Lucerne by Night and the Best Street Food EVER!

We arrived in Lucerne this evening as it was getting dark.  We had no hotel reservations or ideas about where to stay.  We made a call to Marriott to see if there might be a place we could stay tonight and we found a room at a lovely Marriott Renaissance Hotel in the heart of town.

We arrived just in time to watch the Sunday Morning Session of General Conference in our room on our laptop.  Our timing was perfect and the conference talks were inspiring.

After the 2 hour session, we went out for a wander.  We were close to the waterfront and we were hungry.  Told that all the restaurants were across bridge, we went looking.

Lucerne’s landmark is considered to be Europe’s oldest covered bridge. It was built in the 1300s and was originally a part of the city fortifications. There are pictorial panels, added in the 17th century, that have scenes of Swiss history and Lucerne’s history.  But most spectacular of all were the flower boxes with begonias and trailing geraniums.

We decided we weren’t up to paying a lot of money for a big meal, so we walked back to the huge Bahnhof, looking for food in that area.  There was an underground mall below the train station with shops of all kinds and grocery stores.  We almost bought some cheese and bread, but decided to look for food trucks by the Ferris Wheel we saw across the way.

We found exactly what we were craving–traditional Swiss Raclette (John) and a noodle dish that I got called Alpermagronen (Alpine Mac & Cheese). It was Delicious!! Oh, my, it was so good. It was made hot and fresh right before our eyes.

The macaroni was boiled and in one big pot. The gal scooped some into another wok like pot over a fire and then stirred in chopped ham and bacon and fried onion, then she added some herbs (including a touch of nutmeg) and cream and stirred it all together, then filled a bowl and put grated Gruyere cheese on top. It was SO DELICIOUS.

Here is a link to a recipe I found.  I will definitely be learning to make this:

Älplermagronen (Swiss Alpine Macaroni and Cheese)

We returned to our hotel room for the next session of Conference that began at 10:00 p.m.  Here’s a mural of Lucerne on our hotel wall.

And here’s where we were located:

We heard 20 more temples announced this evening and went to bed feeling Very Happy!