Switzerland....our last destination before heading home. 

On the the train in we saw beautiful scenery and the Swiss Alps . Beautiful. 

Our apt rental is near the Ruess River that winds around Lucern. The water is clear and clean enough to drink from. The water out of our tap is clean and delicious.  
 
Checked in, rested a little and then found a grocery store. I have to say at every city or town
we've been to these last 5 wks, Switzerland is by far the most pricey for everything...whether it's groceries, burger ($19.00), black coffee ($5.00 and usually more), souvenirs... everything. And not just a little pricey.... 

At least the scenery of Switzerland makes up for the prices. Mountains everywhere you turn and when those ever present clouds weren't looming about, we actually got to see some of the Swiss Alps. 

Our 1st day was Market Day in Lucern. This market was all about food and flowers. Swiss pastry along with Swiss chocolate is undeniably unresistable........ I know that was a mouthful but so is the pastry ...yum!!

We thought about taking a trip by gondola, air tram and cogwheel train up to see some of these Alps...but that too was very pricey. So, instead we'll explore parts of this town. And I am so glad we did...

We went to see the Lion Monument. It is a sculpture of a giant dying lion carved out of a wall of sandstone rock. It was designed as a memorial to the Swiss guards who lost their lives while serving the French King Louis XVI during the French Revolution. The Monument is in memory of the Swiss soldiers who went to protect the French Royal Family and helped them escape. They all died either while they were protect the family or after they were caught.  

I don't have any Swiss blood flowing through my veins, but this true story was very sad and emotional. And the sadness and pain that was sculpted in the lion face was heartbreaking.  

Mark Twain expressed his feeling about the Lion Monument after coming to Lucern and seeing it with the following words ......"The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.
Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is." — Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1880

We stopped for lunch near the monument and started talking with this really sweet Swiss teacher named Luzia ..she said we could call her Lucy. She was grading papers and welcomed us to join her with our lunch. She spoke English very well and it was fun exchanging things about each other, our trip aboard, her visits to the US, places to see in Lucern and much more. I love meeting the local residents of the many places we visited who are so willing to talk with us.  

I'm glad Dave was able to see the beauty of Switzerland (I was here with Kathy when we were 18). Almost as soon as our train crossed over the Swiss border from Italy you could tell the difference in the scenery.  

Switzerland...your beauty astounds us.

Now we take a train to Paris and the Eurostar train that takes us under The English Channel again to London.