A cruise, a museum – how to spend time in Lucerne, Switzerland

After spending two days in Bellinzona, I next travelled to Lucerne in central Switzerland. The journey took eighty four minutes and a first class ticket cost CHF 62.40 (€66.36). I love travelling by train in Switzerland. They leave on time and it’s a great way to see the beautiful countryside.

Lucerne has a population of 82,000 and sits on Lake Lucerne. You can walk to the city center in minutes from the train station. You cross a large bridge and immediately get a wonderful view of the lake.

While Switzerland is a landlocked country, I am always amazed as to how many rivers and lakes it has. Each lake I have seen seems more picturesque than the last. 

As you walk across the bridge to the right you have a wonderful view of the lake and to the left the ornate bridges of old town. The river Russ flows through the city out to lake Lucerne. 

Lucerne Visitors Card

I received an email about this the day I arrived. The card is available to guests staying overnight in a city hotel. I received a link to download the pass to a digital wallet.

The main benefit of this, is you have free access to buses and trains within the city. You also get discounts on cableways, mountain railways, some museums and excursions in the Lake Lucerne region. In certain hotspots around the city, this allows you to access free wifi.

Bridges over Lake Lucerne

Probably the most recognisable landmark in Lucerne is the Chapel Bridge. It’s 205m long and is a wooden pedestrianised bridge. This covered bridge has a water tower and lots of flower boxes on each side. It was constructed in the 14th century and it has sixty two frescoes depicting the history of the city on it’s ceiling. 

In 1993 a fire destroyed several of the paintings. It was repaired during 1993-1994 and shortened a little. It is now the oldest wooden bridge in Europe. It is wheelchair accessible and has its own public wifi.

I walked across it multiple times during the day and evening. It was busy every time I crossed it.

Further down is the Chaff Bridge. This is another covered wooden bridge. While it isn’t as well known as the Chapel Bridge, it’s also extremely ornate. This was built in 1408 and has a small chapel in the middle. 

Just further down from the Chaff Bridge, you will see the impressive dam.

Extremely beautiful buildings are on both sides of the river. There are several churches, minarets and clock towers with Swiss flags flying everywhere. Lucerne felt more Swiss than Bellinzona did. This may be as now I heard German being widely spoken (a local variant of Swiss German is the main language spoken here). 

Cruise on Lake Lucerne 

I love cities with a waterfront. I decided to go on a cruise first, to see some of the scenery on the outskirts of the city. There is a large passenger ferry terminal across from the train station. There are private ferries available along the lake.

I saw a sign for a private ferry just about to leave so I walked straight on and bought a ticket for 20 CHF (€21.27). Less than a minute later, we headed out on the lake.

This was a small boat and they had outdoor seating on the top deck for about thirty people. I situated myself on an outside seat. At times it was hard to hear the audio guide but they did identify key buildings. Several other boats passed us, including some extremely luxurious private ones. We also passed a group of young people learning sailing. What an idyllic place to learn to sail !

The key things we saw were the statue of Christ, various beautiful churches and the Richard Wagner museum. But it’s the colour of the lake and the surrounding  countryside which is really worth seeing.

As we returned to the city you can see lots of extremely large beautiful hotels on the right. To the left, beside the train station is the large conference / culture center known as the KKL (Kultur und Kongresszentrum Luzern).

The cruise lasted an hour and it was lovely and relaxing. I had selected Lucerne as my second place to visit as I wanted to hike on Mount Pilatus. I had read about the cable car which transports you to the area.

However, the weather decided to throw a spanner in the works ! I realised that the following day was going to be a miserable day to hike. There was heavy rain forecast and visibility would be poor.

Therefore I decided to go to plan B and visit the Swiss Transport Museum instead.

The Swiss Transport Museum

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get a ticket, as it’s one of the most popular museums in Switzerland. When I looked on-line, the night before, there were lots of booking sites selling tickets. Due to the volume of options, I decided to walk to the museum the following morning. I wasn’t sure if this was a sensible thing to do as they could be booked out or only allowing people at pre-booked times.

It was a thirty five minute walk from the Chapel Bridge to the museum. You walk by the lake and it’s very picturesque. People were having breakfast in the luxury lakeside hotels. It was a great way to see the lake and the boats from another area. 

The rain hadn’t started yet but there was a chilly feel to the morning. I arrived just as the museum was opening at 10.00am and there were several people queuing. When I was looking at an information leaflet an attendant asked if I needed help. I told her I wanted to see as much as possible and asked what she recommended. She asked how much time I had and I replied that I had the whole day. She recommended I purchase the day pass saying a minimum of five hours is required to see everything comfortably. 

The ticket options are:

• A ticket for the museum cost 35 CHF (€37.24)
• It cost an additional 18 CHF (€19.15) to combine that with the chocolate museum (53 CHF = €56.39)
• A day pass for everything cost 62 CHF (€65.96). This also included the IMAX Theatre, Media World and the Planetarium. 

This is what I saw and did.

IMAX Theatre

I went to the IMAX Theatre first. 3D glasses and audio guides, in different languages, were available at the door. The theatre is large with cosy comfortable seats. 

It was very busy and I thought it might be noisy as it was full of children and young adults. However, not a sound from anyone was heard once the film started.

I saw “Cities of the Future”. It’s an amazing documentary about a city planner in Los Angeles. As I lived in LA for many years I was hooked immediately. It’s certainly a city that could do with improving its transport infrastructure ! 

The planner explained how they plan for the future with conservation in mind. They visited Amsterdam and Singapore to get some ideas. They met contemporaries who showed them what is in place currently and their plans for the future.

They also tracked the progress of a team of teenagers who had entered a global STEM competition about city planning.

They then showed how a city could look in fifty years time. It was amazing and as you would expect transport options were at the heart of it. For those of us who might be around – everything will be electric, will travel on various levels and of course will be driverless.

The visuals were spectacular and this fifty two minute offering was really a great start to my day.

Later on in the day, I returned to the IMAX theatre and saw “Secret Ocean – by Jean-Michele Cousteau. 

Jean-Michele is the son of Jacques Cousteau, the world famous Oceanographer and Filmmaker. Once I saw the Cousteau name, I wanted to see it.

It’s another visual masterpiece and something that needs to be seen in a large Imax theatre. 

Jean-Michele shows over thirty different species and explains their behaviour. It’s visually beautiful and extremely colourful. You learn a lot about fish and plant life. It was filmed mainly off the coast of the Bahamas and Fiji, so in two very different locations of the World.

Swiss Chocolate Adventure 

My next stop was the Swiss Chocolate Adventure. I expected to be walking around a museum. I should have known this wasn’t the case as signs displayed available showtimes. 

You showed your ticket to an attendant and then groups walked into a container. Yes it’s an actual storage container ! It moved down just like a lift and you arrived at a very dark area. People were then put into cars, very like the ones you sit in at a ride at a theme park. The capacity of each one was five but I was sitting in the back seat alone with two young girls in the front. 

The cars then moved to various screens. They explained the chocolate making process. From growing the cocoa bean plants, to harvesting them, how the milk is selected, right to the chocolate making process. It was an extremely novel way to showcase everything. On two occasions you appeared to be in an enclosed room. On other occasions you were directly in front of a screen. All the explanations were well done and suitable for people of all ages.

Of course at one stage – several pieces of chocolate were dispensed.

We ended the tour by walking back into the container and we were taken back to the entrance. An attendant then gave everyone another piece of chocolate.

I visited a cocoa plant in Tanzania many years ago and I love chocolate. This was the first time I had seen the end to end process though and I enjoyed every minute of it. 

Media World

This was an extremely interesting section of the museum. However most of the areas are limited to a small number of participants. If this section interests you, I would go there as early as you can. 

They have two single seater capsules. There was no queue so I was able to access one immediately. You sit in the capsule and wear AI glasses. You get to experience the World Record free-fall, which was quite spectacular.

I then went to the area where you are given AI glasses where you get to see several people taking amazing dives all over the World. The scenery from these viewpoints is amazing.

Energy Museum 

You can visit this when you pay for the transport museum. It’s well worth spending thirty to sixty minutes here, depending on your interest level. It explains the history of energy right from horsepower to today’s modern methods.

I was walking around looking at all the exhibitions and taking notes, as I always do. An attendant came and asked if I was a student or tour guide. When I explained that I write about my travels, he spent about twenty minutes chatting to me. He pointed out some interesting exhibitions and told me all about his favourite things in the museum. I always enjoy when a local chats to me like this.

One of the most interesting things I learnt at the energy museum is that the city of Lucerne is well advanced in its energy reduction levels. It hopes to reduce energy emissions to zero by 2040. 

There also is an excellent exhibition upstairs explaining all the options, current and future, for “Smart” living. I might have missed this section if the attendant hadn’t pointed it out to me. 

Transport Museum

I finally made my way into the Transport Museum. Firstly, it’s absolutely huge. The main building has lots of motorway signs, which are extremely distinctive.

It has sections for trains, planes, cars, ships, cable cars etc. Some of the highlights I loved are:

• Seeing the cars being taken off the rack and displayed closer to you. I saw a beautiful Porsche. Videos in German and English explain the history of the car as it was being displayed.
• Being able to see what working on a railway line is like. You could remove some nuts and bolts attached to a section of a railway line. I was the only person trying this out and I really enjoyed it, while feeling quite nerdy !
• Going onboard some older airplanes and being able to walk through each section.
• Seeing a video of Swiss Rails plans to be carbon neutral by 2030 with the William Tell Overture playing in the background.
• Seeing some winter sports equipment up close.
• Listening to an air traffic controller talk to a pilot along the route from Zurich to Geneva 

You can easily spend one to two hours here walking around all the different areas.

Planetarium

I left it too late to visit this, which I regretted, as I would have loved to have seen it. The domed planetarium periodically shows astrological shows. 

Space Museum

As I now had time as the Planetarium was closed, I went to the Space Museum. This is part of the Transport Museum.

After looking at the exhibitions, I saw a strange large white cube in the corner. I didn’t see a sign explaining what it was, but several staff were sitting near it. I went over and asked if it was open and I was told I could enter in a few minutes. I had no idea what this was.

Guess what – it was a Space Transformer !

My day really ended on a high, as along with five other people, I got a small glimpse into what an astronaut experiences. The attendant first had us stand by a wall with our hands pressed against it. We were left lying flat on the ground, when she activated the simulator. It was a very strange sensation. The attendant asked if anyone wanted to leave as some people do get ill quickly. We were all fine. We had two more simulations and one where we literally got to walk across a room i.e. a real moon walk !

This was amazing and I am so glad I had time to visit the Space Museum.

I was one of the last people to leave the museum when it closed at 6pm. This is an amazing museum and I think it is suitable for all ages. There are not many museums I plan to return to – but I want to return here again. It was really like a day in an educational theme park – just fantastic !

It also rained really heavily all day so it was great to be indoors. I did use my Lucerne visitors card to get the bus when I left the museum. The stop is right across from the entrance and it took me back to the city center. This was the only time I used the card as the museum didn’t give a discount with it.

Food, Beverages etc

One of the main things I miss, living in a small village in Italy, is different cuisine. I was delighted to see lots of ethnic restaurants in Lucerne. These included Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and Japanese.

I had a lovely lunch in a small Thai cafe on my first day. Red curry with tofu and vegetables, a glass of wine and a coffee cost 30 CHF (€32). It was delicious and the portion size was very large for lunch.

I wasn’t very hungry that evening but I wanted to go out and sit by the river. I managed to get a table in a very busy restaurant and I had soup and salad. It was the perfect meal for that evening. Along with wine, water and an espresso this cost 48 CHF (€51.20). I was very pleased to be seated at such a great table when dining alone and I really enjoyed seeing the city at nighttime.

I went to quite an upmarket Vietnamese restaurant on my last night. While my main course wasn’t my favourite meal, I really enjoyed the ambience in the restaurant. Most of the customers appeared to be local. Tofu pho, two glasses of wine, water and an espresso cost 50 CHF (€53.33)

I had a vegetarian tikka masala for lunch at the transport museum. This with a beer and water cost 27 CHF (€28.80). 

There are several robotic machines dispensing food and drink at the museum. One sold pizza and one sold coffee. I had a coffee and surprisingly it was extremely good quality.

One observation I have is that bottled water is extremely expensive in Lucerne. The cheapest small bottle I got in a local shop cost 4.80 CHF(€5.12). I hope the prices are high to reduce the number of single use plastics. I drank tap water after paying this.

Final Thoughts 

Lucerne is a beautiful city and one I plan to return to. It’s very popular with tourists and the area around the Chapel Bridge in particular is very busy.

The architecture in the city is beautiful. There are several clock towers and you could hear the bells chiming regularly. It’s also a beautiful city to see at nighttime.

As you saw above I loved the Transport Museum and I hope to visit it again. While the cost may seem expensive, I think if you compare this to many one day admissions, it’s comparable. Switzerland is an expensive country to visit though. But it’s also extremely safe. I walked around Lucerne at nighttime and always felt completely at ease.

Of course I also need to return, on a dry day, and do the hike I had originally planned !