Just when we thought the weather couldn’t get any worst, we woke up and it had snowed.
If you have any plans to come to Switzerland, I don’t recommend the spring because every year we come in April or May and it is almost always cold and raining and sometimes snowing. Oh well! Today we had a couple of brief (5 mins) periods of sun but the rest of the time it was overcast, raining and/or snowing.
Today we had planned to either go to Lucerne or to go down to the Italian section but the Gottard pass which is on the route to the Italian section is closed because of snow. So Lucerne it is. Rick had done some research and found a museum for us to go to as well as a restaurant for lunch.
After parking we walked across Lucerne’s famous chapel bridge or Kapellbrücke, which is a covered wooden footbridge, diagonally spanning the River Reuss. The bridge was originally built in 1365 as part of Lucerne’s fortifications. It is unique because it contains a number of interior paintings dating back to the 17th century, although many of them were destroyed along with a larger part of the centuries-old bridge in a 1993 fire. Subsequently restored, the Kapellbrücke is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, as well as the world’s oldest surviving truss bridge.
Then we stopped at Starbucks to warm up. Just to give you an idea of how expensive Switzerland is, a medium coffee and hot chocolate cost us about $15.
Here are some pictures for Lucerne, which is a charming and typical Swiss city.
Then we went to the Rosengart Collection. Siegfried Rosengart and his daughter, Angela Rosengart, were art dealers and good friends with several artists including Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Paul Klee. The museum primarily contains work from these three artists. It was very interesting and we really enjoyed it.
We had lunch in a Spanish restaurant. Rick enjoyed his paella and I enjoyed tapas.
We came back to the apartment and took a nap because we are still adjusting to the time change. We weren’t really hungry for dinner so we just snacked. We were able to stay up until 10 so maybe we are getting over the jet lag.