Most beautiful rainbow I've ever seen.

Lucerne
Tues, Jun 9

For our first foray into Switzerland, our path took us through Lucerne. With only a few available departure times, we left Munich around noon on Tuesday. Prior to departure we walked around through the old town a little bit up near the Residenz. Didn't get to see a whole lot though, because it was in the opposite direction as the train station. The train ride took about 3 hours. Once in Lucerne, it took us a moment to get our bearings, then we headed towards our hotel. Turns out (unlike Munich), the map was actually really zoomed in, making it seem like things were far apart, when really they were extremely close together. We checked in (very pricey, but not for Switz) to a hotel and not 10 minutes later, it started hailing, with ice about the size of nickels. After the hail came a hard rain that lasted for maybe another 10 minutes. We ventured out after the worst of it passed to have a look at the town and to scrounge up some din dins.

While looking at restaurant menus, we made our way across the canal to the old town using one of Lucerne's famous footbridges. The bridge features artwork in the arches of the roof, every few meters. The artwork dates back to the 16th century...pretty neat. We found an Italian/Swiss restaurant with seating right along the canal. As soon as we finished eating, it started raining again. And then we became witnesses to nature at its most beautiful. As we were walking through one of the squares in the old town, I noticed a strange sort of glow back near the canal so I walked down to snap a picture. Once out in the open along the water, the view down river was gorgeous. The sun was setting, causing the buildings across the way to appear to radiate a soft/eerie glow, which made for incredible pictures. As if that weren't enough, I looked in the other direction, and noticed an enormous rainbow -- you could see both ends, which is pretty rare! As the rain kept falling, tourists came scrambling to where we were just under some awnings to take pictures. The colors of the rainbow intensified for about 5 minutes, at which time a second, higher rainbow was also visible. Meanwhile, the setting sun still cast an eerie glow on the buildings along the canal. Stunning. Will probably end up being one of the most memorable sights of the entire trip--and it was just by chance - we happened to be in the right place, at the right time. Gotta love it. :)

After the rainbow faded, we walked along the other famous bridge --this one was damaged in the early 1990's when a boat caught on fire while passing underneath. About 50% of the bridge structure and paintings were damaged. What a shame losing 16th century art. They left the charred paintings in their positions along the bridge. We hung out for ahwile on the bridge until the rain slowed down and then ducked into a bar that brewed their own beer. I didn't like it so much -- too fruity, but Kev and Joe seemed to enjoy it. We left after one round and crashed for the night.