Lucerne - Swiss National Yodelling Festival (Part 2)

We're here at Lucerne again :)
We love this place for its beautiful lake and its scenery where the alps within sight.

For this trip, we explored the towers and Uncle Tan took the 2-hr cruise on Lake Lucerne, recommended by his colleague.


At the train station, we saw groups of people wearing their traditional costumes and were wondering if they was a performance somewhere. We realised later that they were going to attend the 27th Swiss National Yodelling Festival at Lucerne :)

When we stepped out of the train station, we were stunned by the crowd. It was so packed that we were moving very slowly. As usual, we headed to the Tourism Info office for an updated map. We were lucky to have met a very friendly and jovial staff who gave us valuable information and even joked with us. Hmm...I'm beginning to love the senior citizens here more and more :)


The entire bridge was lined with stalls selling food and drinks. Hence, we couldn't really have a good view of the alps this time as they had constructed the 'yodelling village' around the lake front. But we were quite lucky to be here to witness one of Switzerland's greatest and best known events - The Swiss National Yodelling Festival.

Held for 3 days from Jun 26-29, the festival would expect over 200'000 spectators and more than 12’000 yodelers, alphorn players and flag swingers, taking part in different contests. According to one old couple Uncle Tan met on the cruise, they said that this festival is held once every 4 years and this time, it was held in Lucerne.

The bridge was bare when we were here in Spring. Now it has been adorned with flowers.

It was sunny but the temperature was cooler than in Zurich. I had goosebumps as and when the breeze came ;p

The place was packed with people in traditional costumes, tentages and the air was filled with grilled food...so tempting...





There was a flea market here too :) But too crowded to be able to really have a good look...



Hehe, couldn't resist the temptation... ;p



This is the other wooden bridge called Spreuer Bridge which we didn't cross the other time. Similar to the Chapel Bridge, it is an old, covered wooden bridge with ancient paintings under its roof and the painting here represent a Dance of Death. It is located the lower end of Lucerne and the people were only allowed to throw Spreu (chaffs of wheat) into River Reuss from this lowest bridge in town. Hence its name, Spreuer Bridge.

The bridge was erected in the 14th century but was rebuilt in 1568 after it was destroyed by a storm. It also served as part of the medieval city fortifications although it was built to connect the mills with the baker's quarter on the left bank of River Reuss (cos they have to keep the fire in their stove alive at night so in order not to destroy the whole town, they had to stay there).



67 paintings dating from 1626 to 1635 represent a "Dance of Death". Death, represented as a skeleton urges everybody to dance with him i.e. to die. Death can happen to anyone and makes no distinction between old and young, churchmen and laymen, rich and poor. This kind of paintings were often placed on cemetery walls where they expressed people's feeling in the face of death especially during times of epidemic pestilence.

Musegg Wall & Tower

Signage indicating the way to the Musegg Wall and Tower.

The small arrow with the picture of 3 towers. Not a prominent sign ya...









Walking backwards up to lessen the strain on my thigh muscles.

Finally made it to the entrance...phew!

More climbing to do...and it's literally 'climbing' up the stairs...I didn't regret wearing a skirt thou cos there weren't many people around as we climbed and it was much 'airier' when the heat gets going hehe ;p

Made it to the top.

I was actually quite jittery here due to the height. The other side were just grilles merely at waist-level...imagine the soldiers have to defend by standing up here? I wonder how many had fell and injured themselves...



A part of the rampant walls built in 1386 with the wall almost entirely intact. 3 towers are open to the public: Schirmer, Zyt and Mannli. The oldest city clock is on the Zyt tower, which was privledged to chime every hour one minute before all the other city clocks. We didn't climb this tower thou but managed to hear it chime as we walked out.

Wa, green green grass!

Now my calf muscles at work.

Back to the old town where Uncle Tan would be taking the 2 hour lake cruise after lunch and I, of course go for my shopping spree here with all the sales going on :) But sad to say, I didn't have much time left as the shops here close at 4pm on Sat...too early!!!

Cruise on Lake Lucerne

The lake here seems no different from the sea ya?

The majestic alps from afar.

Though it was a clear day, the pictures still turned out foggy.

No more snow-covered peaks as the snow melts in summer.

Uncle Tan had to stop at Weggis to take the return trip back. It takes about 30 mins for the boat to arrive, so he took a walk around this place which is like a resort with many hotels and resorts.

Did you see the Swiss flag?

OMG, look at the crowd at the beach!!

One last look at the beautiful alps.

Back on mainland, you could see more groups of people performing - anywhere and everywhere. There were no fix venues or schedules and the festival will supposedly last till midnight.

Trying to play the alphorn.

hehe, this chicken is so cute :>

and this cow too ;>

And we saw this interesting guy providing some sort of nail polishing service...hmm...wearing a bathrobe...

We didn't want to squeeze with the overwhelming crowd later so decided to head back to Zurich for dinner since the food there were mostly grilled sausages. A hot, tiring but interesting day.

Lucerne, we'll be back :)