A challenger for the #1 spot: Lucerne, Switzerland

Not too long ago, I got to thinking about how I've seen a good amount of places now in Europe, and I would have an awfully hard time trying to rank them in any way when people ask, 'Where is your favorite place so far?" or "What's your top three?" The question inevitably comes up with friends or when meeting new people, etc. I've never given it a whole lot of thought; granted, I do have a few cities in mind that I would consider worthy for my calling "my favorite," but nowhere has been disappointing. 

When we got to Lucerne (Luzern) it was later in the evening (as we spent the day in Bern), so we weren't able to see much of it until the following day. Within walking around for a few hours, however, I quickly realized that if someone were to ask me right then, "Where is your favorite place you've visited thus far?" I would answer he/she almost immediately, "Lucerne, Switzerland."

I took maybe 100 pictures (and several videos) while in Lucerne and I could post all of them and have something to say (or in the case of the scenic pictures, let the picture itself do the talking). I have no idea where to start on how gorgeous and clean the city is, so here are just some pictures to get started:

Above: The Löwendenkmal, or Lion Monument, is a huge lion sculpture carved in the side of a short cliff in the heart of Lucerne. It's dedicated to the Swiss Guard who were killed defending the French king during the French Revolution. I sort of wish it was for something better than defending anything that is French, but I suppose I have an immense amount of respect for them given the circumstances (they were mercenaries). Why the Swiss are still amicable to the French is beyond me. Anyhow, enough of what I think and more on the monument: it is huge, it is beautiful, and it is moving. I recommend glancing over the article on Wikipedia.

Above: A shot of the Kapellbrucke--the Chapel Bridge. It's a Lucerne landmark: a wooden bridge first built in the 14th century. I just threw in some scenery on the side for good measure so you might get an idea as to how pretty the place is.

On Valentine's Day (February 14th), Lucerne throws a huge Carnival pre-party called Fasnachts-Määrt. Basically, the whole city gathers around this one plaza and watches as about ten different marching bands parade through the town square, then over a bridge, and finally performs a few songs on the stairs in the plaza. The awesome part is that all of the bands dress up in the most outrageous costumes according to their band's theme. I took a few videos of the bands playing but I don't have the fastest upload speed on the internet here, so I'll post some pictures now and I'll try and upload the videos later. 

Above, one of the first bands we saw perform, dressed up in all sorts of different wacky outfits.

Above, the Chartlebotzer playing. They were one of may favorites, they dressed up in these ridiculous gargoyle-like costumes with huge, almost scary masks. They also played "Walking on Sunshine" and my particular favorite, Bon Jovi's "It's My Life." There were just masses of people in all directions, and there were a ton of food stands serving sausage with a hunk of bread and liters of beer or hot cider (as it was snowing). The party goes on all day, there's an intermission for a light show over the river (which we saw and it was cool), and then the bands play encore performances at night while everyone is just bouncing from one pub to the next. I couldn't believe my already unbelievable Friday the 13th (which I'm sure you read about) would be followed by an equally amazing day.

Lastly, just a couple of photographs trying to personify the beauty of Lucerne I speak about:

Above: one of the towers along the walls that form the perimeter of the old city. Oh, yeah, those are just some wild buffalo hanging out. No big deal.

Above: along Lake Lucerne, you can see the split paths (one for pedestrians, one for bicyclists) set between a without-words-gorgeous gauntlet of snow-covered trees. Another cool note about Lucerne was the amount of bicyclists. Most people within the city just bike everywhere. Oh, another cool note, though I'm not sure you can really tell entirely from that picture, is that Lucerne has to be the cleanest city on the face of the earth. I could literally eat dinner there using the sidewalk as my table. 

Above: a beautiful sunny day by Lake Lucerne.

We visited the famous church in Lucerne, St. Leodegar im Hof, which was stupendous, but I preferred the Jesuit church just on the other end of the Kapellbrucke (above). Inside is one of the most stellar Rococo interiors I've ever seen (below).

Like I said, I could go on and on about Lucerne on a post ten times the length of this one. I just fell for it, hard, and my admiration and obsession for the city just continued to develop the longer we stayed there. I would say it's been my favorite city thus far on the trip. Then I got to thinking again that this should be mentioned: Lucerne is home to 60,000 people. That is about 45 times smaller than Rome. It would make sense that the place is far better preserved than a city that is exponentially bigger than it. Anyhow, I just thought I would point that out, but if you're not going to take scale into consideration, Lucerne is my Coaches Poll unanimous #1. It just might end up with a very different BCS ranking in the end (all things considered).

One more Switzerland update to come...