The ankle brace helped a bit, but the ankle is still struggling. I probably don’t myself any favours with days like today.

This morning I had a slow start as I wanted to give my ankle a bit more time in the brace before I headed out. I must have got sick of it at some point during the night in my sleep because I’d removed when I woke up this morning.

I had some of my emergency supply of snack bars for first breakfast, and picked up the usual pretzel and choccy milk for the main breakfast. I sat near one of the platforms and watched the world go by for around 20 minutes before moving on to walk around the old town. I revisited a small section of it I walked through yesterday while waiting for my laundry, the buildings may be old but the shops certainly are not. Just looking through each street you could easily find many up-market retail stores and fashion showrooms.

The wooden bridges were something else though. What amazing design and engineering went into these structures. Also the amount of water that moves down the Reuss is immense, it’s not hard to see why they built small hydro power capabilities here after a few of the city’s mills were destroyed in a fire in 1875. Apparently after a 1995 revamp the system generates enough power for 1500 homes in Lucerne.

After completing a loop of the lower old town I was back at Luzern Bahnhof. Grabbed a bite to eat for a late lunch (a chicken schnitzel roll) and got ready to catch the train to the Transport Museum. At this point the weather had already started to turn and by the time the train arrived it was properly raining (up to this point I had only experienced light showers, no substantial downpours).

It ended up being only one station to get to the museum. Not even on the train long enough for a ticket inspector to come by. The museum was right across the road from the train line, and includes a planetarium and documentary cinema as well as the transport museum. What a museum it is too. I didn’t expect there to be space, aviation, automobiles, trains and boats all in the one museum. While it was 35CHF (around $50 in Australian money) I really feel like it was actually good value for the amount of stuff they have. The only negative I could give it is the lack of branded merch in the shop, which is a minor grievance really, everything else about the museum and the staff working there was fantastic.

While there were many great elements to the museum, it was a sight to see a legendary Be6/8 in the flesh. Ever since building the Lego kit during lockdown it had been somewhat of a goal to see this locomotive after reading up on some of the history of it from the kit. Without boring you with the details the key point was detaching the driving wheels from the central chassis to allow the train to handle tighter curves, that improved it’s capabilities allowing the loco to travel more complex lines and still haul more freight than its predecessors.

There was also a replica section of the Gotthard-basis Tunnel, with accompanying pillars detailing the tunnel boring, construction and safety aspects of the tunnel. As well as an installation cross-sectioning a steam train to show the full flow process of how a steam engine works.

Then it was time to face the weather and head back to the hotel to give the ankle a much needed rest. On the way back through the station I picked up a wrap from the supermarket and trundled back under the protection of my travel umbrella.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for the rain to continue early in the morning but ease through the day. I envision I will get time to explore more of the old town that I missed today when the rain eases tomorrow afternoon. As for tomorrow morning, we’ll have to wait and see what the weather is doing.

Figured out the 18th is going to be a good day to be spending travelling to Stuttgart as well, as it is Ascension Day the German’s and Swiss observe at least the morning as a public holiday but most places will observe the whole day as a public holiday and won’t open. Public transport, hotels and the obvious essential services being the exceptions.