Trip 43

September 19,2023

We left Munich about 9am, bound for Luzern. Munich is one of our favorite cities and we’re happy to spend a week there between Berchtesgaden and Munich. Our travel plans for 2024 don’t include returning at this point, so it may be 2025 before we’re back.

The train to Luzern first stops in Zurich, where you change trains; the segment between Munich and Zurich was about 3 hours. It was late enough that we missed the connection we’d planned, but since this is a frequent route, there was another departure within 15 minutes, so no problem at all; the segment between Zurich and Luzern is about 45 minutes. The rail station in Luzern hasn’t changed at all in a number of years except for some of the shops in the underground, which is a mix of quite a number of restaurants, but also retail.

Our hotel (new to us on this trip) is only a few blocks from the train station, so we’re quick to check in and off to get lunch at a conditorei we visit when in Luzern. We then needed to go visit another hotel for which we had made “speculative“ reservations, which they then cancelled (reasons unknown), but didn’t give back our points. We weren’t able to get that resolved on the spot, but spoke with management and get further contact info.

We were in the area of the shipyard and the small islands which are connected by a footbridge. The shipyard is where the various lake cruisers (and other vessels) are overhauled.

Beautiful weather (about 70°) today, though Mt. Pilatus is shrouded in clouds. We walked over the footbridge that connects the small islands in this area, for part of the way, and then back to the small lakeside park nearby, where it appears they have the Christmas market stalls stored. From there, we continued on to the fountain in front of the convention center (Kultur und Kongresszentrum) where there is a Ferris wheel that’s either in the process of going up or being taken down- all the passenger cabins are in two semi trucks. The convention center, itself a striking landmark on the lakeshore, is adjacent to the Hbf.

Tomorrow, up to the Alps!