"Switzerland is simply a large, lumpy, solid rock with a thin skin of grass stretched over it." - Mark Twain

We spent this weekend in Zurich since I am working here next week and the best time to sightsee is when long underwear is a must and blue lips are in style.

We arrived in Zurich on Friday night and then crossed our fingers during our sleep that night that the weather would clear up so we could go to Luzern for the day on Saturday. Sure enough, they changed the forecast from snow to sun at 9am on Saturday, so went to Luzern, and I got to cross it off of my Swiss bucket list!

Luzern is a Switzerland postcard city with a lake in front and mountains surrounding.

It also has two wooden bridges that cross the river. They both have paintings from the 1700s along the inside of the bridge. On one of the bridges all of the paintings had a skeleton in them. This was to remind people as they crossed the bridge daily that everyone dies. Pleasant. Can you imagine signs along I-90 like "Bellevue: Exit 1 mile" and "Skeleton: don't forget you will DIE".

 AND it even has... a dam. One of us was more excited about that than the other.

We strolled along the lake stopping for a picnic lunch on a bench. Picnics are generally better in warmer weather, but the ducks didn't seem to mind. There were hundreds on the lake.

And, as is custom in all Swiss cities, we did a tour of the naked statues. Luzern did not disappoint.

Naked man with naked horse.

Naked woman playing instrument? I think that's an instrument?

Other naked man with naked horse. Not the same man or horse as above.

Naked man / woman sunbathing. Wouldn't want any tan lines!

Today we went to the Rhine Falls, the largest waterfalls in Europe. The water level is at its annual low, but we decided to see the falls anyway since we will probably never be here at its annual high. Apparently, however, there is a boat that takes people up to the falls and onto the huge rocks in the middle of them, but the boats weren't running today. There's one reason to go during the high season.

We spent about five minutes at the falls that took an hour to get to, so we decided to continue to Schaffhausen, which supposedly has the cutest old town in Switzerland. And it was really cute, but we forgot to take pictures until we got back on the train. See, isn't the town pretty?