September 2, 2011-Lucerne (Friday)

We spent today in Lucerne or Luzern as the locals call it.  Audrey and Robert drove us to another beautiful Swiss city on another lake!  This city is known as the origin of the legend of William Tell.

Wheels were all over the exterior wall.

Lucerne is also the home of a fascinating museum.  We spent several hours in the Swiss Museum of Transportation, Verkehrshaus, and learned quite a bit about the history of trains in Switzerland.

All the trains used in transportation now in Switzerland are electric, so James was quite interested.  They had an exhibit where you could roll under a train and look at the undercarriage and another where you could walk under the train.

 

         

The section of the museum related to cars had some fascinating interactive displays and games.  They also had a huge wall of vehicles that looked like a giant Matchbox car case ... with a robot that would pull the vehicle down and move it to the viewing area so you could get a closer look!

We eventually found a nice little sidewalk cafe and wine shop, Le Bonne Cave, next to the Reusse River and enjoyed a light lunch.

After lunch, we went to take a closer look at the Kapellbrucke, the Chapel Bridge.  It was originally built as part of the city defenses back in 1333 but in the 17th century, several paintings were added to the interior.  Pedestrians can stroll across the beautiful wooden bridge now and view the paintings.  The bridge was seriously damaged by a fire in 1993 but has been beautifully restored.  Baskets of flowers line the exterior of the bridge.  Here is a web cam view ...

We continued strolling around Lucerne and found the Church of St. Leodegar.  It was built on the ruins of a Roman basilica in the 1600s and is a landmark in Lucerne.

After trying to visit a Christmas ornament store that Audrey wanted to go to, but finding out it was closed, we returned to the car and continued driving along the lake.  

We stopped for a beverage break in a small village, Vitznau, and watched the paddle-wheeled boats.

Vitznau is at the foot of Mount Rigi and we had planned to ride the cogwheel train to the top but ran out of time ... It would have been interesting to see the top of the mountain mentioned by Mark Twain in "A Tramp Abroad".

After we left Vitznau, we started the scenic drive to Wollerau.  When we pulled into this town, I made Robert stop the car so I could take some pictures ...