Lucerne

I'm sure that once upon a time Lucerne was a very nice place to visit. Unfortunately, like many such locales, it has since become overtouristed. At least this doesn't ruin the scenery, which Lucerne is rightly popular for. It is also known for its frescoed houses and wooden-roofed bridges.

The city takes a page from Nice and Monaco and caters to the rich with expensive hotels and water activities on the lake. Ferraris are a pretty popular sight along the streets. Both of the city's wooden-roofed bridges have medieval-era paintings between the eaves, one with Swiss historical scenes and the other with morbid scenes about death. A section of the medieval city's ramparts also remains, with three towers open to the public.

I should note that Lucerne is part of German Switzerland. Each of Switzerland's counties are autonomously run and determine their language. Therefore, Switzerland can be divided by language into French, German, and Italian parts. Switzerland is also the most friendly country I've been in towards tourists. English is commonly known since they use English to communicate between the three parts. Tourist information offices are always right at the train station, and cities make an effort to provide tours, post maps and signs in public places, and some even lend out bikes for free.

I have nothing to say about Zurich. It's a city. It has banks. It has a lot of banks.

I'm headed back into Germany for the third time, this time to the Allgau, a region in the south of Germany where it meets the Austrian border.

On a separate note, as my trip is winding down I'll be posting a "best of" list in a few days, so for example the best hostel I stayed at, the best church I went to, etc. If you have any you want to know, please leave a comment to this post or email me, I would really appreciate the help since I'll have a hard time thinking of categories. Also, I don't have a favorite city or a favorite country, they were all good for different reasons.