Rather than get Foxy out we decided to walk up to Ballenberg, it was a glorious morning and it was only a couple of kilometres to the museum. Museum, well not in the usual sense but it is a collection just of big house shaped things! There are over 200 buildings from pretty much every corner of Switzerland dismantled and rebuilt here as a kind of national archive. They are grouped regionally and thematically, pretty much all of them look like they are in their natural surroundings. Maddy led, i followed and six hours after entering we left, foot sore and exhausted from the heat! We took the bus into Brienz proper for a quick look around then headed back to the campsite to eat and unwind for the evening.
Next morning we were on the move again, heading for Luzern so the first thing to do was cross the Brunig Pass, only 1000m but about 600m of climbing from the campsite which had Mad puffing a bit! then it was down past perfect blue lakes to Vierwaldstattersee and the Beckenreid - Gersau ferry. I'm sure we could have gone straight to Luzern but Mad wanted to use the ferry which added about 40 kilometres to the day's ride. We got to the camp site about four so after the usual stuff we walked into the city for a first look around, boy its a popular place.
We started our first day in Luzern bright and early as there was plenty to get in. We started with the Bourbaki Panorama, then the Alpineum, Lion Monument and Gletschergarten which took us to lunch. Then it was back out almost to the campsite for a visit to the Verkehrshaus, the Swiss National transport collection where we spent the rest of the day.
Day two in Luzern started a little cooler but warmed up through the day. We did a couple more museums, the History and Natural History collections before lunch then in the afternoon The city wall and Altstadt occupied us until it was time to head back to our canvas abode for the night. I've been to Luzern before but Maddy certainly drags you around some interesting places!
to be continued...
Nena Ziegler