Luxembourg & Switzerland Review

I've been enjoying the topics on this board, so I figured I would add a few reviews of recent trips.

My wife and I did a trip to Luxembourg and Switzerland (mostly Lucerne) back in April of this year. We landed in Luxembourg City on Day 1 around lunch time and powered through the desire to sleep. Of course our 2.5 hour layover at CDG was plenty of time for them to screw up and lose half of our luggage. We actually got it back pretty quick and the staff at LUX was very helpful. We checked into the Le Royal hotel (very nice btw) and immediately set out on foot. I'm not usually a fan of schedule tours and the like, but we decided to do the free city walking tour that day. My opinion on these tours was re-affirmed, as it was pretty boring. After the walking tour, we stumbled on a food festival going on in the center of town and had some Luxembourgish beers and food. Battin was the best of the Lux beers, but none were anything special. After some food, we wandered down into the Grund area and stopped in a few bars and shops. Walking through that area along the Alzette was pretty enjoyable. On the second day, we did a self guided tour of the Bock Casemates. This is a pretty cool natural & re-enforced defense of the city. We actually got turned around in there a few times and did an absolute shat ton of walking up and down stairs. Neither of us are over-weight or in terrible shape, but we could hardly get out of bed the next morning. We had planned to visit Vianden Castle outside of town the next day, but we may have ended up in a pub a little too long. We only spent a few days in Lux and didn't expect much, but really enjoyed it. It is a very walkable city (obviously small) and the people very friendly.

Walking over one of the small bridges in the Grund
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Looking up at the Bock Casemates
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The day we left Lux, we picked up a rental at the airport to drive to Lucerne - one swanky arse Opel Corsa . It was stupid cheap, something like $63/week + tax. We drove through France and made a quick stop in Strasbourg, just because it was on the way. We were only there for a few hours, but I'm glad we stopped. We found a parking garage in the center and found a small pizza joint nearby, checked out the cathedral and headed on to Lucerne.

Strasbourg


As soon as we started to get some views of the Alps, we were both like small children aching to arrive. Pulling into Lucerne quickly made it obvious that we would enjoy it. It was a blue sky day and picture perfect. We found a garage that we could park the car for several days (cost more than the rental) and hiked over to our hotel in the hear of town. I'm blanking on the hotel name right now, but it was only a 2min walk to the famous Kapellbrücke. We spent the afternoon walking around town, checking out the local brewery and just in awe of the scenery - Alps, Lake Lucerne, River Reuss and the bridges. We had planned to do Mount Pilatus on the next day, so if we had bad weather, we would have a few more days to try and get up there. Well, we couldn't have asked for any better weather that day. We hoofed it over to the train station and bought our passes. You take a bus over to the next town, hike up a hill and get on 2 different trams. One stops in the middle (already great views here) and then you hop on another for the rest of the ascent. Depending on the season, you can take another route down and take a boat back across the lake. The views from atop Pilatus were incredible and I'm not sure if I will ever top it. There was still a good bit of snow, but the temps were great. I actually had to shed my jacket and we sat for a couple hours with a few Swiss beers/ciders and contemplated not leaving until we were forced to leave. We actually had a boat trip planned that afternoon and headed back down...eventually. The boat tour was great as well. It took us back around to the other side of Lake Lucerne that you couldn't see from town.

The next day we had planned to get in the car and just drive. Of course, this was the only day we had crap weather. Even with the rain/fog, the beauty of Switzerland couldn't be hidden. We made a quick stop in Interlaken (would love to visit in the summer) on our way to Lauterbrunnen (land of waterfalls). There is a parking lot in Lauterbrunnen to leave the car to walk and check out the waterfalls (72). There are some cool little campsites and small farms - horse shite everywhere. The waterfalls were a sight to see in every direction. Again, we would have loved to visit on a sunny day, but it was still great. From there we drove up to Grindelwald. It was super foggy up there and we were there during a dead time, but still worth the trip up. After that we headed back down to Lucerne, making a few photo op stops. FYI, the drive up/down the mountains can be intense. The route on my GPS looked like a bunch of cork-screws and figure 8's all jumbled together. If you get car sick easy, it may not be for you.

We spent the next day or two just wandering around town and of course checking out the local watering holes. We had a good time in a cheesy place on the river - Mr. PickWick Pub. I'm sure everyone knows, but Switzerland is very expensive. Honestly, one of our favorite meals was stopping by the grocery and getting a few beers & deli food and sitting on a bench by the river and enjoying the view. If you do that, watch out for the swans though. Those bastards aren't scared of getting close and stealing food.

We actually had our return flight out of Luxembourg, which is not ideal, but allowed us to make a few short stops on the way back. We stopped in Bern, but it was so damn cold that day, we didn't stick around long after taking a look-see on the river. We stopped at a couple small towns in France also, but cannot remember where now. I would say the highlight of the whole trip was sitting on top of Pilatus and watching in silence. Hopefully these pictures will load properly as photobucket is being a terd.

River Reuss in Lucerne
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Chapel Bridge with Pilatus in the background
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The Alps from Pilatus
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View from dinner the first evening
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Highlight of the trip for me
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One of the falls in Lauterbrunnen
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