Just as it was for Queen Victoria and composers Richard Wagner and Sergei Rachmaninoff, gorgeous Lucerne is on the itinerary of virtually every visitor to Switzerland's
By Bob Bestor
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| Beautiful Lucerne |
If there was a beauty contest for Swiss cities, Lucerne might be the one taking that stroll down the runway with Bert Parks belting out the "There she is" song. Tucked up against rolling green hills on a shining lake, ringed by snowy peaks, and with a wide river running through it, the town and it's setting are flat-out gorgeous.
To the southeast, across the lake on a high, rounded hill, is the exclusive Bürgenstock enclave, with it's five-star hotels and golf course. Nearer, on the peninsula straight east and hidden in the trees near the shoreline, is the estate of the Russian composer, Sergei Rachmaninoff. The view from his private beach is said to have inspired the famed Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. On the opposite shore, German composer, Richard Wagner, lived for a time in a modest villa where he was moved to compose the charming Siegfried Idyll as a gift to his wife Cosima.
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Though such beauty, history and culture attract masses of visitors, Lucerne manages to remain a bit above the fray. Though virtually every tour bus in Switzerland's stops here, and one in four overnight visitors is an American, the town seems to have fewer than it's share of the depressing pizza parlors, tee-shirt stores and souvenir shops that blemish so many of Europes leading destinations.
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