04/10/25 Powered By Pastry.

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The sun shone, clouds streamed across the sky and boiled over the big mountains.  Tourists thronged the streets.

We had pastry for breakfast on what was rapidly becoming a pastry-powered holiday.  I would need to buy elastic-waisted pants if this kept up.

Roger and Steve went for regular short excursions, requiring my company because Steve's wheels didn't cope too well with steps.  Market stalls popped up in the cobbled alleyways and platz of the old town, and we explored it all on multiple short walks.  



I discovered that Switzerland does birthday postcards, not cards. I can't send someone a postcard for their birthday, it just doesn't seem right.

In between short walks I did frustrating paperwork, thanking my lucky stars that I lugged a tablet overseas with me. I would have gone quite mad trying to do it all on my phone.

The needle dam was just down the end of our street


A truly mind boggling (to my Australian eyes anyway) volume of water ran through Lucerne in the river Reusse. The current, deceptively benign in the lake, roared through narrow points with no hint of easing flow. Waterbirds struggled manfully (bird fully?) to paddle against the current and the glassy clarity of the water allowed me to watch them dive to the bottom to forage on the clumps of water weeds that persisted despite the current.

Today was Saturday and it had finally sunk in that all the shops would be closed on Sunday, so my post-paperwork reward was picking through the 50% off specials at Coop to cobble together nutrition for the next 48 hours.  To think that a week ago I was just arriving in Lucerne after riding the ferry and catching the train and traipsing around lugging heavy baggage which Roger threw willy nilly into the overhead storage.  My, how the mighty have fallen.

Mind you, having the time to explore properly was nice.  I found lots of little back alleys and short cuts, fancy little fountains and random decorated buildings.  

After a day of practice Roger and Steve had their routine down pat and were negotiating steps and doorways like the pastry powered pros at least one of them was, which meant my mind turned to the possibility of longer excursions and exploration of all the bits of Lucerne that I hadn't yet seen. Patience was needed, taking things one pastry at a time.

The afternoon came in rainy and put a stop to the short walks outside.  Roger and Steve cracked laps in the unit instead and bemoaned the absence of a long hotel hallway just when one was needed.  We had bananas for tea, a detail I'm sure you wanted to know.

Thus went the day.


 

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