Adding on Luzern

On the way home from the cow parade we had to switch trains in Luzern, so we decided it might be nice to spend a couple of hours there. We walked around old town, pretty much following the tourist bureau's suggested walking tour. I think I will do another post this week with just some of Susie's pictures. She notices everything!

First we saw the lion monument. Sort of sad, and bigger than I expected it to be.

Then E took the littles into the center of old town for a snack while the girls and I walked along the top of what is left of the medieval city wall and climbed the clock tower.

R on the wall. 

Here is S and action, and her picture taken
 from that spot looking down on the wall
where we walked 

We walked along the wall as far as we could and then ended up on the wrong side of it. On one side is the old town. On the other is a running track, and a field with shaggy cows and alpacas surrounded by an electric fence. We followed the wall to the end and back toward old town. We came across a couple of teenage girls doing some impressive parkour moves. I stopped to ask them if it's also called parkour in Swiss German. When I turned around again, R and S were halfway down the street, wanting nothing to do with my embarrassing ways. I reminded them that I had the chocolate money.

We came across one of Luzern's two old bridges. The other we have crossed before. It is very pretty and decorated with huge amounts of flowers. This one is decorated with Dance of Death panels. The view from the bridge is pretty, though. We decided to check out the flea market on the opposite shore.

Then we hustled back to old town, since E was phoning to remind me that a chocolate shop I wanted to try was about to close. We made it in time, but I think I was too rushed to order well. They are known for fun and exotic flavors and I ended up with plain things. It was sort of a confusing shop - so upscale they hardly showed you what there was to buy.

Rather than run as fast as we could to catch a train we decided to spend a little more time looking around. I saw lots of old-fashioned painting buildings, but somehow missed the more modern one. Good thing S was on the job!

We also got some more chocolate. We steered T to the less expensive stuff, since he doesn't notice a difference. Here he is buying one lindt truffle. He insisted he could do it all by himself. The rest of us went to Laderach and decided to try their bijoux line, since they are self serve and there were about twenty Indian tourists doing some serious shopping at the counter. E and the littles waited outside, since the store was so packed. E said that several of the tourists were taking pictures of T in his stroller. I've noticed some tourists taking pictures of  L, too. Does anyone know if that is a cultural thing or if there is some other explanation? Of course I think my kids are beautiful. But I don't think they are so beautiful a stranger would need to have their picture. Nor, worst case scenario, are they so weird that someone has to bring home a picture to show everyone, "Hey, you're never going to believe this bizarre kid I saw...."

Finally, I am too lazy to go back and see if I have included any pictures of the little playground in some of the inter-city trains. So here is a shot for Dad and Reg, since we were talking about it on the phone.