After three days in beautiful Lucerne, Switzerland the monkey heads to Zurich.  But first he has to sail across Lake Lucerne to the village of Brunnen.  From there, the group would meet their bus and travel on to Zurich.

It’s difficult to describe the beauty of this day.  A cloudless sky, the blue waters of Lake Lucerne, snow on the alps, ferries scurrying to and fro across the lake.  What more could you ask for?  Well a glass of wine would be nice and sure enough, that was available too! With the city of Lucerne falling away astern of the ship, Kongo was drawn to one vista after another.  The lake is surrounded by villages, farms, and beautiful homes.  Over there is the house where Wagner lived.  Here is William Tell’s chapel.  And now a statue of Jesus seemingly holding out his hands to show how big a fish he caught.

Lake Lucerne is a wildly irregularly shaped body of water with little bays and inlets branching off in all directions.  It’s over 700 feet deep in places.  Two large mountains, Pilatus and Rigi, dominate the lake at either end.  Rugged peaks are covered with snow year round in the upper elevations.  There are actually thousands of lakes in Switzerland.  Coming from Southern California, Kongo was envious of all the water.  Water is one thing that is not lacking in Switzerland and they’re about to get a whole lot more lakes as the glaciers are melting and creating new bodies of water all the time.

One gets the impression that the entire country of Switzerland is manicured.  Little gnomes must sneak out at night to cut the grass, pull the weeds, pick up litter, and straighten everything out.  The tidy little villages, the proper green fields, beautiful landscapes, and quaint little churches never stop.  It’s all made for a postcard.

An old paddlewheel steamer is one of the boats you can take between towns on Lake Lucerne.

The little village of Brunnen is a popular destination for tourists in Switzerland.  From here you can take many hiking trails that go around nearby lakes and climb mountains.

The surrounding peaks contain these typical little Swiss farms high above the town.  It looks like this is where Heidi must have lived in that Swiss book about a little girl living in the mountains with her grandfather.  Kongo teased Mrs. Kongo that this indeed is where Heidi used to roam the hills with Peter the goatherd.

Later, on the road to Zurich, they passed through the village of Hirzel where Johanna Spyri, the author of Heidi, was born.  When the guide pointed out this fact Mrs. Kongo gave the monkey a sideways glance.  Never doubt a monkey!

It was, simply, one of the most memorable days and one that Kongo will recall clearly years in the future.  Below, Kongo poses with a couple of friends on the boat.

Travel safe.  Have fun!