Lucerne
Picture Postcard
Perfect Lucerne
By Jamie Ross
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There is just something about the place names in Switzerland that lends a feeling of sophistication and romance. My wife and I are people watching, sitting outside of The Café Rathaus on the banks of the River Ruess. We are nibbling on a tasty pretzel pastry and sipping on a wheat beer brewed right on the premises in big copper cauldrons and served in tall thin glass steins.
It is a beautiful, sunny Spring day, and the feeling of amour is in the air. Students, young men and ladies, flirt along the concrete boulevard that hugs the river bank. Elegant white swans float alongside looking for handouts. A refreshing breeze blows off of the turquoise waters of Lake Lucerne, twirling through the charming, medieval, cobblestone streets of Lucerne.
The idyllic town of 60,000 is one of the prettiest cities I have visited.
Built astride the river at the western tip of the lake, it has long served as the geographical and spiritual heart of Switzerland. After the opening of the Gotthard pass in the early 13th century, the city had grown wealthy as an important staging post on the route between Italy and northern Europe. It joined the young Swiss Confederation in 1332.
We had arrived in Lucerne that morning. After an hour rail
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