Lucerne: mountain in lakes, last battle, and semi-direct democracy

The landscape near Lucerne is unique: lakes surrounded by mountains, which again hide lakes in. A boat trip took us from Lucerne to Viznau train station, from where we went up the earliest European mountain railway to the Rigi mountain. Although not very tall, but Rigi mountain offers a gorgeous view from the steep Swiss Alps to the relatively flat Swiss Plateau. I was surprised that Switzerland was not completely surrounded by mountains, but can yet keep so many years out-of-wars. The last war in Swiss history was 1847, happened to locate near Lucerne.

The beautiful Lucerne and Swiss Guard

Lucerne has everything I can imagine for a beautiful small city. In nature, it is surrounded by mountains and lakes, and a river goes though the city. In history and culture, Lucerne has its history for more than 1300 years, and yet today the old town was kept well. There exist many pretty architectures from different time periods: churches, wooden bridges and city wall. But Lucerne not only has history, it also has progressive modern parts. Starting from the old town, we can see modern buildings grow in all directions especially along the Lake Lucerne.