Something to Declare

Post No. 3. Luzern

September 4, 2023

Today was our first real “vacation day.” We picked up our rental car at Sixt about a block away, turned out to be a Ford Focus automatic, instead of a Peugeot manual, but hey, you gotta be flexible on vacay. In going to the garage to get the car, we were struck once again by the graffiti here, I mean, really!!!

In any event, we were able to sync up the car’s GPS to Stef’s phone. What did we ever do before GPS? (Although I do remember road maps.).

All right then! 45 minutes later, we were walking down the local Bahnhofstrasse to the River Reuss,. My goodness, how pretty is Luzern? Sheesh!

After picking up a local guidebook at the “I,” we found a nearby sushi restaurant, “Negishi,” with an upstairs balcony. Yeah, I know, you come to Switzerland and eat Japanese? But it was quite yummy.

(I do remember going out for Chinese food in Lima, Peru, and my sister-in-law contracting Hep A.).

Then, after a brief pit stop…….

(couldn’t resist including this photo from the sushi place’s bathroom), off to the nearby art museum, where they had the incredible Rosengart Collection.

Turns out that the local Rosengart family was intimately involved in financing and collecting Picasso’s work as well as work by Cezanne, Renoir, Soutine and Klee. Picasso did several portraits of Mrs. Rosengart (now in her 90s); here is one:

One of my favorites was a drawing by Klee, depicting a girl dancing on the back of an ostrich (or something like that):

Then off to the Old Town for a mocchachino with a view of the river, the old tower, and mountains in the distance.

There are two famous wooden bridges across the Reuss. The Chapel Bridge – shown above and below – had burned down and was rebuilt; some burnt and charred paintings are still in their original spots. In the 1400s, this bridge was angled across the river as part of the town’s medieval fortifications. The octagonal water tower also housed a prison/torture chamber in the below-water-level cellar.

The other wooden bridge is the Spreuerbrücke:

Both bridges have old artworks displayed in the upper lintels of the bridge rooves.

Mission accomplished, a great day. Tomorrow, Stein-am-Rhein.