28/8/18 – 29/8/18 – Lucerne
We visited Hergiswill, Switzerland for one night which is located just a few miles from the lovely Lucerne. We followed Google Maps to our free location, which we knew was up a very high hill, but hadn’t quite bargained for the steep accent that we got. As I sat tense in my seat trying to enjoy the amazing views surrounding us, whilst thinking this can’t be the right place, we reached a construction site on a very small ledge of a mountain side and became stuck behind a jeep with a trailer! I won’t say what words actually came out our mouths!
Fortunately the jeep was moving out of the only space where it would be possible for us to turn around, and out I hopped to help Dan manoeuvre the van around the tiny bend, turning us back to face the direction we came in. He did it so well, and was remarkable calm. Must be getting used to it. When we could, we pulled over and re-entered the GPS into Apple Maps, and low and behold it told us to drive 6 minutes back down the mountain. Never trust Google Maps, as it’s not the first time this has happened!!!
To get an idea of how high we were, we’d just passed by the landing point for the cable car which is situated almost at the top of Mount Pilatus, the largest mountain overlooking Lucerne – it towers at 2,128 m (6,982 ft) at its highest point! It wasn’t long after this point that we reached our stunning overnight stay. The views were absolutely spectacular…we’d considered taking the cable car before arriving but there really was no need. If you ever want to stay there, here is the GPS 46.997278, 8.3031625.
There was just enough space for 4 motorhomes of our size and we had the place to ourselves, so you can imagine how relaxing it was….or at least we thought we were alone until late that evening. We’d heard a car pull up at one point with music playing, but it’d soon gone quiet so we assumed they’d left. I got quite a shock when taking Marley out for his business walk around 9pm. It was pitch black and I could only really see the stars twinkling…Marley led the way round to the front of the van where I stood back very quickly in surprise on seeing a silhouette of a body, it looked like a mummy of the Egyptian variety lying there on the ground in between the two benches. I quickly got back in the van all spooked and told Dan, and we reassured ourselves that it was just someone in a sleeping bag from the car we’d heard earlier. We thought it a bit odd to sleep in that position, in the cold rather than in the car or in a tent, but like I said it was a starry night. In the morning when we opened our blinds, and two lads were sitting on the benches taking in the view. We have each other a smile and a wave. Dan offered them coffee, but they declined. Thank god it wasn’t a mummy or even a dead body!
The next morning we drove about 15 minutes and arrived practically in the centre of Lucerne. We parked in the marina paid car park as we knew we’d only be staying for the day. Top tip, always arrive with change at a car park. It was chucking it down with rain, and poor Dan left me and Marley for what seemed like forever on a mission to get our Swiss Franc notes changed for coins, but to no avail and he returned wet and pretty grumpy. So, not wanting to give up, off I went, in possible the only direction he hadn’t been in, and came back about 10 minutes later with change. I think the woman I approached in the shop may have taken as shine to me and I’d got lucky!
Once settled, we strolled through the very contemporary university area, which we reached within minutes. It had a great energy – by this time people were sitting out on the grass eating delicious looking food from the trendy shacks on wheels. About 10 minutes later we reached the very contrasting historical area of Lucerne. We’d chosen Lucerne as a location to visit because of the stunning landscape, pretty town, and it’s medieval monuments and sights, all within walking distance from one another.
One of the first places we went to visit was the most famous wooden footbridge Kapellbrücke, which spans diagonally across the river. You cannot miss the striking colour of the water surrounding it, and just how well the footbridge is preserved given it was built in 1300s.
Our very own little walking tour was ended by a very expensive non alcoholic drink next to the footbridge, and overall it took us approximately 4 hours, but you could easily spend much longer there. We managed to see a lot in that time, too much to write about, so here are some photos of our favourite places.
Although it was possible to stay overnight in the marina car park, we chose not to as we knew there’d be nicer places for free, so around 5pm after getting drenched by a torrential downpour of rain, we dried off and headed off to Germany, but more about that later. It took us an hour just to get out of Lucerne…..another tip, never head off on a journey in a huge motorhome during peak working hours!
