A while back I went to Lucerne, Switzerland. I did the tourist thing and took photos, a few of which are below. It was cloudy for most of the day, which provides a good light for photos in cases where you want to avoid high contrast, but it keeps the colors from being as vivid as they are in life. I have many other photos I may touch up a bit before posting them.

Click on any of the thumbnails to see a larger image.

Here was my first view of the center of town. The specks in the sky are not a defect of the camera, they are birds:

And here is looking in the other direction down the river, taken from the bridge that can be seen in the first photo:

The prominent building here that looks like a church may not be one. A plaque on the side (assuming my interpretation of the German is even close) says it is a school:

Many buildings had painted facades. This one has both German and French written on it:

This building was a little more flamboyant:

Despite being historically neutral, Switzerland does have a military history. One of the main sources of income for Lucerne from the 15th to at least the 18th century were from the “Swiss Guard” mercenaries they supplied for wars throughout Europe. Incidentally, these mercenaries were not volunteers. The Swiss Guards at the Vatican are a reminder of that martial past.

Another reminder of that past is in the remnants of the wall that protected Lucerne. Here is a tower in that wall, on the side that faces the city. I do not know if the clock was originally installed when the tower was built:

A view along the wall from inside one of the towers:

Here is how the wall descends down to the river as viewed from the last tower before the one at the riverside:

And here is how the town the wall was built to defend looks from the same tower:

There are two museums in Lucerne that have fairly extensive collections of works by Picasso. I was able to see them, but as is usual and expected in museums, photos were not allowed. We had some other, more “interesting” experiences in museums there that I’ll write about later, along with some other observations and possibly putting up a few more photos, after I clean them up a bit.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Updating the first post to test the system.

Popularity: 33% [?]