A Well Kept Man

While Alli was off in Dusseldorf, Germany for two days, I decided to drive up to Luzern, Switzerland for the evening to check out their Christmas market. Luzern is about a two hour drive from our apartment, so I decided it was a nice afternoon/evening trip to keep me occupied while Alli was away. After driving the two hours to get there, I immediately went over to the area of the Luzern Christmas market. After spending about twenty minutes trying to determine if I was in the right location (I was), I decided that this was the absolute worst Christmas market I have ever encountered. It was in the train station, and was really quite disappointing. Perhaps there was another in the city streets somewhere, but the forty to fifty booths failed to meet my expectations. So much so that I decided that no pictures should be taken, and that the evening must be reclaimed for other purposes.

So I ventured back into the streets of Luzern to check out some of its more famous sights. The first stop was the Dying Lion Monument. This monument was carved into the face of this rock to honor the Swiss guards that were massacred in 1792 while defending the Tuileries palace in Paris during the French Revolution. It is one of the most powerful, emotion evoking monuments I have ever seen. This monument alone is worth driving all the way to Luzern.

After spending a few moments admiring the monument and remembering the Swiss guards, I proceeded back to the city to see its famous covered walks/bridges across the river. These pedestrian walk-ways are very old. The chapel bridge (Kapellbrücke) was built in 1333, although much of it burned in 1993 and had to be rebuilt. It is a very interesting walk-way as on the inside are various paintings depicting Luzern's history (dating from the 17th century).

My highlight of the evening came when I was walking along the bridge and the sound of a band in the distance continued to grow louder and louder. After waiting a few minutes, a group of musicians leading about 500 people came across the bridge and continued towards a performance hall nearby. It was pretty fun to follow them and enjoy the jazzy sounds of the pipers as they played in the cold air of this December evening. Truly a memorable experience. Even though the Christmas market was a bust I found Luzern to be a delightful town and hope to get back again before we leave. The Christmas Market in the train station gets an F...although I have since learned that there is another one in a plaza in the city which probably would have scored higher. Oh well...