Lucerne (or Luzern, or Lozärn) and Carnival Fever

Lucerne, one the more popular tourist destinations in Switzerland,  is less than an hour from Zürich by train.  Dennis visited it a year ago when he was in Switzerland and found it charming, so we bundled up the kiddies for a day of strolling and sightseeing.

This year, Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, or, as it is know here, Fasnachts, isn’t until March 8th.  So we were a little confused today when we walked off the train in Lucerne and found people looking like this:

and abandoned piles of instruments like this:

Not to mention the fact that the entire lower floor of the train station looked like this

Everyone drinking beer at no later than noon and swaying along to, of all things, marching band music.

This painted mural depicts Brother
Fritschi, a legendary character who leads
off Lucerne's Carnival parade.

We were planning on wandering around Lucerne for the day, but we spent a good half of our visit going no farther than the train station, for we’d had the good luck to stumble upon the 20th year of Fasnacht Fieber, or Carnival Fever, the fundraiser kickoff of the carnival season in Lucerne.

It’s been made clear to me that the Carnival season is quite a big deal in Switzerland, and while Zürich’s parade is something to behold (and we shall: Ella’s second grade class will be marching in the children’s parade!), it’s nothing compared to the celebrations in Basel and, even more so, Lucerne.

Luckily, the train station wasn’t so crowded that we couldn’t grab quick lunch and maneuver around to watch some of the dozens of costumed marching bands take their turn on the stairs.  Really, the whole party was one big battle of the marching bands. With beer.

Lucky kids, they had their first crêpes today.

And instead of beads, they were throwing confetti, lots and lots of it.  So much that I was still shedding confetti when we returned home for the day. (Apparently, during the true Carnival Weekend, paraders also throw oranges into the crowds. Ouch!)

The children, of course, went wild, and they immediately started kicking the beer and water-stained confetti into piles for collection. We opted, instead, to buy them each a bag to throw.  They still tried to augment their supply by catching falling confetti from the levels above, and Joey still preferred to harvest his confetti from the floor, throwing it one tiny fistful at a time, giggling as it fluttered down. Several times the kids unwittingly threw confetti at passersby, but instead of the disapproving looks I expected, the kid this time got grins and pats.

I’m sure the kids would have been perfectly happy to spend their entire visit in the train station, but there are other things to see in Lucerne.  Most famous is the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge) and the associated Wasserturm (water tower). This absolutely stunning bridge was built in 1333, and it is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe.

The inside of the bridge was decorated in the 17th century with some beautiful paintings depicting the history of Lucerne.

Tragically, in 1993, the bridge caught fire: a portion of the bridge had to be rebuilt, and many of these paintings were destroyed. We walked the length of the bridge, and Alex particularly liked watching the dozens of wild swans on the Reuss River below.

From there we walked through the tourist-oriented downtown, and the kids peered through windows at cuckoo clocks and cow bells and the Swiss Army knives, which both Ella and Alex covet something fierce.  All that whittling, you see.

The other most famous landmark of the city is the Löwendenkmal, or the Lion of Lucerne.  This sculpture was carved in memory of the Swiss Guards who died during the French Revolution.

We couldn’t stay long because the kids were getting squirrely, and a war memorial didn’t seem like a good place for their game of tag, so we left in search of a playground. They may be on every corner in Zürich, but Lucerne is a little less family-oriented.  We walked to several green-space parks and even went outside the city walls,

but we had no luck until we returned to the train station and found a small park around the corner.

At this point we’d been out for several hours and Joey was shivering, so we returned to the (only slightly) warmer train station for some more confetti and music until the hourly train back to Zürich arrived.

In other news, Dennis pointed out that this was our 10 1/2 year anniversary. Neat, huh?