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Day 15: June 17, 2019
This morning we all had breakfast at 7:15 am and by 8:00 am we were on our long road trip to Switzerland.
Slavko will be with us until we reach Paris in a few days so we have welcomed him and now he is part of the team.
We have divided the journey into two parts so after a short break we stopped at Lucano, also known as the pearl of Lucano.
Lugano is a very cute town by the lake Lucano, between two mountains, the Brè and the San Salvatore. It’s the third largest financial centre in Switzerland and its popular within wealthy people and celebrities, in fact they call it the Montecarlo of Switzerland.
They speak Italian as it is in the Italian speaking canton and it’s known for chocolate and furniture, so for those at home, when everyone’s back, ask them where’s your chocolate from Lugano!
We got back on the coach and a couple of hours later (and a magnificent scenery) we reached Lucerne.
Lucerne is by the lake, it is a busy yet charming small city with about 60,000 people. We first stopped to see the famous lion monument (the Löwendenkmal), it commemorates the Swiss guards that were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution. They were trying to protect the royal family when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.
We then walked through the city until we reached the water front and we could see the famous Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke). It’s 670 ft long and was constructed in 1333. It was designed to defend the city and it served to divide the river (Reuss) from the lake. It got badly burned in 1993 so about 80% of the bridge had to be restored. There’s a tower in the middle that has been used as a prison, light house, watchtower...
We then met Slavko who drove us all the way to Einsieden where we had dinner at the hotel.
I think everyone has had a good first impression of Switzerland, it is beautiful!