On Tuesday, December 3rd we wrapped up packing after eating bagels for breakfast. Addison drove us to the airport, dropping us off at around 11am. We veritably sailed through self check-in with United, baggage drop off, and TSA, leaving us before noon with quite a bit of time to kill before boarding at around 2pm. We decided to enjoy a sit-down at Whiskey River. Michelle had a delicious pork sandwich (it truly was, I tried some of the meat — flavorful and moist!) while Genetta and I had Southwest style bacon cheeseburgers (though she had tots and I had a decent side salad).
When they were halfway boarding they announced a delay from a 2:30pm departure to a 3:15pm departure, but then backed that up to 2:45pm — yay! Not so fast. Once on the plane and out on the runway the pilot informed us that the snow in the Northeast had unexpectedly dipped south over Newark and there was a full ground stop for at least thirty minutes. I don’t know what year he thought it was but his lie was easily disproven with a quick look at the phone. Regardless, not much we could do but grumble. Finally we were up in the air but much later than intended. On the flight we met a nice couple from Holly Springs that were also going on to Zurich then Budapest for a Christmas Market bus tour. They had visited a number of the places we were to visit with this trip, however, and were able to provide insight. Upon landing in Newark the pilot announced it was 43F and partly cloudy — no acknowledgement of his prior lie what-so-ever. I mean, make up something believable but unproveable like “a flock of Canadian geese blocked the runway for a bit”. Believable because those birds are assholes. I later learned the real reason for the delay was FAA staff shortages incurred by them trying to move ATC for Newark to Philadelphia. The clown show continued, however, when we sat 50 yards from the jetway for fifteen minutes since they didn’t have the ground crew to bring us all the way in. Then the jetway had issues synching up with the plane, leading to the plane having to be pushed back a foot!
The flight to Zurich was fairly uneventful. Despite flying full economy (Economy Plus wasn’t available when we booked) there was ample leg room. I spent most of the time watching an interesting documentary about Mad Max fans and their gatherings, trying to sleep, and watching our progress on the flight map. Apparently doing that (watching the map) is part of what the youths call “raw dogging a flight” — oooookay. Michelle watched the new “The Fall Guy” movie and Genetta “IF” (Imaginary Friend) and “The Fellowship of the Ring” to go to sleep to. The dinner wasn’t too bad — some beef and vegetables with “potatoes” — polenta, I think. Ok, it wasn’t great. Better than breakfast, though, which was this kinda nasty sausage McMuffin… thing.
Anyhow, landed in the early morning and used the restrooms, got some croissants, zipped through customs, and picked up our luggage. We encountered two other Viking travelers and the Viking rep who got on onboard a small van for our drive to Lucerne. The day was quite rainy and a bit dreary but it was still an enjoyable ride staring out the window at the traffic, road signs, farms, etc. while succumbing to sleep occasionally. After nearly an hour we entered Lucerne, passing one of the towers of the town wall and many stores and other points of interest.
On arriving in Lucerne at the Radisson Blu we were greeted by Jack, Viking’s representative during our stay in Lucerne. He gave us a brief talk about the coming days, the various excursions people were doing, timing, etc. He stays at a desk in the hotel every day 8am to 6pm helping anybody with Viking in a concierge way — really neat. As our rooms weren’t ready we left the luggage in the hotel lobby and six of us (including myself and Genetta) went on a quick orientation walk with Jack. We left the hotel and walked around it and the train station with the lake to our right. There was even a rink for curling at the hotel! Just beyond the hotel was the site of one of Lucerne’s two Christmas markets opening tonight with the later, larger one, opening tomorrow night. Though the clouds were low and it was spitting rain the lake and the many ferries upon it were serene and quite scenic.
We passed Lucerne’s very modern looking arts center and came upon a neat ice-themed area adjacent. A zamboni was working a small rink and there were some food stands and cute seating for two in repurposed ski lift pods. We walked beyond the arch that stood at the entrance to the train station then stood on a quay overlooking the old town across the river as well as the famous Kapellbrucke, or Chapel Bridge, that crossed the River Reuss that runs through town. The arch was the entrance of the previous train station that burned down in 1971. Jack gave us some tips on buying chocolate (where to find, what to buy for personal consumption and what to buy for taking home including some non-exported cheaper “grocery store” brands (from Coop and Migros) that are amazing) as well as navigation tips in the city. He told us a bit of his background — he is from Indianapolis but moved with his wife five years ago as she works for the elevator company (it has its ups and downs, bummm-tish!) Schindler at their world headquarters just outside of town. Lucky!
The orientation walk over, Genetta and I set out on a brief visit to the train station where there is a fairly large shopping area below that includes some of the aforementioned chocolate stores. We saw the location of one of the fanciest chocolatiers, Laderach, which had some amazing chocolate displays. We ended up getting a very festive chocolate cupcake with a gingerbread man and candy cane from another nearby store, Bachmann. We also saw a Coop and Migros location right there in the station.
We headed back to the hotel around noon to meet up with Michelle and check in to our rooms. As Genetta’s room wasn’t quite ready yet she stayed with us and ate the cupcake and then she and Michelle took a nap as I tried to figure out where we could eat. About 2pm we visited Jack and got a list of four places on our side of the river — and then promptly tossed those out the window and crossed the river Rathaussteg, an open bridge decorated with greenery just west of the Kapellbrucke.
We decided to eat at Rathaus Brauerei, a place offering traditional Swiss and German fare. It was an old stone building on the river front spruced up for Christmas with nice decorations. We shared a still water and Michelle and I each had those tiny cans of Ginger Ale that Europe seems to love serving. Michelle had a pretzel (a bit salty) and two white sausages (one shared with Genetta). Genetta had the house sausages as well with potato salad. I had “Lucerne Cheese Pie” which was basically a really generous (and tasty!) slice of quiche with many local cheeses and a nice crust. I also ordered that “garnished” with a salad. I wasn’t sure exactly what that entailed but it was actually impressive — a mass of various types of salad with a Ranch-like dressing as well as some beets (thankfully to the side), carrots, cucumbers, etc. It was actually quite tasty. The restaurant also had a funky bathroom situation — out through the back past the bar and a courtyard then up some stairs to an obviously old part of the building with a pillar in the middle of the sink area. The toilet itself sat in a room that got increasingly narrower. The whole set up reminded me of some of the restaurants in New Orleans like Mona Lisa Pizza.
After eating Michelle was wanting to go back to the room and rest, as was Genetta. They decided to head back while I explored a little. I had wanted to visit a comic shop to see if they had any bandes-desinee in the style of the Vasco books that I had bought in Switzerland in 1988. I strolled through the old city, continually surprised by quiet alleys and quaint squares with fountains. It was really neat to see how many stores had Christmas displays in their windows. I finally came to the Spreuerbrucke, a bridge from the 1500s with dozens of “dance of death” paintings that show scenes of daily life but with skeletons in them to remind the living of their mortality. Exceptionally creepy but really cool. There was also a small chapel with a statue of Mary and lots of flowers and stained glass windows providing a ton of color.
After crossing the bridge I was in the new(er) city and found the comic (and vinyl) store. Though they didn’t have any Vasco they did have a cool pirate-themed bande-desinee in German that I couldn’t resist. After leaving the store I stumbled upon the not-yet-opened main Christmas market of Lucerne. As it was getting quite dark (despite being only 5pm!) I resolved to hurry back to the hotel. That resolve was quickly weakened by the sound of cowbells from across the river. A small procession of children carrying cowbells was the source of the commotion. They were followed by a person that looked like Santa Claus (wearing red, carrying a staff, and sporting a long white beard) and a person at his side wearing a brown robe. Following them was some livestock (a mule or donkey, maybe a goat, etc.). I took note (and pictures) and decided to ask Jack back at the hotel what was up with that. I continued walking towards the hotel, snapping pictures of the bridges that were now fully lit in the late evening light.
I returned to the hotel and checked on Michelle, who was fast asleep. I took a quick nap as well then Genetta and I headed out to Rudolfs Christmas market near the hotel at 7pm. Despite the cold and fairly large cloud we had a very enjoyable time. The crowd definitely skewed younger, mostly young professionals and a few soldiers in uniform enjoying leave. Mostly locals as we heard almost exclusively German — something we would notice about subsequent markets. I had feared they’d be inundated with English-speaking tourists but that often wasn’t the case.
We shared a potato that was sliced and impaled on a three foot wooden skewer. It was lightly fried and salted and was delicious! Genetta had a cinnamon and apple crepe while I had a waffle with cinnamon sugar. We finished up with two chimney cakes that we took back to the hotel and ate with Michelle before blogging a bit and heading to bed around 11pm.
