Like many ancient cities, Lucerne was a walled city, with watchtowers, and also covered bridges which protected merchants and citizens during a time of hostilities.  Here are some shots of these beautiful decorated bridges. The paintings in that part of the covered bridge are original, but unfortunately there was a fire in the recent past that burned up half the bridge, which is now restored as our local guide explained.    What you see above is however original. Read more

This is the famous Mardis Gras building. And yes, Mardis Gras happens in Europe too.  Again this is the celebration just before Ash Wednesday.  Lucerne is  a (nominally) Catholic town with Catholic cathedrals downtown, where as Zurich has only Protestant churches downtown, including Zwingli’s Grossmunster. Today this is the Hotel of the Scales— i.e. the building was once a judicial building, a court.     Even the door frames are ornate. Read more

One of the must see items in Lucerne (which is a small town of about 80,000 compared to nearby Zurich or Munich) is the lion of Lucerne. And as one famous tourist once quipped, there is no sadder lion on earth.  The carving in stone is a memorial to the Swiss Guards who lost their lives fighting the French. Wait, you may say, I thought the Swiss were a neutral nation? Yes, famously they have been and are. BUT, the... Read more

The church of all nations is at the base of the Mt. of Olives, and within the confines of the traditional site of the Garden of Gethsemane, which determines so much about the inside of the church  Antonio Barluzzi (who also did the beautiful round chapel at Shepherd’s Fields).  This church was built at the end of WWI, between 1919-24, a very different church than the church of the Nativity.  Pilgrims like us usually get there by walking down from... Read more

You may forgive the foreigner who thinks of the Swiss as rather, well— neutral, controlled, emotions in check.  But here in the wine market which was in this square in Lucerne, one finds the painting of the Last Supper on the wall, with the Swiss German inscription above. You have to remember that Lent precedes Easter, and traditionally people fast during Lent and the celebrate at Easter. And that is precisely what this little ditty is about— about the Burger... Read more

At the end of WWII my father was given a furlough in Switzerland, specifically in Lucerne. While he was there in 1945 he bought an Omega watch, at a little shop around the corner from the famous Bucherer watch shop, which had been ticking along since 1888, and still is going strong (see the pictures below). My father wore his Omega throughout his adult life, and then we found it in his effects when cleaning things up in Wilmington N.C. ... Read more

The Van Gogh immersion experience has been going on for many months now touring the country, and Ann and I finally had a chance to get to Cincinnati and see it Sunday August 21.  It is well worth the effort.  Some of our favorite 19-20th century artists are the Impressionists, and Vincent is of course one of them.  Set to the music of audio impressionists like Debussy and Satie and St. Saens and even Ravel this exhibit is a home... Read more

Remember when we used to hang our dirty laundry on clothes lines with actual clothes pens?  Well now that has been replaced with people hanging their venting and ranting out in the front yard with home made signs.  With yard signs there’s more room and more scope for comment, as we shall now see.  My question is, do you really want to accept the consequences of such public rants?   Do you enjoy alienating and annoying your neighbors?  Just wondering. This... Read more

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Having just spent some weeks in Europe as well as all over the Lands of the Bible, one thing that was noticeably and mercifully absent was bumper stickers.  I saw almost none on the thousands of cars I saw.  Americans on the other hand wear their hearts on their bumpers, not their sleeves.  And sometimes its way over the top.  For example, Never mind the fact that if a driver actually tries to read all or some of these stickers... Read more