Luzern, Switzerland

Unlike the French train system, the Swiss run their public transport like clockwork. This morning we used our EuroRail pass to travel three hours to central Switzerland in a beautiful city called Luzern. The train trip itself was fantastic, not just because we managed some great first class seats, but for the incredible scenery. Johanna had probably the best classroom in the world as she caught up on some of her homework and knocked off a book review while passing through the Swiss Alps and awesome lake areas by train.
We arrived in Luzern at about 2pm and got a bite to eat at the station (and also managed my most expensive hmm, toilet break so far - 2 Swiss francs, which is about 2 Aussie dollars - for a leak!). We've found France to be pretty reasonable price-wise, and Switzerland very expensive for pretty much everything (including 7 francs for a coffee this evening).
We caught a local bus about 15 mins to our motel, which was easy despite some very heavy luggage, and were very impressed with our lodgings. Our family room is modern (rare for a European motel) has a great view of Lake Luzern and the surrounding mountains.
Not long later we were back on the bus into the city again to check out the medieval township which looks so very different to Geneva. The town seems to have managed to still be a modern metropolis while retaining its historic beauty, particularly around the lake area where we crossed a heritage bridge (pictured) with paintings depicting the areas past aligning the inside roof.

We're staying in Luzern until Thursday morning, which means we have tomorrow to explore the area a bit more - particular the massive lake (which looks more like a giant river) and mountain ranges. Coming from a country of drought, it's great to again see so much water and green countrysides (if only we could have some of it back in Australia).