We are finally in Switzerland, the country of mountains and lakes, of watches, chocolate and cheese!
We had great weather and the lakes looked so enticing, that we searched for an easy parking and access to the lake. At the Ober Lake, the extension of the Züricher See, we found a good spot: 47.1954, 8.8160. After a swim in the lake with our new air mattress, dark clouds closed in, and we just made it back to the car in time, before the downpour started.
Our next stop was at Zug, where we visited friends from Austria we hadn’t seen for a while. After a stroll along the lakeshore, we had a lovely dinner at the lake, with incredible views.
The next day, we visited the Vierwaldstätter Lake and the city of Lucerne. We were enchanted by the bridges over the river leaving the lake and the lovely town in general.
The Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a wooden covered bridge originally built in 1333, is the oldest covered bridge in Europe, although much of it had to be replaced after a fire in 1993.
We had read about the Bourbaki Panorama, which we had to see. It was our third panorama, after the one in Berlin and the Feszty Panorama in Hungary. Panoramas were the visual mass media of the 19th century, and it is special to be able to visit one of the original ones from that time, like here in Lucerne.
Bourbaki was a General of the French Army of the East. Close to the end of the Franco-Prussian War, his troops were surrounded by the Germans in the Jura mountains, and Switzerland offered assistance with internment of the troops. This resulted in the largest refugee influx Switzerland has ever faced, with 87,000 soldiers crossing the border within 3 days in the winter of 1871. They were disarmed and received food, accommodation and medical support, provided by the Swiss Red Cross, which had its first big assignment.
The panorama depicts the border crossing at Les Verrières, and was painted by Edouard Castres, a witness at that event himself.
Close by, we encountered the famous Lion of Lucerne, a rock relief of a wounded lion, hewn into a natural wall in 1820–21. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were killed in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.
After a great time with our friends, we left Zug and went to explore the traces of the Habsburg family here in Switzerland. More soon!