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I'm Luzern'ing for You

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So somedays you get up and you just feel like it's time for an adventure. Today we got up today and decided to go to Lucerne (Luzern if we're speaking Swiss!). It was a bit of a spontaneous decision and a split decision. Kara said let's go. David said it's supposed to rain all day. David eventually came around.

We stopped to get coffee at a cafe in SBB after getting our half price train cards! These are a great deal if you are going to be doing a lot of traveling via train. It's 185 CHF for the first year, 165 CHF thereafter but you get train tickets in Switzerland at half price so it can pay for itself fairly quickly.

Kids under 6 ride free on the train!
The coffee at SBB was delicious. We got it at Cafe Spettacolo in case you're stopping by. They have the equivalent of Mocha! And schoggi gipfel (chocolate croissants). I can attest both were very chocolatey. :)

We were traveling there during Zavi's nap time. He was fussy but luckily it was fairly empty so his cries didn't both too many people. He also attempted to go through an automatic sliding door out into the embarkation area on the train. That was fun to watch. He eventually fell asleep though and we arrived in just an hour to Luzern.
Wilkommen!
Z slept through his first few moments in Luzern
As you pull into the train station, you can already see the snow-capped mountains around Luzern. Right away when you step off the train, you're at the lake. There were tons of tourists there yesterday (Easter Saturday).

Since the rain had held off, we decided to walk to the Lido area. This is a little beach and a huge playground about a 30 minute walk from the main part of town.
Beautiful tree-lined path around the lake.
Lido beach area - bet this is awesome in summer. We'll have to return.
First, though, how could we not walk across the old wooden bridge? Not exactly stroller friendly to get up and down the stairs but it worked anyway.
The old wooden bridge with the Aldstadt (old town) behind

Amaya rubbing her eyes from the sun - what rain?!

The view from the lake is really stunning. Of course, pics can't do it justice - you have to see it for yourself! I'm sure it's even more stunning on a clear day.
One of the many beautiful swans in the Lake 
You can see the two big mountains and you can also watch the boats going across. We didn't make time on this trip to do the mountains. I have read you can go up Mt. Rigi or Mt. Pilatus but I think this would have taken a little more advanced planning than we did. Plus, Z is teething big time and was unhappy pretty much the entire day so we tried to keep things low key. We also didn't make it to the Transportation Museum even though we were right there (it's at the aforementioned Lido area). It looked awesome - we walked around it. But again - kids weren't quite up for it at the time. Next trip!
In front of the transportation museum. We could see planes and a little train inside. 
Next time, we'll make it a stop!
Found a place to dip our toes into the Luzernsee. It was cold!

Just because the beach was closed doesn't mean we couldn't find a place to test the waters.

Beauty rest on the way back to the train station.

Another napper!

Another day of fun adventuring behind us! Annnnd back to Basel nice and tired.

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