Lucerne Off The Beaten Path

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I rather liked these old wooden Bridge's that I was seeing through-out Switzerland. I didn't realize there were so many of them!
The one at Werthensheim, we had to cross to reach the Monastery. It was built over the small River Emme in 1710, and is only wide enough for one car to pass through at a time.

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Just 20kms from Luzern, we came across the Village of Werthenstein. We could see a large, White building, so took the turn-off that looked to lead there. We headed across the Little River Emme, and followed the road up the hill to the White Building which turned out to be Kloster Werthenstein. Standing on a Rocky Outcrop, it's thought it was once a Castle.

There is a legend, and it goes something like this.........................
"Some Dutch men were panning for gold in 1500's and had to spend the night outdoors because of a delay on the Emme. As an admirer of Marie said the night prayer, he heard angels singing and saw a bright light. Then he visited the site every day and hung a picture representing the coronation of Mary."

The word got around and more people visited the site. In 1518, a chapel was built, and later the church was enlarged and consecrated in 1616.
During the Reformation, the miraculous image of Fribach (Canton Berne) came to Werthenstein, which is still venerated by pilgrims. Between the17th and 18th centuries, tens of thousands made ​​the pilgrimage to Werthenstein, to ask for courage, comfort, confidence and healing. The Franciscans have held over 400 miracles.

In1838, the Franciscan monastery was abolished by the Lucerne government and the furniture sold as it was to be used as a Deaf and Dumb Institute.
Since 1909, the Church served the local Parish and Pilgrim's.

Pilgrim's still have been coming, even creating some "boom" years!

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I was able to go inside the Kloster, but not the Church as there was a Christening Service.

The churchyard is surrounded by a Renaissance style Cloister. The wall's are full of old frescoes, and on the floor are graves, some were quite recent. I was also able to see where the spring water came slowly out of the well pipe, and into a font. The water is meant to help people who have arthritis and other ailment's, relieving them of their suffering. I didn't try it!

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We chose Route 10 to drive to Luzern as I had read it was quite a scenic route. We had already been on some of the other routes and we didn't want to drive over the same territory.

From Thun, we joined onto it at the Town of Jaberg when heading towards Bern. We followed the route past big Snow capped Mountains, big Dairy farms, beautiful green pastures and many scenic, small Villages. We saw Swiss Cows, Farm stay's, many Crop's, some gorgeous small Churches and Roadside Chapel's. At Werthenstein, their was an Abbey plus the little Village was quite pretty.

Well, Route 10 didn't disappoint!

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Bruenig-Pass is an important pass-road south of Luzern, it is not as steep as Grimsel-pass or Furka-pass, but the road is quite narrow and obvertaking is mostly totally impossible. Giswil is an interesting place for a stop-over maybe, or you simply pass by and take a look down at the lake from the pass, like I did. There is a petrol-station, a large hotel and restaurant and also an old train of Brienzer Rothornbahn at Bruenigpass.
Mostly quite close to the road is also the train-line : Bruenig-Bahn is a cog-wheel-train, that also has a different track-size, that is the reason, why there are NO direct trains from Zurich to Brienz. That cog-wheel-trainline starts at Luzern and ends at Interlaken OST.
When you take the train, take a look at the right, when you pass by a lake and you will see the spire of a church-tower looking out of the water, last time when driving over Bruenig-pass, I did not see it, maybe the road does not pass by there, maybe it is finally drowned in the artificial lake.

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Meiringen is the Mekka for all fans of Sherlok Holmes. Of course we all know, Holmes has never lived, BUT for all fans of the famous dedective Meiringen is the place, where he died, when he had a fight with Prof. Moriarty in Reichenbachfall, a big waterfall opposite of Meiringen, about 2 km to the south from the Sherlok-Holmes-museum.
Conan Doyle - the author of Sherlok Holmes - was a regular guest in Meiringen and he was so very much impressed of the scenery of Reichenbachfall, that he thought, this would be the perfect place to die for his famous dedective.
Another famous sight of Meiringen is Aareschlucht, a gorge, where the river Aare flows through a rather narrow valley - at first the rocks on both sides of the gorge are in a distance of 200 meters and at the end you may touch the rocks on both sides at the same time. 1400 meters of artificial paths, tunnels and bridges are leading you through the gorge. In my personal opinion Aareschlucht is somehow over-rated and only recommendable, when you have not seen similar places like Truemmelbach in Lauterbrunnen first.
The village of Meiringen has still plenty of old wooden houses and so it makes sense to take a little walk. Next to the church you will see some of the most beautiful houses with lovely balconies, full of flowers - read more about it on my Meiringen-page !
Meiringen is in a distance of 75 minutes from Luzern. Direct trains will run once an hour and will be included in the Tell-Pass !

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Brienz & the scenic Bruenig-pass might be another great day-excursion from Luzern. At Brienz you may leave the train at Hauptbahnhof and cross the street in order to board the old steam-trains taking you up to Brienzer Rothorn for one of the most scenic train-rides and panorama-views of Switzerland.
Brienz is also famous for since several centuries already for it's wooden houses - many of them are hundreds of years old and saw celebrities like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lord Byron and Ludwig Uhland, who visited Brienz and stayed there for some time - see my last picture of Hotel Weisses Kreuz, the hotel where these famous people had stayed.
The total train-ride will take 90 minutes and a direct train is leaving once an hour from Luzern Hauptbahnhof, the journey from Luzern to Brienz is included in the Tell-Pass, BUT Brienzer Rothorn is NOT !!
When you intend to go to the Brienzer Rothorn + several other funiculars and mountain-trains around the Jungfrauregion, the Regionalpass Berner Oberland will be the best option !

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Einsiedeln is also called Maria Einsiedeln and it is the most popular pilgrim-church of Switzerland. Einsiedeln is about 50 km east of Luzern and you may combine it in a daytrip with Schwyz and Kuessnacht.
The Benedictinean monastery of Maria Einsiedeln dates back to the 10th century and it was built at the same place, where the benedictinean eremit Holy Meinrad was killed by robbers back in the year 861. The monks started to cultivate the woods around the monastery, built vineries and breed horses.
The monastery burned down 5 times and the baroque architecture that you may still see today dates back to the year 1656-1723 , constructed by Kaspar Moosbrugger.
The Basilica was built 1719-1735 in the centre of the 4 wings of the monastery and it has 2 spires, each of them 56 meters high. The interior of the Basilika is beautifully decorated with frescos by the brothers Damian and Egid Quirin Asam from Bavaria. ("Asam-Baroque" used to be some sort of a "trade-mark" for ornate decorations and frescos and there is even an Asam-church in Munich, built and and neven payed by themselves !)
There is a miracle-working-image of a "Black Madonna" in a seperate chapel, opposite of the entrance to the basilika. The wooden sculpture of that Madonna is dressed in beautiful robes and all day long it is really hard to get to that place.
Almost all days there are church-services held for the thousands of tourists coming to that church every day.
By train you may get to Einsiedeln within 1 hour from Luzern !