Our plan for today was to split up for a few hours. Katrina wanted to visit the Rossengart - Picasso Museum. Brandon and I wanted to visit the Swiss Transportation Museum again. I say again because we visited the museum last August on our first trip to Luzern.
We woke up to cloudy skies and a bit of rain. Thank goodness Katrina remembered her Swiss umbrella.
Older Ducati in the old town of Luzern
After some breakfast at a nearby cafe, we headed to our respective museums. Katrina headed through the old town in search of her museum. Brandon and I caught a bus to the transportation museum.
The Swiss Transportation Museum (Verkehrshaus) is an enormous complex of buildings. Inside you can find exhibits on all modes of transportation.
Brandon and I started out by visiting the train section. Did you expect anything else...ha! We checked out the model train layout, viewed an exhibit on the Gotthard Tunnel, and meandered through all the trains on display.
Brandon takes a peek under the front of a locomotive, then prepares to take it for a drive!
Switzerland model train layout
Gauges, pipes and gears
You decide what the caption should say.....leave me a message!
Our next stop was the automobile building. The display inside here is amazing. All the cars are displayed shelves. The shelves are about 3 stories high. A computerized loader moves back and forth picking cars to bring down for display on the turntable. Visitors get to play a quick computer game at monitors around the turntable. The results of this game tell the computer which car to bring down for display. Very high tech and cool.
The next building was full of ships and various alpine lifts. Along with several full size boats and ships, there is a large display of model ships. There is also a working scale model of locks raising and lowering ships. On the third floor is where all the alpine lifts are. There is also an intersting floor map of Switzerland...kind of like GoogleMaps.
Time for lunch. I enjoyed a brat with fries and beer. Brandon had pasta, his usual default dish.
After lunch we made our way into the aviation building. Inside this building is a great display of planes, helicopters, space equipment, as well as the entrance to a full size Swiss Air Coronado.
A good astronaut can spin until the average man would puke.
Oxygen...I need more oxygen
Flying 1st Class
Flying a small plane...if you lean it helps control the plane!
Brandon takes the Wright Brothers plane for a ride
At 3pm we headed to the planetarium to see "Stella Nova". It was an interesting show, but very relaxing and dark. I almost fell asleep many times.
Before leaving the museum, Brandon wanted to go out to the courtyard and ride the tractors in the construction zone. He played for about 20 minutes before we headed back into town to meet Katrina.
We decided to walk back to town, which takes about 20 minutes. The path to town follows along the lakefront. Partway to the marina, where we would meet Katrina, we heard and spotted fighter jets overhead. They circled over the city several times. We are pretty sure there was an air show going on at the airport.
We found Katrina sitting on a bench along the waterfront. She was hungry, so we headed into the craziness of the Blue Balls festival. This is an annual music festival that the city sponsors. We found some Indian curry for a 'snack'.
Brandon tries some Curry Brat.
The concert hall lit up for the evening concert. The big name acts played here while the smaller bands played on the waterfront.
We spent the evening wandering around Luzern. Katrina took quite a few pictures and we shopped a little bit, very little bit. All the shops in Luzern seem to close very early.
I did not know that nude rock climbing was a sport. It looks a bit uncomfortable.
The Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrucke)
Historical paintings on the Chapel Bridge.
We finished off the evening with some deep fried apples covered in vanilla sauce before heading back to the hotel.
It was a good first day in Switzerland. Tomorrow we head up Mt. Pilatus...
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