Zurich, Lucerne, Basel

I spent this weekend in 3 beautiful cities in Switzerland. We stayed in Zurich for two nights, which was plenty, as Zurich is actually a relatively small city. It is a major Western European Metropolis with upscale shopping, beautiful lakes and scenery, and yummy chocolate shops! We went to a few churches, strolled along the streets, went to a huge botanical garden, where we saw Purana fish from the amazon, the largest flower in the world, and some other really exotic flowers. We also found an awesome lake with the Swiss Alps as the backdrop; this was the perfect spot to chill on the edge of the docks and indulge in the swiss chocolates we bought! 

On Sunday we left Zurich and visited Lucerne and Basel on our way back to Bonn. Lucerne was an incredibly beautiful city, and my favorite of the 3 that we visited. The whole town is adorned in medieval architecture and traditional Swiss homes. There are castle fortresses that surround the whole outer section of the town and even some monuments carved out of Glaciers! We walked the entire city including some of the outskirts, and treated ourselves to some Swiss pastries and Mochas afterward! : ) 

Arriving into Basel was quite the experience. Apparently in Basel, there is a parade of Fifers who play their fifens (kind of like a flute) all throughout the city every Sunday after Karnival, for 3 weeks, or until Easter. When we got there, we only saw a few small groups playing. This however suddenly spawned into over 10,000 fifers who dominated the city streets. We still managed to see a few major monuments here, including the Munster Church and the famous Medieval Guard Tower. So, incase you ever stroll into Basel on a Winter Sunday you know what you are getting yourself into!