October 11, 2018 – Lucerne

October 11, 2018 – Lucerne
Today was our last full day in Lucerne. Carol, Tom, and I had breakfast together and then set out to walk to Richard Wagner’s house. It was a pleasant 1.5 mile all along the lake front. As we walked up to the front of the house, we ran into 4 other people from our tour.The house was beautiful and had lots of information about Wagner’s life. Our final opinion was that he composed beautiful music but wasn’t a very nice man.
We caught a bus back to the train station. Tom set off to go to Mt. Pilatus. Carol and I hopped a bus to go to a hotel on the hillside above the city. We had to take a funicular to go up the hillside. We decided to have a coffee or tea on the hotel verandah and enjoy the view. Reading over the menu, I decided to order a beer and French fries to split. Carol had hot chocolate. The plate of fries was big so we decided to call it lunch. They were very good accompanied by housemate garlic mayonnaise.
Back down at lake level, we went back to the bus station and first took the #24 bus that meanders down the lake to the south for 25 minutes before making its return to the station. Then we took the #21 bus which took us 45 minutes inland to the north before heading back. Both rides were very scenic.
Finally we went to the Swiss Art Museum which was just OK.
When Tom got back we went to dinner at a restaurant above the river in old town. We were lucky and got a table on the terrace outside. We had a beautiful view. The food was delicious. Carol and I both ordered a special Autumn Vegetable Medley which had pumpkin, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, pear, chestnuts, and a mushroom gravy served with spaetzle. It was really good.
Tomorrow we head to board our ship in Basel. We still don’t know when we will be offloaded to go to a hotel and then bird a different ship to end our cruise. They say the internet on the river boat is spotty. I will try to upload my blog on a daily basis but may not be able to.