we started our day with a city tour. we drove to the lowendenkmal, or lion monument. the dying lion was carved from the "living rock" and commemorates the swiss soldiers that died during the french revolution:
"The Swiss Guards' honor was put to the test in 1792, when--after trying to escape the French Revolution--King Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, and their children were hauled back to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. A mob of working-class Parisians stormed the palace in search of aristocratic blood. More than 700 Swiss officers and soldiers died while defending the palace, without knowing that their royal employers...had left the building."
i have yet to see a picture that accurately portrays the scale of the monument. if i were to stand right next to the lion's head, i would be a little shorter than the top of his mane.
after the monument, we crossed the kapellbrucke, or chapel bridge that spans the river reuss in the middle of luzern. it is important because it is the oldest wooden bridge in switzerland, dating from the middle of the 14th century. the tower on the bridge was used as a dungeon and torture chamber. walking through it is really cool because there are paintings under the roof of the bridge in the rafters. the tower pictured below was originally used as a dungeon. in the background of the picture you can see mount pilatus, a big tourist attraction in luzern.
next we went into the jesuit church for which the kapellbrucke is named. it wasn't that interesting.
at 2;00pm we were released from the city tour and had time to go exploring on our own. lauren and i went shopping and explored the city a bit. we bought some swiss chocolate from a store called merkur, and it was divine. you can see me looking at it in the background of the picture to the right. they had a huge display of truffles that i had to refrain from sticking my face in. i tried telling the woman helping me that i wanted her to pick out some truffles for me, but she had no idea what i was saying. a guy around my age came to the rescue and translated for me, but the woman still didn't understand, so my translator picked out a few for me. they were heavenly, although i think one of them was champagne flavor. do they use champagne when they make those? it was good nevertheless.
we went back to the hotel, and had dinner. after dinner there was nothing to do, so lauren and i went out and ended up in a cafe drinking more hot chocolate. i had a lot of hot chocolate in switzerland. it was cold and rainy, and the hot chocolate is really good. on the way to the cafe i met the man of my dreams. he is a hunk. that's a picture of him and me below. you can see why i was instantly attracted to him--he's got a rock-hard body.
after hot chocolate we went back to the hotel and went to bed. and that concludes day number two in europe.
2 comments:
Kyra, thank you for updating your blog! I love reading about your trip!
Kyra, I'm so glad you've updated!! I love your new man-he's my type too. I bet he even makes the bed!! And you should be glad you had someone else there to take pictures of you in all these places!
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