Different places to travel » Bridge

Lucerne – A beautiful city in Switzerland

Traveller — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:31:16 +0000

Lucerne is a city of Central Switzerland and is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and seat of the district with the same name. It is considered to be the most populous city of Switzerland. It consists of seventeen municipalities. It is sited on Lake Lucerne and has beautiful mountainous panorama. One can go to the nearby Excursion Mountains of the Rigi, Pilatus and Stanserhorn, the town is a destination for many travel groups and individuals on their journey through central Switzerland.
Complete with gable paintings, the covered, medieval Chapel Bridge forms the centerpiece of Lucerne. Lucerne is a city of town squares and churches. The Jesuit church dating from the 17th century is regarded as Switzerland’s first sacral Baroque building and the twin towers of the Hofkirche form an integral part of the townscape. And with its 112-metre-long Bourbaki panorama, Lucerne possesses one of the world’s few maintained, mammoth circular paintings.
The cherry road leads from Lucerne through the landscape of cheery trees and kirsch. Lucerne is the ideal starting point for many excursions to the highlights of central Switzerland. A trip up one of Lucerne’s regional mountains, the Pilatus or the Rigi – the queen of mountains – is a must. But excursions up onto the Stanserhorn, the Bürgenstock or a steamship cruise on Lake Lucerne with its many bends and arms are certainly no less worthy. The Wilhelm Tell Express originates in Lucerne and ferries its passengers to the foot of the Gotthard pass via Lake Lucerne and then continues by rail into Ticino, south of the Alpine ridge.
Lucerne is traditionally considered first and foremost as a tourist destination due to its location. One of the city’s famous landmarks is Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge first built in the 14th century. It has also been voted as the 5th most popular tourism destination.
Lucerne has a developed and well-run transport network, with the main operator, VBL, running both buses and trolleybuses in the city. Other operators, such as Auto AG Rothenberg, provide bus services to neighboring towns and villages. Lucerne station enjoys excellent links to the rest of Switzerland via rail services operated by SBB and Zentralbahn.

Festivals: Carnival (Fasnacht) breaks out in the streets, alleyways and squares of the old town at the end of winter. This is a glittering outdoor party with strange characters in fantastic masks and costumes make their way through the alleyways, while carnival bands (Guggenmusigen) blow their instruments in joyful cacophony and thousands of bizarrely clad people sing and dance away the winter. Lucerne Carnival starts every year on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday with a big bang. There are big parades on Dirty Thursday and the following Monday, called Fat Monday, which attract tens of thousands of people. Lucerne’s Carnival ends with a crowning finish on Fat Tuesday evening with a tremendous parade of big bands, lights and lanterns. After the parade, all the bands wander through the city playing joyful music.
Its orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, is hand-picked from some of the finest instrumentalists in the world. In July, the Blue Balls Festival brings jazz, blues and funk music to the Lake Promenade and halls of the Culture and Convention Center. The Lucerne Blues Festival is another musical festival which usually takes place in November. Since spring 2004, Lucerne has hosted the Festival Rose d’Or for television entertainment. And in April, the well-established comic’s festival Fumetto attracts an international audience. Lucerne regularly holds different folklore festivals, such as Lucerne Cheese Festival, held annually.

Places to see
• The Chapel Bridge, one of Europe’s oldest wooden bridges and landmark of Lucerne, faithfully restored to its original design after a serious fire. The Bridge is made with wood and was built in 14th century as a protection for the city. Unfortunately the bridge burned down on 18th August 1993. Within a few months it was rebuilt. The tower used as oubliette is still in original condition. Walk over it in a 3D Model. Its amusing walking over it as you can see about 100 pictures of 12th century city life and Swiss history.
• Alpineum
• Bourbaki Panorama
• The Glacier Garden
• The Swiss Transport Museum: Lido beach (the first stop for boats leaving from the central train station, preferably reached by bus). With its large collection of trains, planes, automobiles, and motorcycles this museum of means of transport is a great place to spend an afternoon. If you get tired of the real train engines you can check out the model railroad or the miniature working steam train. The air section also features several space travel exhibits, including an un-used project Mercury capsule. The old city wall
• Lucerne Art Museum
• The Rosengart Collection It has over 200 works by 23 artists of early modernism, including 125 works of Paul Klee and about 50 by Pablo Picasso. Also works by Cézanne, Chagall, Miró, Pissarro, among others. The collection also houses 200 photographs — previously housed in the Am-Rhyn-Haus — by David Duncan Douglas the Richard Wagner Museum.
• The KKL (Kunst- und Kongresshaus Luzern) The KKL is a spectacular building that contains several concert halls and the Lucerne Art Museum. It was designed by Jean Nouvel. Its major concert hall is famous for its acoustics, and world class orchestras can be heard regularly. It hosts the Lucerne music festival.
• The Lion Monument (German: Löwendenkmal). Or the Lion of Lucerne is a sculpture in Lucerne, Switzerland, designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, France.

Best time to visit / climate

The best time to visit Lucerne, Switzerland is summer that lasts from June to September and the Alps open from late November to early April.

Location on Google Maps:

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Or click and paste the URL below on your browser:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&q=Lucerne&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Lucerne,+Switzerland&gl=ca&ei=MNBOTLLcC82GrQfXnKDEAw&ved=0CB8Q8gEwAA&z=11

Path from Zurich to Lucerne on Google Maps:

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How to get there

http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/destinations/resorts/holiday-destinations-in-switzerland/lucerne.html (one can search any train giving from and to destinations)
Public transport: Lucerne is situated at the important North-South axis and is excellently connected through the Swiss rail system. Direct express trains link Lucerne with the international airports in Zürich, Basel and Geneva.
By car: Lucerne is situated at the national highway A2. A dense network of excellent national and major roads link Lucerne with all important centers of Switzerland and the neighboring countries.
By air: The international airports of Zürich, Basel and Geneva are only a few hours by car from Lucerne and are easily reached by direct express trains.
By train: Thanks to its central location Lucerne can be reached easily from nearly every other city in Switzerland using the Swiss Federal Railway. There are hourly trains from Olten and Zurich Airport and half-hourly trains from Zurich, and a direct train every other hour from Berne, although departure times are more frequent with connections.
By boat: Lucerne sits at the north end of the Vierwaldstättersee, one of the busiest waterways in Switzerland, for travel information from Schwyz, Flüelen, Weggis, and outbound points see the schedule at the Schifffahrt Vierwaldstättersee.

Places to stay (hotels / restaurants along with website / contact numbers)

• Site 1
• Otel.com (gives lists and prices of the hotels etc.,)
• http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/booking/hotels-list.shtml (list of hotels, prices, maps, etc.,)
• http://www.isyours.com/e/guide/lucerne/restaurants.html (restaurant guide)
(Search for the popular names like Restaurant Schwan, Restaurant Bodu, exquisite French Cuisine, Treibhaus Luzern, Migros or Coop, Mövenpick Restaurant)
• http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g188064-d234242-Reviews-The_Hotel_Lucerne-Lucerne.html
• http://www.holidaycityeurope.com/lucernehotels/
• http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/hotels/index.cfm/zentralschweiz/luzern

Blogs / Sites about Lucerne

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucerne#Early_history_and_founding_.28750.E2.80.931386.29
• http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/destinations/resorts/holiday-destinations-in-switzerland/lucerne.html
• http://wikitravel.org/en/Lucerne

Images and photos of Lucerne

• Google Images
• http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g188064-Lucerne.html
• http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/lucerne.html

How to see London as a tourist

Traveller — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:02:43 +0000

A huge number of tourists visit London every year, and follow the regular tourist cycle of visiting the sights of the city. This post is my experience of the same.
We had gone to visit some relatives living near London, and thought about doing a visit to some of the sights and beautiful places in London. We were living in Dulwich, which was some distance away from Victoria station, from where we wanted to start the tour. Now, we had a choice, whether to do the tour using the tube, or using a bus. If you are looking for convenience and a bit of speed, then the tube is the way to go, since it is fast, avoiding London traffic. However, one of the main problems with the tube is that you would feel like a bit of a rabbit, suddenly coming up from a hole to view some great building, and then diving underground to see another building. You do not get a feel of the city, and that is what we were trying to do. So, it was the bus that we are going to use, but there was the realization that London roads can get crowded and traffic would cause a journey on the bus to take time.
There are tourist buses that do the rounds of most of London’s tourist sites, with the buses being of the hop-on, hop-off type. You take a ticket for the bus, get on, get down at any of their stops to see the tourist location, and then get onto the next bus that comes on, and it can be very convenient. These buses come by every 5-10 minutes, so there is not much waiting that needs to be done. Our journey started by taking a train first to Victoria, and just outside Victoria Station, there were these buses ready to start. We had an option to buy take a ticket to Madame Tussaud’s while buying our bus ticket (the bus ticket cost us 21 pounds each), and given that the Madame Tussaud’s ticket allows one to bypass the regular queue, it was well worth it (and did I mention that the ticket was also available at a discount ?). The bus ticket also entitles you to a small cruise on the Thames, which was also great fun.
What are some of the tourist places that this bus tour covers ? There are several different tours, so the actual places covered are different in each tower, but some of the places to cover are:
Buckingham Palace,
Westminster Abbey,
St. Paul’s Cathedral,
The Tower of London,
Big Ben,
London Eye,
Marble Arch,
TrafalgarR Square,
Waterloo (and more places)

A map of the tour is available at this link.

So, you get started on the bus (and it was a double decker bus); I quickly climbed to the upper level even though it was windy, since you get a great view. We got down at several stops on the way, with the places that we spent a lot of time being:
London Eye (you cannot go away from London without doing a spin (1 hour) on the huge ferris wheel),

A view of London Eye at night from outside the entry point

London Eye straight ahead – view from the path right in front

Big Ben and surrounding areas (the whole area has many great buildings, where you get a great view of the architecture)

Photo of Big Ben by night – Well lighted up and an important tourist attraction

Thames (go for a cruise on the Thames, you get a short view of the history of London along with seeing the numerous bridges on the way)

A cruise ship on the Thames in London (similar to the one I was traveling in)

Passing under one of the Bridges across the Thames in London

The Hungerford Bridge over the river Thames in London

Tower of London (the place used by royalty earlier, and also used as a detention and execution place)

Part of the Tower of London as seen from the Thames

The Tower of London – A beautiful lawn replaces the moat now

The beautiful architecture of Tower of London

Buckingham Palace (the current residence of the queen, there is a great changing of the guard ceremony every alternate day at 11 in the morning)

A closer view of the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace

Close up of marching formation at Buckingham Palace changing of the guard

Front facade of Buckingham Palace when it is less crowded

The beautiful autumn at the Green Park just outside Buckingham Palace

Madam Tussaud’s (A world famous wax museum, but I got bored after around 30 minutes)
Trafalgar Square (A great open place, with a water attraction, big lions, and mermaids)

Admiralty Arch and adjoining building near Trafalgar Square in London

One of the fountains of Trafalgar Square in London

People enjoying on the bronze lions in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square

The Tower Bridge looks incredible and one should visit it atleast once.

A beautiful view of the Tower Bridge in London against a blue sky

A photo of London Bridge in a beautiful setting

Photo of Tower Bridge and the buildings to one side of the bridge

Some other photos from London

Bus that takes tourists on a trip around London to the major tourist points

A beautiful view of a partially cloudy sunset over the Thames and Westminster in London

A beautifully decorated London store near the Chinese New Hour in the evening

A close up of the glass dome of the London City Hall

A glimpse of the exterior architecture of Westminster Abbey

A jetty on the Thames used to drop and pickup passengers of cruise ships

A more detailed view of the dinosaur skeleton in the central hall of the Science Museum in London

A view of the London skyline with the top of the Gherkin (Swiss Re building) in the background

Constitution Arch with the largest British bronze statue on top in Belgrave Square

Rick Steves’ London 2012	Streetwise London Underground Map	London Sights 2011: a travel guide (Kindle)

Trip to Switzerland: Part 5 – The city of Lucerne (aka Luzern)

Traveller — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:43:51 +0000

Our stay in the city of Interlaken done (and the hotel reservations having run out), we decided to move to our next destination, the city of Lucerne (also known by the German name of Luzern). We were taking a train near noon from Interlaken (after having done a cruise on the Lake Thun). This train takes roughly around 2 hours to reach Luzern while passing through some beautiful Swiss countryside (lakes, water bodies, hills, greenery, woods, grasslands, great looking houses and churches, you get the idea). The only problem that we faced was that this was the month of July, and for some unknown reason, the trains that we traveled in were not Air-Conditioned and hence it got uncomfortable for some time.

Views of Swiss countryside on way from Interlaken to Luzern

Finally we reached Luzern (it looked like a much larger city that Interlaken, as proof, the train station was much larger than the train station of Interlaken). At the Lucerne train station, we started trying to figure out how to find our hotel (the Magic Hotel); there was no easy way to locate our hotel from the railway station. However, once you are unafraid to ask anything, you can get to know anything; so we asked around and were soon pointed to cross the bridge right next to the railway station, and from there, the hotel was to the left side. The Magic Hotel was affiliated to the Best Western Hotel Krone over there, with the checkin to be done in the hotel Krone and the keys for the room at the Hotel Magic would be given after registration. Checking in one hotel for another hotel seemed a bit strange, even more so that the Magic Hotel did not even have a reception, but it was not really a problem. The good part about the Magic Hotel was that it had free internet access (wireless), unlike the hotel Oberland in Interlaken where the internet access is charged.

Map of Luzern on Google Maps:

View Larger Map

Lucerne (also called Luzern in German) is a very beautiful city located on the shore of Lake Lucerne. It is the starting point of cruises on the Lake, it is the starting point of the ride on gondolas and cable cars all the way upto Mount Pilatus, it has a large cultural center called KKR, it has a monument called the Lion Monument (that commemorates the hundreds of Swiss Guards who died when the Bastille was attacked during the start of the French Revolution), and it has a split city, with a modern section, and an old section where the architecture of the city is maintained.
The best part about the location of these hotels was the easy access to some of the better parts of the city. As soon as you get down from the hotel, you find yourselves in a large square surrounded by great looking buildings. Right next door is a staircase that leads down to the lake side (the shore of Lake Lucerne). This is a fascinating place to be near – there is a great view of the Chapel Bridge, there is a whole line of open air tables and covered restaurant place with a huge number of tourists eating, drinking, and generally enjoying themselves (without making a great mess or noise).

The cobble-stone path along the lakefront with open air cafes in Lucerne

Soon, we found ourselves roaming the old city on foot. We spent some time on the Chapel Bridge / Kapellbrücke (Wikipedia), and its water tower, the 140 feet (43 m) tall Wasserturm (Water Tower). The Bridge is made from wood, and looks very beautiful, especially in the evening with the lights on it shining on the water (at this point, the Lake Lucerne is only as wide as a stream). We got caught in a shower for some time, and spent more time in the Bridge than we wanted. Lining the side of the Bridge are some exceedingly beautiful flowers.

People rushing to enter the Chapel Bridge, it’s evening and its raining

Small birds perched on top of Lake Lucerne

View of Chapel Bridge from the main road bridge in Lucerne

Close up of flowers on the outer railing of the wooden Chapel Bridge in Lucerne

After the rain was spent, we moved onto touring through the old part of the city, and along the lake front (where there were a huge number of ducks and swans that would come very close to you, to the point where you would feel more in danger than they would feel from you). There is a large shopping area, and a very large eating and dining area. Just after the rain, the place looked even more magical, and we had lots of fun roaming through the city. After some time, we went looking for the Lion Monument (it was at a walk of atleaset 25 minutes), and when we found it, it was somewhat disappointing.

Many ducks and swans on the lakefront of Lake Lucerne

One of the shopping roads in Lucerne, empty after rain

Photo of the Lion Monument in Lucerne

More photos of Luzern at my photo gallery (link)