Live by the Sun - Love by the Moon: DAY 104

July 1 - I want to go home...to Bad Ragaz

Don't get me wrong, Lucerne was a BEAUTIFUL place, but why are there so many tourists? Well...I guess I was one of them. They/we were EVERYWHERE! But before we go to Lucerne.....

I said in my last post that Rahel was 8 months pregnant. She is really more like 8 ½ and could deliver any time. BREAKFAST TIME everyone...

What a wonderful family we stayed with. We sure love them

Since she had a doctor's appointment this morning, I had the difficult task of watching Amelie (not hard to do as she is a joy!) Patric has been working on his Master's thesis project this whole summer, and has a deadline, so he was unavailable to help. I gladly accepted the challenge, so off we went – Amelie and I went to the park.

On the way we saw some ducks and swans and a flock of sheep under some trees. Then we went to her favorite park. She had a lot of fun trying to scare me half to death.

OK - I used to be agile and daring, but that was a few years back. I now have artificial hips and I'm older. Amelie evidently has done this apparatus before, but remember...she is only 3 and I am in charge of her life (and mine). She wouldn't have it any other way - we were going up and across and down. Also, she only speaks Swiss - right?

UP UP the log staircase

Count them....there must be a dozen notches on that log.

ACROSS the tight rope - I went behind her holding her hand (I think she held mine) and as we crossed, it would tip to the side depending on our balance and I think I held my breath the entire 3 minute walk over.

I can't believe we made it all in one piece.

BUT the adventure was not over yet. The only way to get down was to go back over the tight wire or to go down the slide. ha! I haven't gone down this kind of slide since I went to a water park with my young children, probably 30 years ago. OK....I can do this. How hard can it be? Really!!???

You've got to be kidding? We're going down that slide? Can I really fit?

Come on Shari - You can do it! Here I go.

Eek! Who is going to catch Amelie? Obviously, it won't be me. Well, she went and I went and we came out alive. Then she did it over and over again, but I wouldn't let her go up the same way. I was definitely not going to do that again. (EVER!)

She went flying down it jumping off at the end. She was amazing!

Amelie just wouldn't let me take out her "binky". She was pretty adamant about keeping it in her mouth. She would climb up this other kind of rope, which still scared me half to death, but another little girl about 5 years old would lift her up at the end and also help to catch Amelie. I don't think she needed her to, though.

She wore her "princess shoes" which looked a little too big for her.

Here - I'll catch you.

"Let's play house - ok?"

"I'll be the little girl."

"Thanks Mommy; that is very good food."

I had such fun taking pictures of Amelie and the other girl playing in a little play house.

I really miss you, Jeremy, Benjamin, Donovan, Kaitlynn, Madison, Kylianne, Zaylia, Jazilyn, Hailey, Dallin, Elianna, Carter, and Eliza.

"This is a fun toy, too - hop on, Shari."

Rich, meanwhile, went on a bike ride to Tamina Gorge and saw some amazing scenery.

Despite the fact that the gorge is only 1/2 km. long, it is very beautiful and mystical. The Tamina River washes out the river bed by 1 cm per year, so that the cliffs are quite high, sometimes coming together at the top, so that one has the impression to be in a cave. At the end of the short walk to the inside, you can see the warm springs of the Tamina flow.

It is around 36 degrees (C.)when it comes out. (That is about 97 degrees F.) The water takes 10 years to reach this spring and comes from the higher situated regions through infiltration.

Enjoy some of the other scenery that Rich saw on his afternoon bike ride.

Time for LUNCH. YUM YUM!

Pasta with a basil alfredo sauce. Amelie loved it, too.

Patric needed some time in the big city of Lucerne (a two hour drive) at the University doing some research. So, after Rahel got home, I tagged along with Patric to sight-see in the city. Rich stayed home to work on the computer.

The drive was absolutely stunning. It was mostly a clear day, so we could see each jagged edge from every peak. It was a beautiful sight.

I took these photos from the front seat of the car.

In Lucerne, I had 7 hours to walk around and see everything I wanted to see.

In Idaho Falls we feed the ducks and geese, but here, it's the swans.
They were EVERYWHERE.

Church of St. Leodegar

I then went into the BUCHERER Factory. It was in 1888 that businessman and industrialist Carl-Friedrich Bucherer opened his first watch and jewelry store in Lucerne, Switzerland, thus laying the foundations for a successful family business.

BUCHERER store about 1960

Today, more than one hundred years later, BUCHERER leads the Swiss watch and jewelry retail sector.

There were Asians everywhere with LOTS of money as some of the watches were $25 K

Spreuer Bridge is an old, covered wooden bridge with ancient paintings under its roof

Spreuer Bridge also served as part of the medieval city fortifications. It was at the lower end of town, so in Medieval times, sewage was allowed to be dumped over the bridge. eewwww!

I'm sure glad that sewage is no long dumped into the river, at least here it's not.

Here is one of the paintings representing a Dance of Death. We all must go through it.

Even the beautiful lady will not escape death.

I had an interesting experience. Two young ladies came up to me and asked if I would like them to offer a prayer for me. After chatting with them awhile, I found out that they were just going around and asking people to pray with them and offering their assistance or good wishes to have a nice day. They also gave me a piece of paper with a scripture from the Bible on it. It was actually a very nice gesture and a good conversation that I had with them.

Such nice young ladies to go around praying for people.

My new Swiss friend - looks like Pinocchio

Don't forget - Wagner's 200th birthday is this year.

I enjoyed walking around the city, but headed uphill to The Wall and the 9 Towers. I climbed up into one tower and looked high over the city. It was about 300 steps.

Musegg Wall: A part of the old rampart walls built in 1386.

The view was amazing....towards the Alps to the South.

I saw the sun go down. These pictures do not even come close to the beauty.

A large mansion up on the hill where I overlooked the city of Lucerne.

The city walls are still almost all nearly intact.

The Hotel Château Gütsch, a landmark in Lucerne, recently got a makeover. The fairytale castle hotel, built in 1888, went bankrupt a few years ago, and was sold to a firm of Russian investors.