Lucerne, Switzerland: Day 1, part 2 (First Night)

An hour after arrival, we were back on the bus for a very short ride to the Chapel Bridge area. The reason behind this is for the tour manager to familiarize us with the area by showing us where to stop and how to go back to the hotel. Here in Lucerne no dinner was included, thus we were all responsible for our own dinner. Along the length of the road (Haldenstrasse) from the hotel up to this point, near the bridge there were several restaurants to choose from, however, we were not too keen on a sit down dinner. Plus, we were more interested in exploring this area than having dinner.

After the tour manager left, the three of us explored the neighborhood. We visited a small church, walked on old stone streets, and crossed a bridge.

St. Peter's Chapel (Peterskapelle) is the oldest religious building in the city and first documented in 1178.

Fritschibrunnen (Fritschi Fountain)

The Chapel Bridge at night. It is Europe's oldest covered wooden bridge and the world's oldest surviving truss bridge.

The Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke) in Lucerne, Switzerland, features a unique 17th-century interior cycle of triangular gable paintings. Commissioned around 1–11 under town clerk Renward Cysat, these panels depict Swiss history, local events, and the lives of Lucerne’s patron saints, St. Leger and St. Maurice. A devastating fire in 1993 destroyed or severely damaged over a hundred of the original 147 panels, but about 30 charred and surviving works have been restored.

While we were on the bridge, we were all startled by a noise coming from across the Reuss River along the line of restaurants. It was people shouting or singing(?). My initial response aside from shock was horrified, but then I came to my senses and realized that I'm in Switzerland and the probability that this is something bad is very low (in my mind).

Someone told the husband that this is sort of thing happens before winter, some kind of festival to ward off evil spirits or something. I've been researching this "festival" for months and have yet come up with one credible (in my mind) answer. Does anyone know what this is about? Because on the other side of the river, there's another group parading around as Leprechauns.

My phone was busy snapping, I was really like a kid in the candy store.

The Jesuit Church.

Around this time, we started to think aobut food. Earlier, the tour manager had mentioned that the train station at the end of this long road is another option since it houses many food shops.

The ground floor had a Coop (grocery store) and all three of us had the time of our lives going through the shelves. The store was very crowded.

Familiar name.

Husband and I loved this. We drank a few of this on this trip.

They still have pastries at this time of the day.

Empanadas or pizza for dinner? No on both.

Our choice was tuna poke bowl with black rice.

There is a Laduree inside the train station too. The goodies cost too much we were not tempted.

Going back to the hotel, we waited for the bus for about 10 minutes and decided to just walk, since it was a lovely evening and the walk is easily about 20-25 minutes. Besides that, we were walking along Lake Lucerne.

We also passed by the casino.

This trip/series was from Nov. 2025 just to clarify because as you can see there are Holiday lights and decors.