea to change it to Konstanz as I thought there would be better scenery.

The railway provided us with more views of the Black Forest. Tk and Yj tried to stay awake, and I think Tk did manage to stay awake for quite some time. I am quite sure that they were awake when we were near Konstanz as all were trying to take photos of the lake along the railway...

Konstanz (or Constance) is a lakeside resort city by the Bondersee (Lake Constance). Bondersee is shared by Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and Konstanz is at the German side. The River Rhine exited Bondersee at Konstanz, beginning its journey towards the Netherlands from here. When we were there, Konstanz was very beautiful: the sky was brightly blue and cloudless, flowers were blooming in the parks, the lake was shimmering under the bright sunlight. The picture was simply astounding. We had lunch (as usual) on one of the benches in the park facing the lake, and we enjoyed that very much.

We passed through customs at the train station and boarded a train bound for Zurich. We were supposed to get to Luzern and that was where we would start our Switzerland leg.

Yj was the guide on the ground. However, there was a problem: he didn't bring his travel guide along with him! The only papers he had were those about the hostels. Hence, we did not have any information about the cities that we were going at all, not even maps! Well, both Tk and me depended entirely on Yj to research on Switzerland (as he had been there before) and lead us and we did not have any information too (which was a mistake made by us as well..). Hence, the first thing we did when we arrived at Luzern was to get information from the Tourist Information counter. Luckily they provided us with quite detailed guides and maps.

After we arrived at the hostel we asked for recommendations for dinner before we started touring the city with the guide given by the Tourist Information. Our hostel was located by the lake; just walk out of the door and we would be at a park by the lake. We strolled along the park and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Similar to Konstanz, Luzern is also at the tip of a lake; the difference is that Luzern is slightly more urban than Konstanz and surrounding the lake are the snow-capped mountains of the Alps. In Konstanz I sensed space, lots and lots of space; in Luzern I saw nature and man complementing each other, integrating to form a perfect landscape.

Near the train station at the pier I found a cute soft toy dog which cost Fr9.90. At that time we were still not exposed to Switzerland's crazy prices yet; Tk and Yj felt that it was expensive but I nevertheless bought it for my sister ignoring their comments. Yj tried to place a bet: he said if he could find the same dog cheaper somewhere else, I ought to treat him cheese fondue. Now he's at it.

We went round the city using the guide. We went to the Domkirche, which we could not enter because there was service going on, then we went to the Lion of Luzern, which was sulptured to commemorate the bravery of the Swiss who served King Louis XVI of France during the French Revolution. It was commented by Mark Twain as 'the most moving sculpture in Europe'. When we were there, however, it was covered by scaffolding: it was under restoration. Damn.

At the old city we walked along the shopping district and started to sense the craziness of Swiss price: a Brezen could cost Fr5-6.00! We were amazed to see Bata there, and STA travel as well: STA travel seemed to be very easily accessible everywhere. Except Singapore.

There was an interesting sculpture which depicted a man/woman naked opening his mouth looking strange. Somebody stuck a straw into the genitals of the sculpture and initially, we wanted Yj to place his mouth near the straw so that we could take a photo. Of course, he refused but he posed with it nevertheless.

The most famous sight in Luzern was the Chapel Bridge. It was one wooden covered bridge with a tower in the middle, which bear the style of the 14th century (something like the Heidelberg fortress). I believe it had recently suffered fire as most of its paintings in the bridge was lost and some frames looked black and some very new. There was no way to prove that as we had no proper travel guide..

For dinner we ate at this restaurant called 'Pigeon'. I had some rather nice Swiss style pasta with beef and cheese, and Tk, whom couldn't eat beef, had pork cutlet stuffed with cheese and ham which he complained throughout the journey. He said that the pork taste/smell was too strong (?!). Nevertheless there was one thing we agreed: the dinner was extremely expensive! I paid ~Fr30 for my pasta and wine, and Tk close to Fr40!

Yj did something at the restaurant which made both of us very embarrassed again, after the Italian restaurant incident. It was something to do with the waiter also, which we had forgotten. Anyway, Yj's mannerism in restaurants was something we used to throw darts at also: he must always be the unique one, and he would always be the slowest to make up his mind and had no quirms about making the waiter wait for him. There would be Yj's story No.2 (food related) coming up very soon.