I’m now sitting on a train between Lucerne and Salzburg and
it is absolutely stunning. We have passed large, blue, glass-like lakes,
forests of all different shades of green and more snow covered mountains, whose
valleys are filled with small villages with cute front gardens and brown tiled
rooves. The sky is a clear light blue
and the snow is a brilliant white under the sunshine. Our next stop is
Innsbruck and after that, Salzburg, land of Mozart and “The Sound of Music”. As
I leave behind beautiful Switzerland, I reflect on my last night in Lucerne.
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| View from the train 1 |
I arrived in Lucerne just after noon on the 3rd,
planning only a single night’s stay and catching the train to Salzburg via
Zurich the next morning. I had been debating over whether to go to Zurich and
stay the night there instead, but after some decent, heavily influenced by wine
research, decided on Lucerne. I was not sure what to expect as I had been told
that Lucerne was beautiful, however I was coming from Interlaken, meaning my
expectations of beauty were set very, very high.
Needless to say the two places are incredibly different-one
is a metropolis and the other a small mountain city, but the fact remains that
I actually preferred Interlaken, and found the scenery infinitely more
beautiful.
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| View from the train 2 |
However as a city, Lucerne is still lovely. It is set around
a large lake in a valley between the Alps. The mountains were snow-capped and
the flowers in full bloom as I set out to explore after finding my way to the
hostel and having a quick catch-up with Australia.
My hostel, Twins Minbak, was an interesting experience.
Simply put, it primarily (in my opinion) catered to Korean tourists without
much thought to others. I was one of only two non-Korean people staying in the
hostel, the other being a person I had actually met at Interlaken and who had
caught a later train into Lucerne. We were made to take our shoes off before
entering the hostel and wear traditional Korean slippers instead whilst we
stored our shoes in a communal set of draws. There were two rooms with twelve
beds each; one for females and one for males, and only one bathroom with a
shower for each gender. Needless to say I was glad that the hostel wasn’t at
full capacity (whilst it was still fairly full). The owner/receptionist also
thought it ok to let her dog stay inside, which I was not so keen on, finding
it not only strange but incredibly unhygienic.
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| Lucern |
Small complaints aside, it was a (uncomfortable) bed for the
night, and I wasn’t planning on spending much time there anyway.
I had decided after consulting my map that my first stop on
my walking tour would be the Lion monument, after which I would walk to the
Rampart wall, and then I would meander my way down to the river and cross the
historic bridges, before finding a supermarket and taking care of my food
situation.
The Lion Monument, whilst I’m not sure what it actually
commemorates, was quite nice. It is basically a carving of a sleeping lion set
into a rock wall, at the base of which is a lovely little pond surrounded by
grand old trees and pretty flower beds. It had Latin writing underneath, but
Latin isn’t exactly a specialty of mine, and so the meaning goes unknown until
I remember to Google search it.
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| Lion Monument |
After spending some time people watching at the Lion
monument, I made my way through the “Old Town” to the Rampart wall; it has a
proper name but it reminded me more of the medina walls in Morocco. I walked
inside and climbed the set of stairs up the first tower into the ramparts,
walking along until I found another tower to explore. It was called “the Clock
Tower” and contained old yet still functioning clocks, showing all of the inner
workings and the way in which it connected to the swinging weights. Knowing that I would give a horrible
description when it came to this blog, I took a video to better explain myself.
Enjoy!
I climbed back down the tower and continued on the walk,
passing some lovely views of the surrounding mountains and the city. I made my
way back down to the river behind the wall, walking beside it until I came to
the first of two historic wooden bridges, which I promptly crossed. It was a
beautiful afternoon and the tourists were out in force, so as I had finished my
walking tour I meandered until I found myself a supermarket.
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| The Wall |
After taking care of my food situation (don’t judge
me-travelling makes me hungry *giggles*) I returned to the hostel, fully prepared
for judgement as I ate my two minute noodles in an Asian majority hostel. To
put this in perspective, the hostel had a proper rice pressure cooker and an
array of sauces including Soy, fish and chilli alongside the normal salt and
pepper. I felt my microwaveable “just add water” noodles were inadequate, but
found it slightly hilarious at the same time.
I spent the rest of the night booking and planning for the
next month or so, making dates to see friends and looking up train timetables.
It wasn’t particularly thrilling, but exhaustion is setting in so I take my
rest where I can get it.
I awoke early the next morning; eating my breakfast and
hurrying on my way. The train that I wanted to catch didn’t leave until 9:35am;
however I needed to get to the station early in order to book my ticket through
to Salzburg. I boarded my train to Zurich and before I knew it was on my way.
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| Historic Bridge |
This brings us to now, 4 hours later and sitting in the
train in Innsbruck station. I have two hours to go on this train ride before I
arrive in Salzburg, and I plan on using it to plan how the hell I’m going to
fit everything in to my 24hours when I get there. As I look out over Innsbruck,
whilst I’m sure it’s beautiful I’m glad I’m leaving it behind for Salzburg. The
scenery that we have passed already leaves me in no doubt that Salzburg will be
stunning, and I’m quite keen to make the most of the birthplace of Mozart and
the setting of “The Sound of Music”. Be expecting some sort of “Maria” moment
for the next blog. If I’m going to do the whole “tourist” thing, I’m going to
do it well!
Until next time!
Love Love!
Clem xx
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