It doesn't happen often...

...that we see each other two weekends in a row. Harry & Brenda came over to Switzerland this weekend. Actually they wanted to come over much earlier already, but Easy Jet started flying Amsterdam- Basel as per 10th of March so the decision had been easy. Wait a little longer and fly in cheap! Last Friday I picked my sis and bro-in-law up at the Euro Airport. During the week CS and I had been planning to take H & B to the Boomerang, an Australian restaurant in Binningen, but unfortunately they turned out to be closed last week. So we stayed home for dinner and did a nice home made kebab. Not too bad after all as CS had been at home ill with a bad cold. We spent the evening chatting, eating, drinking and watching “Flight plan” (with Jodie Foster) and went to bed in a fair time. On Saturday we wanted to go to Lucerne, depending on how CS would be doing. We decided to just get up in time and see how CS felt.

After waking up at 8.30 on Saturday morning CS felt pretty much okay so we had our breakfast and left for Lucerne. We arrived in Lucerne just after noon, parked in the parking garage at the KKL (Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Lucerne) and walked up to Station Square.



The "Kultur- und Kongresszentrum"

When we got out of the parking we felt the cold wind as KKL is located directly at the Vierwaldstädtersee. After freezing our butts of more a moment, while overlooking the Vierwaldstädtersee, we walked in the direction of the “Kapell-Brücke” which is the oldest wooden bridge in Europe. As a result of an accident with fireworks the bridge burnt down for the larger part in 1993 after which the bridge had to be rebuilt.



The "Kapell-Brücke" and its water tower



We crossed the bridge to the other side of the river and walked along the waterfront for a while. As we were getting pretty cold we decided to go into one of the many restaurants along the riverside to warm up a bit. After a nice lunch we were warm enough again to resist cold and snow/rain. We walked through the old city centre admiring the beautiful paintings on the facades of the buildings.



In spite of the cold and the rain and snow, coming down regularly, we enjoyed our visit to Lucerne. We walked through the small streets, crossed several bridges and simply took in the beauty of the city.



I was happy CS felt a lot better again which gave us the possibility to go out for dinner in Basel in the evening. I booked a table at the Café Des Art's, a lively bar/restaurant where you can enjoy great food, from a rather small but excellent card, and listen to live music every day of the week.


We were lucky to have booked a table as it turned out Des Art's had a large group over for dinner. After we ordered our starters and main courses we tried taking our group picture via the mirrors on the ceiling. Not an easy job as it turned out. Harry finally succeeded in taking the best picture but we forgot to download it from his camera before they left this afternoon. Dinner was great as usual (look at the great dishes) and we ate and drank the evening away.



Of course the guys didn’t forget to give ladies the attention they deserve. After all, they mean everything to the both of us.



After we were all happily fed we paid the bill and left. We took the tram back home from Barfusserplatz and had a tram ride we will probably never forget. We started talking nonsense and at a certain moment we couldn’t stop laughing. We were laughing tears and ended up with muscle aches in our jaws, eyes and abdominals. Some people in the tram were affected by our laughing and laughed with us (not having the slightest idea they were part of the reason we were laughing, I know it's a bit mean). After we got out at our stop, the fresh air helped us to get a grip on ourselves again, which was a necessity otherwise I would have probably peed in my pants from laughing. We had an absolutely fabulous day and a great evening, but as always weekends pass by so fast…

On Sunday morning we took it easy, enjoyed our breakfast together and then, unfortunately, we had to drive Harry and Brenda to the airport again. Neither of them felt like leaving and Brenda even hoped for a lot of snow which could probably cause the cancellation of the flight back. Her wish almost came through, but the snow started falling only shortly before the plane took off. Oh well, we have plenty of our cosy gatherings ahead of us. Either in Holland or Switzerland or wherever in the future…