Lucerne-Basel-COLMAR! - Thur. - Sept.30

The coat of arms for .. Colmar, France.

Just when you think this trip would slow down and have a little relax-time, .. nope - what you see makes you want to see more and more.   My feet are shredded !!

The day started with a wonderful breakfast at our hotel!  European hotels celebrate breakfast!

Here's a couple views from our window in Lucerne :

We checked out and started 'hauling' our large suitcases down the cobble-stone streets towards the train station and found a few more picture opportunities! :

Here's Jan - she's excited for another train day!

Found our platform and train and headed to Basel.  I had researched our transfer in Basel to Colmar.  We came in on 11 and needed to get over to 31.   Our train was several minutes late and we had to hustle again.  Thank goodness they had escalators!  Sat down heavy!

One thing apparent right away .. was that French trains go WAY faster than the Swiss ones.  Yikes!

Arrived in Colmar to this beautiful rail station :

built in 1903-1906 .. same design as Gdansk,Poland..

and, right across the street - our hotel!  Great job, Jan!

We left our bags and backpacks at the hotel and started walking to the old town area.   Let me preface the rest of this post narrative and pictures by saying that we originally intended for Colmar to be but a base to explore the medieval town of .. Riquewihr.  Much to our pleasant surprise Colmar is a very picturesque town !!

Indeed, it's a  ... FAIRYTALE village !!

We were flabbergasted!  We kept finding street after street after town square and churches .. and ..

The following pic's started with old town, the 'little Venice', then the fishmonger district :

Ruth Ann- we discovered their indoor food market housed in an old building :

this building was built in 1865 

and .. our feet and eyes kept taking us to interesting sights and sounds ..

and then, around the corner ..

this magnificent church .. Collegiale Saint-Martin

built in 1234-1365 .. let's have a few more looks :

I sure love visiting churches and cathedrals !!

What a fun day!   Exploration surprises galore!

We'll have a relaxing dinner in the hotel restaurant and give our feet a rest.  Maybe I can convince Jan to try some ... snails!! ... NOT!

Rester, C'est exister, mais voyager, c'est vivre !!

Trains-trains- Lucerne - Wed. - Sept.29

The Matterhorn was covered in clouds this morning.

We were so very fortunate to have seen it in all of its glory yesterday!   And to have such good weather to explore beautiful Zermatt.   It's a pilgrimage for the outdoors oriented adventurers.

Time to train travel.   Hiked and rolled our suitcases over to the train station for the first short connection at Visp.   Here's a few views as we headed down the river Vispa as it cut a gorge through the mountains, descending 2,135 feet from Zermatt :

When I had researched which platforms our trains during the day will be, well, since we only had 11-min. in Visp, and it is a small station, as it turned out, if Jan wouldn't have confirmed the platform when we arrived we would've been really scrambling.  It changed from platform-4 to 5.   And a nice Swiss lady double confirmed it for us!   We had a couple minutes to breathe easier.   But ... we (I) had a casualty.  In the frantic efforts to leave the train and hustle down and up the ramps to change platforms .. I left my hat on the train.  My John Helmer Haberdasher stylin' gray fedora.

It's now on an adventure by itself travelling the Swiss rails!  It will see some pretty country.

On to Bern .. our hearts are slowing down.

Excitement was plentiful when we reached Bern.  We knew we only had 6-min.! to go from platform-2 to platform-8.   We arrived about a minute late, had to go down the ramp to the center area, then over and then up another ramp, and as they were about to close the doors we screamed at the trainman and barely squeezed through the door with our luggage.  Door closed and the train started down the tracks with us holding on.  We found some seats with our large suitcases and sat down out of breath!  Last leg for the day achieved!   On to Lucerne.

One of the route stops was in interesting .. Zofingen.

Arrived ready for more adventures in Lucerne.

A few pics as we walked to our hotel :

We checked in, freshened up, and left for lunch and Joe's adventurous plan of hiking up the hills to walk along the medieval Musegg wall and it's watchtowers.

distracted by another interesting business sign :

The Musegg wall is 2,854 feet long and 30-ft. high.

There are (9) of the original (30) surviving watchtowers left.  Most all of this was built in the 12th and 13th centuries as the city fortifications.

We climbed part way up one of the middle ones.

Here's a map of how they're strung out :

You'll see pic's of looking out from the top of no.2 looking across at the city .. awesome views!

Here's the little guy on the top of our spire :

Whew! What a tower hike!  136 steps x 9" rise = 102 ft. of stairs.   

We hiked back down the hill.   Here's pic of no.1 :

A short hike back to the hotel, but first, a stop for some gelato!    After a well-deserved rest after a crazy travel day we went to dinner at Pfistern Restaurant down on the river.   It was established in 1578 !   

What a day!   Hopefully tomorrow's train travel won't be as hectic!   On to Basel then transfer to a train to Colmar, France.   A couple of days there before continuing on to Paris.

Viva la France!