Well, this is the latest I've ever been with a trip report, and I'm feeling very guilty.

We started our trip in Luzern - flew into Zurich, rented a car and took off. We stayed at the Hotel Bellevue, outside the city center. There's a bus stop two feet away, and it's very easy to get into the city. Switzerland is expensive and it didn't seem worth the extra dollars to stay IN the city. We were booked for 3 nights.

Our first day we went into town, did our own pretty thorough walking tour (the old town is not very big). Luckily, it was a Tuesday and every Tuesday there's a fruit/vegetable/flower market, that was nice to walk through. When we went to find something for lunch, we first discovered how expensive food is in Switzerland. So we got smart and went into a bakery, and bought a great sandwich and a pastry and sat outside on a bench and ate - like MANY other people were doing.

My husband did a bike trip (with a free bike from the hotel in the afternoon, I rested. Dinner that night was.... awful - expensive and awful, easily the most expensive bad meal I've ever had traveling.

Wednesday was rainy all day - we went for a drive halfway around the lake. In the afternoon we went to the nicest small museum - The Rosengart. LOTS of Picasso, Klee, Chagall, Rothko, Bonnard, really a fabulous private collection, well worth a stop if you're in the area. Had a much nicer dinner at Opus - they have an incredible antipasti buffet that has anything you could want.

Thursday was cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining. Took the bus into town, and went to the Bourbaki Panorama, which is about the defeat of the French Army in the Franco-Prussian war, and them going into (neutral) Switzerland. Very well done.

We decided it was nice enough outside for the trip to Pilatus - a train to Alpenstadt, and then a cog wheel train straight up the mountain at a 45 degree angle. Beautiful views. Cloudy at the top (not entirely unexpected), we ate the sandwich we had wisely bought at the train station, and took a hike up to the high point - no beautiful vistas because of the clouds, but beautiful (and a little eerie) anwyway. Then a gondola jus for the 2 of us down to Krienz - again beautiful views once we left the clouds, took about half an hour. Then a bus to the Luzern Bahnhof and the bus to the hotel.

Dinner at Shanghai 3 (I wasdubious) but the food was great and the prices very reasonable. Getting up early the next day to head to Lauterbrunnen.

In general, I think Luzern is a lovely city, I wish we'd had better weather, but we managed nicely anyway.