Salzburg to Zurich to Luzern

We woke up at 5:45 AM this morning, and took a taxi to the train station. Once there, we ate our typical plain croissant for breakfast at the usual place, Le Crobag. At 8AM, we got on the train that would take us away from beautiful Austria. While we were struggling to find our seats, a young girl approached and asked if she could help. Being the friendly ladies that we are, we started up a conversation with her. She ended up being so chatty that she sat with us in our 4-seater compartment and talked to us during our whole train ride. Her name is Marlen and she’s from a town that sits on one of the lakes near Mondsee. She is a 21 year old sailor and spoke really great English. We learned a lot from her about life in Austria, and after 3 hours of chatting, we really felt like we knew her. When our train ride ended, we swapped info with her and said goodbye. We then arrived at our destination of Zurich, Switzerland!

Welcome to Switzerland - Here's your bed.

Once in the Zurich train station, we had ten minutes to find our connecting train. Running through the place with all of our luggage, we somehow found the train to Luzern. Shortly thereafter, we arrived! First stop: ATM (unfortunately), second stop: Tourism Office. We stocked up on brochures so we can keep up our “planning the trip ourselves as we go” thing. We hailed a cab outside and took the 3 minute ride to Hotel Schlüssel. Our cab driver charged us 16 swiss francs, which is basically equivalent to $15.75- such a rip off!! When we got to the hotel and checked in, they said they didn’t see our note about needing three beds. Since all the other rooms were booked, all they could offer us was literally a mattress on the ground. Naturally, we gave this to Rachel.

The Medieval Bridge - Trademark of Luzern

Mad about the Prices

Next up: Explore the area around us! Lucerne is a beautiful old town centered around the gorgeous, swan-filled Lake Lucerne, nestled at the bottom of the Swiss Alps. One of the trademarks of the city are its many medieval-era covered bridges, as well as the intricate renaissance era paintings that are on some of the old buildings and bridges in town. It really is a gorgeous city. However, despite the picturesque, quaint beauty of the town of Lucerne (or Luzern as it’s called in Switzerland), what we came to realize is that everything there is ridiculously, beyond all explanation, EXPENSIVE. It really put a damper on the whole vibe of the town. I’m not sure if it’s like that throughout the whole country, or just because it’s a tourist destination, but either way… it was ridiculous.

We decided to have dinner by the lake in the old part of town. While yes we had a nice view, we spent way too much money on a below average dinner. Rachel ordered a small portion of pasta, and it cost her 22 francs (just as an example). In addition, the service there was incredibly slow. It took us thirty minutes to get a menu after sitting down, and then we didn’t get our drinks until after our food was brought out. Free refills on drinks or bread to munch on while you wait are basically nonexistent in Europe.  Also despite the overly relaxed service, tipping is still expected (though only 10% luckily). Needless to say, I was mad at the whole dinner experience. My expectations weren’t that high but they didn’t even meet that. 

Swans on Lake Lucerne

We decided to end the night by strolling around the outdoor stalls and window shop a bit. As we explored, we made up our way up to a huge street festival going on. There were booths with food from all over the world, it looked delicious but the only thing we could afford was a small scoop of 5 franc ice-cream. Also, the festival was called "The Blue Balls Festival"- no idea why, but I got a little laugh out of it. As we walked beyond the festival, we got to a park with tons of beautiful flowers and some statues. After watching Rachel nearly fall trying to climb a statue of a horse, we decided to head back. On the walk to the hotel, we contemplated scaring some of the gigantic swans that are everywhere, but decided they are in face far too terrifying. So, in sum, despite the annoying prices and crappy service, it  really is a beautiful little town!