Switzerland, Day Two.

Our second day in Switzerland was spent exploring Lucerne in the daytime.  This city is so incredibly beautiful, even with the cloudy weather.  Instead of taking the bus into the city center, we decided to walk along the lake...which I highly recommend!

I'm so glad we visited before all of the leaves fell off the trees, because they were gorgeous.  I would love to see what they looked like just a couple weeks earlier!

Once in town, we made a stop at the Lion Monument (Löwendenkmal).  This large sculpture was carved out of a rock wall (which was part of an old sandstone quarry) in 1820-21.  It was created in memory of over 700 fallen Swiss soldiers, who were massacred during the French Revolution in 1792.  You can't tell how big the monument is by looking at these pictures, but it's 10 meters long and 6 meters high!  It was such a peaceful place and I'm so glad we were able to find it...the lion sculpture was Emery's favorite part of the trip (he's a big history guy)!

This city is full of beautiful buildings, bridges and lots of cute little restaurants.  Unfortunately, we couldn't afford to eat at the restaurants...Switzerland is REALLY expensive.  If the kids wouldn't have been with us, I'm sure we would've tried a few places out!

The Jesuit Church (Jesuitenkirche) was my favorite church we visited on our trip.  I loved the Baroque architecture of this building, which was built in 1666, as well as the beautiful artwork on the church interior.

Next, we dragged the kids up some hills to get to an old fortification wall, complete with watchtowers!  It was so fun to walk along this giant stone wall and imagine what it would be like back in the 13th century, when the fortifications were built.  I mean, just thinking about how a WALL could be such a huge type of defense blows my mind. They had no planes, no technology, no guns...just swords and other medieval weapons!  It's crazy thinking about how advanced we have become and it really makes me wonder how things will be in another few hundred years!

We needed a chocolate break before heading back to the hotel.  I certainly won't argue about a chocolate break, especially when it's Swiss chocolate...my goodness, that stuff is good.

Day 3 of our Switzerland trip will be coming soon!