Beautiful Lucerne

From my journal: After breakfast we took the hotel tourist booklet and map and we went on a walking tour in the old city, seeing so many interesting and old sites. We walked back over the old wooden bridge and went first to the Jesuitenkirche (1666), the first large baroque church building in Switzerland. It was rather spectacular.

It was so fun to just walk through the streets. There are flower boxes and window boxes everywhere with gorgeous flowers in their full glory. There are water fountains with flowers decorating. There are flowers over doors and passages and in pots by doors. It was all so charming and quaint. We went to several town squares, almost one on each block. We walked by chocolate shops and bakeries. The buildings are amazing. Each unique, with ornamentation. Switzerland, gratefully, was not bombed, so these are all the original old beautiful buildings.

Then we visited the Franziskanerkirche (Franciscan) built around 1250, more of a medieval type, Gothic structure that’s famous for the most elaborately ornamented pulpit (carved wood) in Switzerland (from the Baroque period).

I absolutely LOVE the wood carving.

We continued the walking tour–more churches, more beautiful buildings, more interesting water drinking fountains, more beautiful flower pots and boxes, more walking along the water and then back through the covered bridge (1332). The tower was built around 1300 as part of the city wall and used as an archive, treasury, prison and torture chamber. We were back at the hotel at 1:00 to check out. Wow, I really loved this beautiful city.

The detail and artistry here is incredible. It’s hard not to photograph every beautiful thing I see. I can hardly contain myself.

We went to see the sad/dying Lion monument carved out of a stone wall, honoring the Swiss soldiers to lost their lives in France. For 300 years they were recruited as mercenaries to fight in France between the 15th and 18th centuries. More than 500,000 served, 60% never returned home. That ended in 1792.