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A TV team was so intrigued with one of them that they almost forgot about the anchors: it is far more photogenic! The zig-zagging Chapel Bridge cascaded with flowers and the paintings on its gables were eye-catching. On our last visit we had walked down the famous Chapel Bridge, with its Watertower, and returned on the Chaff Bridge or Spreuer-Brucke. The first was built in 1333, the second in 1407. These bridges formed part of the defences of the city but so interwoven was the civic life of the people with their faith that, in the 17th century, the citizens had religious paintings put up along the entire length of the Chapel and Chaff Bridges. The paintings on the Spreuer-Brucke, so called because the millers used to dump their chaff off it into the river, showed a rather more gloomy side of the Swiss character. It held the 400-year old Dance of Death paintings which we didn't feel would depict Good Times in Switzerland! Death, however, is an accepted hazard in the profession of arms. Lucerne supplied dedicated soldiers, the famed and unflinchingly loyal Swiss Guards, to the royal houses of Europe. We walked up from the lake, past an attractive square where the franchisees of Victorinox products fed a quacking family of wild ducks, and on to a beautiful little garden and a pool set against a limestone cliff. A large alcove had been scooped into the cliff and in it sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen had carved a dying lion. This was the famous Lion of Lucerne and it commemorates the sacrifice of the Swiss Guards who had died defending the last king of France, Louis XVI, during the French Revolution. Today, only the Pope has a Swiss Guard.
We also discovered exhibits of an even older time. Up a flight of steps from the Lion of Lucerne's garden is the unique Glacier Museum. A km-thick glacier had once covered Lucerne and ice-melt whirlpools had carved great wells in the hard rock, still preserved in the museum. An audio-visual captured an age of Mastodons and Wooly Mammoths and then offered the multiple illusions of a Hall of Mirrors with the unlikely effigy of a medieval Turk and his hookah in the midst of it all. Not quite as old as the glacial exhibits is the Church of St Francis Xavier. When we entered it we were surprised to find how much it resembled the World Heritage Jesuit churches of Old Goa. But we really shouldn't have been because, from 1574 to 1847, priests of the Jesuit order, to which St Xavier belonged, shaped Lucerne's religious and political life. And also this church. The Swiss take great pride in preserving their architectural heritage. Old houses are loved and protected and, in most places, even new buildings have to have a charming, traditional, character. We walked down narrow, cobbled, streets and listened to a quartet playing light classical music in the Weinmarkt square. When the flow of commercial traffic, via the St Gothard Pass, increased, trading became a major activity. In the Middle Ages, wine traders set up their establishments in the Weinmarkt and Passion plays were performed here. People, in those days, took much of their social and cultural inspiration from the Bible. They knew its tales and thronged to dramatisations of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. Leaving the Weinmarkt behind us, we came to the old Kornmarkt. The grain traders seemed to have been a shade richer than the wine merchants: the facades of their four-storey houses were as richly painted as if they had been panelled in tapestry! In our quest for the treasures we discovered the Rosengart Collection. The late Siegfried Rosengart had been an art dealer and a great friend of Pablo Picasso. We were given insights into the evolving talents of the world's most influential modernist by the collector's daughter, the elegant Angela Rosengart. She was also one of Picasso's models. Before we left Lucerne to explore more of Switzerland, we took a sundowner cruise on the river. Swiss cheese and wine, the starched white cross of Helvetia over our foaming wake as the historic shoreline of the lake unreeled past, gave us some unforgettable images. Then ashore, in the Stadthauskeller we let our hair down yodelling, dancing and dining at a Swiss folklore evening. The Swiss know how to enjoy themselves as efficiently as they do everything else.
By air: Zurich is well connected by international airlines. Further journey can on efficient Swiss rail system. Swiss rail passes can be bought in India in rupees. Contact Kunal Kothari of Rail Europe. (Mobile: 08097898809. Accommodation: Hotels cater to the wide range of visitors to suit every budget.
Globetrotting
(1) People feast on a raft as they travel down the Mtkvari River past the ancient Metekhi Church during the annual Tbilisoba City Day celebration in
Tbilisi. (2) Georgians walk during the annual Tbilisoba City Day celebration in Tbilisi.
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THE bridges define the town; and its incredibly blue lake. The blue is deceptive. Its glacial melt water is so clear that it reflects the blue of the high sky above it. The beauty of Lake Lucerene, or Luzern as it is sometimes called, set the course of its history and its legends. Three hundred years ago, monks were attracted by the serenity of the lake and built the Monastery of St Leodegar on its shores. The labourers attached to the monastery, settled around the great dwelling of the monks, and, in course of time, the settlement grew into a small village of fishermen plying their trade on the rich lake. Prosperity, however, really came to Lucerne when the famous St Gotthard Pass was opened through the Alps in 1220. The trade route from Italy to Germany now lay through Lucerne and the seeds of its commercial importance were firmly sown. This enchanting Swiss town has never looked back. Then there are its bridges.
Trip planner
Tbilisoba
