Wednesday, 19th June , 2019
This morning, we woke up to a bright sunny day. We had a good breakfast and by 8.45 we were back on the road again. Our first stop was the old town of Nancy which was only an easy 10 minute drive away.
After parking our car in a public, we walked to Place Stanislas, a majestic UNESCO listed square surrounded by buildings such as the town hall, opera house and the Government house.
Apparently, after the War of Polish Succession in 1737, Nancy, which was the capital of the Upper Lorraine Duchy, was given to Stanislaw, the ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His bronze statue stands in the middle of this square which had a complete makeover between 2004-5 when it was returned to its former glory instead of being used as a parking area…….
As we had arrived early, we had the whole square to ourselves and could admire its building and take pictures without waiting for other tourists to get out of the way. By the time we had a walk about and sat down to have a coffee at one of the cafe’s on the square, tourists started gathering around.
Gerry admiring the still empty square 
The Hotel de Villa 
The bronze statue of Stanislas 
Grand gates leading out of the square 
A cafe on one of the corners of the square 
One of the fountains on the corner of the square 
That’s me enjoying the view from the fountain 
Arc de Triomphe 
Palais de Government 
One of the many churches 
Bronze statues 
Pedestrian shopping streetback at the square 
Back at the square 
Anti terrorist blocks leading to the pedestrian street 
Macaroons originated here
By 11.30 we were back in the car and driving to Lucerne – a stress free drive as we had no traffic jams and no heavy traffic.
On the way, and just outside Colmar, we stopped for a break and we we surprised to see a stork being friendly to people- and then I saw that the nest on the pole had two stork chicks – so fascinating!
The hills outside Colmar 
Baby chicks up in their nest 
Back on the road – it’s 27C
At the French Swiss border, we bought our vignette to drive through Switzerland – we had another 1hr 30 minutes to drive and reach our destination, Hotel des Alpes In Lucerne.
The view across the river 
The iconic wooden bridge 
Our hotel across the river 
Another view of the lake 
Gerry on the wooden bridge
After checking in to the hotel, we went on our walk about – as the hotel is situated in a car free zone, we had to park the car at the train station parking garage across the river so our walk about started from there. What a magnificent and historical town this is. I remember coming to Lucerne for a client meeting when I was still a banker but then there was no time to go sightseeing…….
And of course we had to have a break which we did at our hotel cafe terrace overlooking the river and as we did not have a proper lunch, Gerry had his ice cream while I had an Affogato
Posing in front of the wooden bridge 
The shore line with beautiful buildings 
Another pedestrian iron wrought bridge 
In this oldest timber bridge, there are painting s depicting the Dance of the Macabre 
Another view of Spreuer Bridge built in 1408 
And of course Gerry enjoying his ice cream 
Once we were ready to stroll again along the shore line filled with restaurants, pubs (Mr. Pickwick) and cafes, we heard a brass band playing and of course I was drawn to the music so we made our way up the stairs and saw a whole defile of a colorfully dressed band followed by a squadron of Swiss Guards……. we could not exactly make out the reason for this defile’ but it was fun to watch – further down an alley way we also saw soldiers in uniforms dating back to the beginning of the 1900’s waiting to saddle their horses as well as really antique horse drawn machine guns. We did not stay to watch this parade but it was all very interesting.
We then went for a stroll along the lakeside where lots of young people gathered around on the grass to relax – such a great atmosphere…….. our walk back to our hotel was just beautiful with all the various colours in the sky – yes we were in for a great thunderstorm and just as we arrived, we were greeted with huge thick rain drops and a heavy rumble of thunder. We were able to relax in our room and enjoy the view from our little balcony.
After the thunderstorm, we decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant. We had walked some 12km today so we just wanted to relax.
Stroganoff with noodles for Gerry 
Risotto with asparagus for me
Tomorrow we will be driving down to Lake Garda – Peschiera del Garda, also an old historic town on the shores of the lake – a 3.5 hr drive……
