To Lucerne, Switzerland

Found one of my seed bars in my backpack for breakfast – I knew this would come in handy and found a coffee machine so all good. We set off at 8am for Lucerne, just a 2 hour trip.

Lauterbrunnen is situated between two high mountain ranges so gets no sun at all but you can see it reflected in the trees ahead
…. and suddenly we are in it – so bright and warm. This morning the driver is another Spaniard and Dee, the rep, is Polish. We left the other bus which was heading towards Milan, and took the freeway in the direction of Lucerne. This was a fairly short journey, just an hour and half, arriving at just 9.30am.

I recognised Nathalie from behind as she walked past the hostel and called out to her.  It was so good to meet up again, having not seen eachother since our adventures on the Moose Bus in West Canada exactly a year ago.  We dumped my bags in the boot of her car and Nathalie took me to the beach by the lake.  By now the temperatures were really souring and it was so pleasant to paddle in the cool clear waters of the lake.  All the time we were chatting and catching up partly in French and partly in English.  I was determined this time to speak French as poor Nathalie had to speak English in Canada as I was teaching her and this was our rule…. no Swiss despite the fact that we traveled with Carole as well, who was also Swiss!   I hadn’t realised that in the meantime Nathalie had been going to English classes here in Switzerland and her English had improved immeasurably.

Nathalie took me all over the beautiful town of Lucerne, around the lake where there was a steam paddle boat, through the markets, across the ancient covered bridges between the many castles, etc.  There were beautifully decorated buildings and went inside a very ornate church.  Nathalie took me to a wine bar near the lake which sold wines from all over the world.  We sat outside and chatted in the warm sunshine, then continued to explore the historic town.  We looked around the Bodem shop because Nathalie was looking for items for her new apartment.  She pointed out her favourite restaurant with a garden beside the river so I suggested we went there for lunch.  It was certainly very nice and quite grand.  We had perch from the lake with vegetables and wine. As we walked back to the car after lunch I was overcome by the heat.  By this time it was 33 degrees and I felt quite faint.  Nathalie left me in the shade and fetched her car. It was so good to get into the cool aircon.  In about 20 minutes or so we arrived at Zug where she lives with her younger son in her new apartment in a small village about halfway between Lucerne and Zurich.  Michel, Nathalie’s son is on holiday in Brazil at the moment where he is doing some underwater diving.  Nathalie’s apartment is on the first floor and is very modern and tastefully decorated by Nathalie.  We had a welcome glass of fizzy grapefruit on her balcony before retiring to rest for a while.

Soon I hear Nathalie about and look at my watch to see it’s nearly 7pm already.  She is busy preparing a light evening meal for us of Swiss salad with cheeses and bread.  It is delicious and she has opened a special bottle of Swiss wine produced in the area she was born.  The cheese also was produced by her father from a rare herd of black cattle.  We sit eating drinking and chatting on the balcony, hardly noticing night falling.  The temperature must still be in the mid twenties as we retire to bed at around 11.30.