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Tuesday, June 11
Wifi is still flaky today. So I went downstairs to the lounge again to check email and Facebook. And have a cup of tea then I went back to the room.
At the moment, the sky is completely clear. But the forecast is for rain through the early afternoon. We'll see. Looks like mountain weather forecasting is the same here as at home. Just stick your head out the window and take your chances...
By the time we finished breakfast, the clouds had moved in. The first shower of the day passed through as we got ready to go walking. But that was it for the morning.
The photo on the left shows the view from our window. The matching towers are the Jesuit Church. The double ended tower in the distance is one of the towers of the Musegg Wall. The red tower is the town clock tower. As you can see, the clouds were back.
Our first stop was back at the train station for another map. Yesterday's was soaked through. In fact, we took two copies - one to use today and one to stash in a waterproof pocket to take home for reference.
Then we walked back into the older part of the city again to just wander around. The city market was set up between three of the bridges, so we walked up and down that.
The three photos above show three views of the market we stumbled upon. It included flowers, vegetables, bread, jams, and other items.
The flowers were hard to resist! The photo on the left shows a basket full of peonies. The center photo shows a booth of just flowers, including roses, sweet william, snap dragons, and others that I couldn't readily identify. The photo on the right shows a closer view of the buckets of sweet william.
Then we plunged into the old city just to look at stuff and see if we could find some souvenirs. Still hadn't picked up anything for Kelly other than some candy bars... We finally found a souvenir shop and picked up a couple of t-shirts and a ball cap....
Then we walked along the lake front for a while, just for something different.
The photo on the left shows one of the tourist catamaran coming into dock. These boats take people around Lake Lucerne. The tour takes about an hour.
The photo on the right shows a line of paddle boats awaiting customers. It was much too cool to be out on the water in the open today. However, there were several of these in use the day we arrived in Lucerne.
The photo on the left shows a nice wide promenade near the lake front.
The photo on the right shows a band shell near the lake front promenade.
Then, I went looking for a WC. The one marked on the map was rather grungy, so we headed back to the train station, figuring there would be a large restroom there that would be cleaner. Was there ever! Yes, it cost 2 swiss francs to get in, but it was very clean and very available. Worth the price.
We were running out of steam (and it was only 11 am!), so we picked up 2 large soft pretzels to take back to the room. That was lunch, along with tea. The rain has started again. I think we're about through with the trip.
Carl watched old movies all afternoon while I got caught up on my photo labeling. Whew! That's done.
We've checked in with the airlines. Suitcases are sorted out for in the morning. I think we're about ready. And it's only 4 pm...
So we walked over to Des Balances again for dinner. Carl had the filet of sole and I had salmon again. Still yummy!
As we were walking back to the room, a group of alpenhorn players set up in the middle of one of the side streets, right in front of us! Fascinating to hear. How do they change notes? Couldn't tell. Will have to Google it.... And both cameras were in the room. We had left them there on purpose, but missed a great shot.
Most of the packing is done. The rest needs to wait for morning, which is another early start.