The Chapel Bridge and Water Tower of Lucerne, Switzerland

If you include a hiking up to the winter wonderland of the Swiss Alps in Titlis, you may consider to stay in the nearby city of Lucerne. Lucerne is basically acting as an gateway to central Switzerland. The city is sited on Lake Lucerne and it is surrounded with beautiful mountainous panorama. 

There are a lot of public transportation choices in Lucerne like trains and buses but it seems that the locals love to cycle here. 

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The highlights of the city of Lucerne are definitely the Chapel Bridge and Water Tower. The Chapel Bridge is a covered wooden footbridge spanning diagonally across the Reuss River. The bridge is decorated with pretty flowers at its side. It is a popular attraction with the tourists and rumour says that if you come and walk across to the other side of the river via Chapel Bridge with your loved one, your love will lasts for eternity. 

The unique feature of the Chapel Bridge is the interior paintings displayed under its rooftop. These paintings dated back to the 17th century. It is a pity though that many of them were destroyed along with most of the centuries-old bridge in a 1993 fire.

From the Chapel Bridge, you can see the riverbanks of Reuss River. The riverbank is basically filled with a lot of cafes and restaurants. The setting is kinda similar to Boat Quay area in Singapore. 

If you see the Chapel Bridge, you will notice that there is a Water Tower in the middle of the bridge. The Water Tower is not named because of its function of storing water or anything. It was simply named as "Water Tower" because it is built on top of the water. Simplicity in the complex world. 

How to go to Lucerne:

If you are going to Switzerland by taking a flight, the nearest airport to Lucerne is in Zurich. From Zurich airport to Lucerne, you can take a direct train. The direct train from Zurich Airport to Lucerne will depart every hour. The total train ride is approximately 60 minutes. 

Alternatively, you can take train from Zurich Main Station. The total train ride to Lucerne from Zurich Main Station is approximately 45 minutes. 

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Lucerne City at Night Time

I was so surprised to find out that the hotel which I stayed back then in 2011, NH Hotel, has now changed its name to Ibis Styles Lucerne. Some reviews over at Tripadvisor mentions that the hotel has changed names at least three times. Not sure what's wrong with the hotel management but anyway...

After having dinner at the hotel, we wander out to see Lucerne city at night time. Our hotel is within walking distance to the city centre area where you can see the world-famous sights in Lucerne, the Chapel Bridge and the octagonal Water Tower. The night lights on the bridge are reflected nicely on the lake. 

There are not much things to see around 8PM so our tour guide brought us to the train station to see what store still opens at this timing. As expected, the train station feels so void. It is really different pace from the Asian culture, whereby the train stations in Asia are still bustling mad at 8PM. Okay, to be honest, the business of Asian train stations last until the last train near midnight. So, this is new to me. Hahaha. 

Saw a funny advert about lottery. Why the advert mentions the word "lose" at the bottom? Wondering if this means to stop people from gambling because they can lose whatever they earn anytime. 

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Thankfully, there is one mini market which was still opened in the train station. When you are in Switzerland, you must buy a lot of chocolates. So many limited edition chocolate from Switzerland's famous chocolate brands like Lindt. Even the Ritter Sport looks different in Switzerland. I have never seen this flavor called Stracciatella before. Mind you, all these chocolates are bought in the normal train station mini market. 

Other than the chocolates, we also tried different kind of biscuits and cookies. All of them looks quite interesting and yummy. 

All the other stores apart from the mini market have closed so we wandered back to our hotel. One last picture of the Chapel Bridge before we wrapped up the day. 

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