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Luzern 2009 |
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No, Switzerland is normally not on my list of holiday destinations, but who in their right minds would pass up the opportunity for an all-expenses-paid company outing to visit the Swiss sister company - especially if the sister company is located in Lucerne, one of the prettiest places and major tourist traps of Switzerland on the shore of Lake Lucerne? Even if it means getting up at 4.30am to catch a 7.00am flight to Zürich we had been booked on - so the first day was pretty much shot for me. Touching down in Zürich I noticed an ingenous new way of advertising: Victorinox, they of the famous Swiss army knives, cut their logo and name into a large field every plane flies over on approaching the runway. In colour! My second observation (I'll spare you the usual cliches of Switzerland being oh so clean and proper) is that Swiss trains are matched in speed (or rather lack thereof) only by Indian trains, so we trundled along slowly from the airport right to Lucerne at a snail's pace.
On arrival we first went to greet the Swiss colleagues in their offices right around the corner of the station - and saw one of those Google Street View cars driving by,so if there's a group of German tourists to be seen in Lucerne, it might well be us! We went for a first sightseeing walk across the famous Kapellbrücke, a medieval wooden construction across the water and touching on a thick watch tower (all this was part of the city's defenses ages ago, before they built an ugly bridge for cars and buses across the water where the Reuss meets Lake Lucerne. Our next stop was the lion memorial, a dying lion cut out from stone to commemorate the Swiss soldiers that died in the Tuileries in Paris in 1792 during the revolution (see above). Finally we could check into the hotel and chill a little before we all had lunch together. A "brainstorming session" for the afternoon had luckily been axed, so we went for a long walk along the lakeshore to the bathing Lido and took a boat back into the city, had some beer and ice cream and finally met up with the others at the hotel to do a proper city sightseeing tour on one of those twee little tourist trains that choo-choo along tourist cities (not on rails though).
I was really losing it at the time though, fatigue catching up with me and I was glad when we next headed to some "city beach" thing that was a lovely and rather posh area by the lake with hammocks, sunchairs and thick bags to sit or lie on and where I actually napped for a couple of minutes. Our "dinner" was waiting in a nearby restaurant school, where we learned to make pizza and everyone created their own pizza. Luckily a few people were as tired and frozen as me, so we walked back to the hotel along the lake shore after dessert to just sleep instead of sitting around for another couple of hours with drinks and babble. Gotta admit that I totally fell in love with Lucerne on first sight though, it's so cute and picture postcard perfect wherever you go and at the same time it has something lovely old-fashioned, reminding me of ancient vacation pictures in grandma's album and even further back to the Belle Epoque when the rich and noble spent their summer time in places like these.
The second day started nice enough - after a proper night's sleep and a good breakfast, I felt like a different person when we headed out to take a boat across Lake Lucerne. The weather was lovely, the sights breathtakingly pretty - cliché Switzerland coming alive with green rolling hills, wooden chalets and snow-capped mountains - until we got to Alpnachstad where we took the cog railway uphill to the top of the Pilatus, Lucerne's local mountain with a peak at 2132 metres (or 7000 feet). And while I had seen the peak hidden in clouds already and knew the weather up there wouldn't be too grand, it was still pretty chilly and misty and I was glad when we took the funicular down to a place called Fräkmüntegg, where we had lunch and spent the afternoon in a "climbing park", which I am not sure was such a great idea... some people didn't try it at all and spent all afternoon sitting around, others didn't last long. And of course the one goof who got stuck halfway through one of the climbs and had to be abseiled down was - me. But it was just too rainy, shaky, scary and weird and I was glad to be on safe ground again. And then even the sun came out again so I could lie on a bench and finish my book until it was time to take the second funicular back into the valley.
After a break at the hotel, we headed to the Stadtkeller in Lucerne for a traditional Swiss Folklore Night, so naturally the place was crammed with German, American and Japanese tourists and no one else. There was traditional Swiss food on offer like the (in)famous cheese fondue and a display of local culture like... yep, yodelling and alphorns. I had decided to honor the folklore theme by wearing my dirndl, having so few opportunities to wear the thing. Bad idea. First our own organiser, Maria, mistook me for the hostess and jabbered at me in proper Swiss-German of which I understood nada until another Swiss colleague told her who I was (causing much laughter) and later I was pestered to go on stage everytime there was some audience participation nonsense. Which I haaate. But after dodging it twice, I had no escape left for the third time so I actually had to (I dare you laugh!) yodel on stage and drain a glass of beer in one go. Hah, that's something us Colognians have no trouble with! Still I was glad when I could flee the place after the official part and head for bed after the long day.
For the third day, we had been given the morning off, which was really great to prevent cabin fever - I first walked around town a little bit to buy souvenirs for those at home (Edelweiss liquor? Sounds questionable enough to try), but due to the lack of public toilets in Lucerne, I cut my stroll short to return to the hotel, where I got into a bikini, grabbed my towel and headed out towards the Lido again for some sunbathing and swimming in the gorgeously cool and refreshing lake (and as luck would have it, got joined by my hawtest colleague). At 2.30 we all assembled at the hotel again for another boat tour - this time a proper pleasure cruise on a hired boat with a lower deck for sitting and eating and a sun deck on top.
We made another "swimming stop" where we could hop into the water from the ship before heading on to Obermatt, a nice restaurant at a remote stretch of coast, only accessible by boat. Sadly rain set in so we couldn't stay out on the verandah and had to go indoors, where we got cooped up for something like four hours, waiting for the night to see the fireworks above Weggis at 10.30. Amusingly no one had a clue what the dinner listed on our menus would be, some Swiss thing called Aelplermagronen... that turned out to be yummy freshly cooked Cheese-Mac! And although the long drag at the restaurant was a bit dull, it was overall a nice laid-back day, perfect for chilling and finally watching the sun set over Lake Lucerne.
Sunday morning was "free" again, so I had a slow morning at the hotel before checking out and taking my trolley down to the lakeshore once more. There was some morning concert going on by a brass band and while it's normally not my kind of music at all (more oompa than jazz), it seemed perfect for this setting and I spent a good hour just listening to the music and watching the countless people stroll along the riverfront. Finally we all met up again at the station and went for one last lunch. For the first time I was picking food from a menu (instead of having a pre-arranged dinner with the group) so I could see the mind-boggling prices for myself at last. A regular (albeit very yummy) Viennese schnitzel with fries and veg cost a whopping 28 Euro! God was I glad that I didn't have to pay for the trip (and felt even more gratitude to our generous company than before). At 3pm we finally returned to Zürich and the airport and after the inevitable delay by Germanwings, came home to dear old shoddy Cologne. I had never expected to enjoy Switzerland so much and I think I'd love to go back to see more of the country - but not at those prices. Spain here I come.
