Europe – “Riding the Rails” – Lucerne, Switzerland (14)

Once again we were at the Milano Centrale Station leaving on a train. As this was our fourth trip through the Milan station, we actually knew the drill. We knew where the escalators were, we knew where the departures boards and gate entries were, and we knew how and where to get to the right train platforms. We were pretty proud of ourselves! And, no punch line about something going wrong after being so confident!

We were on our way to Lucerne, Switzerland, and, fortunately again, on a direct train. It was a fairly long ride, almost 3 1/2 hours, but, the time flew by as the scenery through northern Italy and into Switzerland was beautiful. The mountains set the backdrop for the so blue lakes and emerald green fields and trees.

Our hotel is the appropriately named Hotel Alpina Luzern. The exterior is very “Swiss appearing,” while the rooms are very modern. It is also very conveniently located by the train station as is much of Lucerne. What is not convenient about Switzerland is that they use the Swiss franc instead of the Euro. The Swiss franc is about on par with the US dollar.

We really needed a change of pace as to restaurants as although Italy has a proliferation of restaurants, they are essentially all Italian. So, Steve found a Mexican restaurant nearby. Although skeptical, we decided to give it a try as it also had a rooftop deck (from which I took the above picture). We were pleasantly surprised as it was very good and a popular spot with the Swiss.

Having seen the city from Lake Lucerne’s shores, we decided to take the tour on Lake Lucerne. The tour takes place on a ship that was built to look like a private yacht, and, you are issued the usual headphones selecting the language of choice. These actually worked well, so, it was enjoyable listening to the music and the information about the lake, the city of Lucerne and other areas around it. A few facts learned were that the composer Richard Wagner lived in a country manor on Lake Lucerne for six years. He was an avid alpinist and loved hiking in the mountains close to Lucerne. Queen Victoria spent a month in Lucerne in 1868 with many royals following suit over the years. Her visit was extremely beneficial to Swiss tourism and is evidenced by many Victoria hotels.

In leaving Lucerne, we embarked on the final leg of our journey. We left Lucerne early and changed trains for our last ride on a TGV (fast train) to Paris Gare de Lyon to end in one of my (and many others’) favorite city in Europe, Paris, of course.

In total we listed 25 different train rides to 14 different locales. As would be expected, direct routes are always preferred. If a connection is required, as many were, having at least 30 minutes of transfer time is a good idea to allow for late arrivals (yes, the trains are sometimes late) and for getting to departure platforms, especially in the larger stations. There is always some tension in boarding trains with luggage as the allocated stop times can be surprisingly short. However, once on board with the luggage stowed, rail travel is great.