Alphorns at night; church bells at noon

After posting the blog last night we rode the train to Wengen to attend the Folklore festival, featuring the talents of local performers.  The program was held in a large tent and the first act featured the bell ringers...people who walked into the tent ringing gigantic cowbells.  

One of the other acts was a man playing a traditional alphorn.

Two young girls from one of the surrounding villages did a yodeling duet.  There is no way human voices can make the sounds they made.  They were accompanied by a friend who played a traditional Swiss accordian.  Other acts were groups doing traditional folk dances, and the village band. 

It was late when we caught the train back to Lauterbrunnen, and several of the bell ringers and the yodelers were on the train with us, so we were entertained on the ride back to Lauterbrunnen also.

We did not get too much sleep last night since we had plans to catch the 8:33 train out of Lauterbrunnen.  We had to pack our suitcases to leave the chalet for the last time...a very sad event.  To make the scene even sadder, it had rained during the night and the misty skies seemed especially dreary.  

We took the train to Luzern, but we were not very encouraged about our plans for the day as we were in drizzle and fog most of the way there.  At one point half of our group went to sleep on the train, trying to make up for the short night last night.  However, by the time we had reached Luzern and stuffed our big bags in the lockers, it had stopped raining and the sun was attempting to peek through the clouds.  We walked rather briskly across town, trying not to slow down our pace as we walked toward the ramparts of the city walls and the towers dating from the fourteenth century.  We had read about this area of town and wanted to be up on the ramparts overlooking the city before noon.

One of the towers on the old walls (Musseg walls) houses the oldest clock in Luzern (1535).  The numbers on the face of the clock are so large that even fishermen on the lake can tell the time from their distance.  At noon, this old clock is set to chime one minute before any other clock in Luzern.  We arranged to be on the ramparts before noon, and it was a surreal experience.  The old clock beside us chimed while we were overlooking the beautiful scene of the old city of Luzern.  Then when it finished chiming we heard church bells from all across the city ringing.  Both the view and the sound were beautiful.  In this photo we were all listening to the bells.

After the bells were silenced, several of us climbed to the top of the bell tower for a view down on the ramparts and other towers along the wall.

After a stop to eat our usual picnic lunches ("Pass the Pringles, Barry!"), we spent several hours just walking around old town Luzern,  There are several very interesting and historic bridges in Luzern.  Of course the most famous is the Chapel Bridge.

We took a group photo of our children and their patient spouses by one of the lovely fountains in Luzern.  

We wandered in and out of streets of beautiful old buildings and stopped once for ice cream.  As we headed toward the train station the sun came out.  We noticed a lovely tour boat ready to depart for a trip on Lake Luzern.  We remembered that boat rides were covered on our wonderful Swiss rail passes, so we hopped aboard for about an hour's cruise on the lake.

After the short cruise, we got our luggage out of the lockers and hopped on a train headed for the Zurich airport. The final ride took about an hour.  Once at the Zurich airport we grabbed a bite to eat and got on the shuttle bus to take us to our hotel for the night.  After checking in and printing out boarding passes, we are in for the night.  It will be a very early morning for some of our group, so hopefully we will all get to bed early.

So, this is where our very special anniversary trip ends.  We have enjoyed seven wonderful days with our favorite people.  We have shared magical experiences, enjoyed each other's company, and shared beautiful scenery.  We have laughed until we could not breathe, and have made memories to last a lifetime.  The anniversary trip may have come to an end, but the memories we have shared will be with us all the rest of our lives.  Such a special time.  We are so very blessed to have had this special time, but mostly we are blessed to have these special children and the wonderful people that have chosen to share their lives with.

But...for you blog-followers...stay tuned.  Olen and I are not coming home quite yet.

To be continued...