Appenzell, Switzerland - A Small Swiss Town

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When Catherine and I left Lucerne, we drove to Appenzell had dinner and rented a room for the night.

Appenzell is both a canton and a town of 5,000 in Eastern Switzerland. It is most famous for its annual Landesgemeinde, an open-air parliament where citizens vote directly on major issues instead of trusting elected officials to make decisions for them. Only men were allowed to vote until 1991, when the Swiss Supreme Court ruled that excluding women was unconstitutional.

On special occasions, you'll see Appenzellers decked out in regional costume, and Appenzell has long been one of Switzerland's most active centers for yodeling, alphorn playing, and other expressions of Swiss musical tradition. The local houses are also distinctive, with their painted facades and attached barns.

I never understood the Swiss affection for gnomes.

We rented a room (zimmer) in a house in Appenzell. The rooms were basic but clean and comfortable.


Appenzell is alsp known for Appenzeller cheese, a hard cow's-milk cheese produced in this region.

The outside of the house where we rented a room.

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Lucerne, Switzerland - Part II

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Bertel Thorvaldsen's hillside carving of a dying lion (the Lion Monument, or Löwendenkmal) is found in a small park just off Lowenplatz. The carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when the mob stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.

One of the Lucerne's famous landmarks is Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge first built in the 14th Century. This is a shot of the ceiling of the bridge. Inside the bridge are a series of paintings from the 17th century depicting events from Luzern's history that you can see in this shot.


Near the Chapel Bridge, just a few steps from the Reuss River, we had a nice lunch at a Rossini's sidewalk cafe.

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Catherine on a pedestrian street in Lucerne, Switzerland

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View of a hotel lobby near Lake Lucerne.




View of the men's room at a hotel across from Lake Lucerne.



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Catherine and me in front of the Lion Monument.



The ship Wilhelm Tell on the Lake Lucerne.


Lake Lucerne


Catherine in the Train Station at Lucerne. We parked at the train station and noticed a school inside the train station and what looked like automotive classes.

View of the train tracks at Lucerne's train station.

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Lucerne, Switzerland

The pictures ENLARGE if you click on them.Lucerne is located on the shore of Lake Lucerne within sight of Mounts Pilatus and Rigi.

After Catherine and I left Lauterbrunnen, we drove to Lucerne, Switzerland.

Catherine in front of the train station at Lucerne.

It looks like Catherine is trying to pick out some entertainment for the night.

The telephone booths are much nicer than what we have at home, they even have Internet access.

Some sort of water fowl on Lake Lucerne.

One of the city's famous landmarks is Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge first built in the 14th Century.

A view from Chapel Bridge.

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