A Swiss Mountain Idyll

This post comes with my apologies for not posting anything since leaving Weggis on the 19th May. What started as a six hour drive across Switzerland and down to the Veneto turned into a twelve hour marathon. There were very long queues on the approach to the Gottard Tunnel and the journey jumped from six hours to nine hours and so on. I'm not sure if this level of delay is normal of just down to an accident or weight of traffic.

The upside of the long journey was that I could take a detour and visit one of the 'must see' places if you're a James Bond fanatic, namely the Furka Pass (as featured in Goldfinger). I'll be doing a post on the journey from Weggis to Venice shortly.

I didn't have any real preconceptions about Switzerland although it's 47 years since we came on holiday with my parents when my Sister and I were small children. It was our first experience of snow and I still remember wondering how something that pretty could be so cold!

Move almost five decades and I'm back for a few days en-route to Venice.

I spent several days wondering around three or four swiss Cantons and I've been left with the overwhelming sense of a country who's citizens really do care for about their country and what happens to it. Everything is clean and tidy. The lack of graffiti in particular a refreshing change after the UK or the rest of Europe. The Swiss people I've met have been charming, polite and welcomed me.

Lucerne & Lake Lucerne (Luzern)

Lucerne is one of the prettiest cities I've visited in many years and manages to mix traditional Swiss buildings with state of the art architecture without making either the old or new feel out of place.

To get to Lucerne from Weggis requires a drive into a city which experience suggest dislikes cars (think Bath levels of hatred of cars!!) or an amazing one hour cruise across Lake Lucerne passing by some of the most beautiful landscapes and scenery it's possible to imagine never mind see.

After spending a relaxed hour admiring the scenery, you arrive pretty much within ten minutes walk of all the tourist haunts, shopping streets (the prices will take you breath away...) plus a lovely walk around the edge to the lake, with gardens less than five minutes from the ferry station.

After a few hours wondering around Lucerne, I decided to visit Victorinox's factory where they produce Swiss Army knives which was about 20-25 minutes from Weggis before returning back to the B&B via Aeschbach Chocolatier in Root which is a suburb of Lucerne. In answer to the obvious, yes I did buy some chocolate and no I'm afraid it won't be making it back to England as it will melt - It was 28c in Lucerne and I expect Tuscany to be even hotter!

Would I visit Weggis again? Absolutely. In fact courtesy of my revised travel plans I'm stopping off again with Susan and Daniel overnight on the way home. If the weather is kind I may even bring some chocolate home too!

Alan