Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus

Sorry to say that my Chromebook is no longer accepting my SD card from my camera. This does prove Apple is superior to Chromebooks for travel. The iPads and Macbooks I have traveled with have never let me down. If I can find a cheap HDMI cable we'll be back in business but until then sorry guys you'll have to make do with what I upload from my phone on Facebook.

This morning we started out with our wonderful local guide Corinne for a city tour of Lucerne and it's beautiful lake. Switzerland is not part of the EU and has quite a different system of democracy than the US. Each citizen can start a referendum to be voted on by the entire country if they get 100,000 signatures. This might prove to be a bit chaotic in the US :-)

We stopped first at the Lion's Monument which is a beautiful stone wall with a crying lion carved out in the center to commemorate all of the solider's who have lost their lives for Switzerland. One thing I learned on this trip was there is a tiny pig carved into the bottom of the lion's nose. This was done by the artist as he didn't feel the Swiss paid him enough for this artwork.

Next we visited the chapel bridge which is a wooden bridge that was originally built in 1333. Sadly a party boat exploded near it in 1993 and burned it down. They have rebuilt it to the original settings and no longer allow party boats :-)

Bullet points:

• The Lucerne concert hall, which is new, cost 226 million (there are only 80,000 residents here!) but boasts bringing in some of the best orchestras in the world in their summer and spring festivals.
• The village was started around 300 AD when a group of fisherman saw lights around this side of the lake and decided to visit often. An angel visited them and told them to but a chapel and village in this spot.
• Lucerne is Catholic, unlike most of Switzerland, because the in the middle ages most of their income came from mercenaries in wars. To switch to protestant they would have to give up that practice so they remained Roman Catholic.
• The Jesuits came to Lucerene to help the citizens with reforms and setup the first college. They were sent away when they educated the population a little too much.

After a brief shopping stop (treats for EVERYONE) we continued on to Mt. Pilatus via a beautiful boat ride in Lake Lucerene where we boarded the world's steepest cogwheel to the top. It was foggy so we couldn't see a darn thing! Instead I introduced our group to "high gravity" beverages. There was yodeling involved. 

We are about to head out and find some FONDUE!!!!