City Visits to Luzern and Bern, and lots of Cookies at the Kambly Factory

(Posted on December 21, 2021)

Friday, August 10, 2018 -- Vacation Week Day 7: The weather forecast for this day was for rather poor weather, so we opted to do a city tour with our guest Parkes, instead of another hike. I mean, after all, who comes to Switzerland without having visited Zurich, Bern or Luzern, or any combination of the three?

We decided on a combination of Luzern and Bern, with a couple of interesting stops on the stretch between the two. So it was a very full day! Unfortunately, the day did start out very overcast, so on our first stop in Luzern, after crossing the Reuss River several times on the famous covered wood bridges, and looking at some of the lovely painted houses, we didn't get the fantastic view of the Alps which you often do when you climb the towers of the old city wall. (In all there are nine towers on the city wall, four of which are open to visit in summer, but we were only able to go up one tower).

Our next stop on the way to Bern was the popular Kambly Cookie Factory in Trubschachen, a real hit with visitors as you can sample dozens of their cookies for free in the cookie shop! As it was lunch time, we also had some coffee with our free cookies in the adjoining coffee shop where you can also watch demonstrations of how they make cookies and chocolates.

After purchasing a couple of kilos of our favourite cookies, and a quick look at the pretty Emmental-Style houses in Trubschachen, we continued by train to the next stop: The "Book Mill" in Neumühle near Zollbrück. We discovered this fascinating building quite by accident a year earlier: It is an old mill privately-owned by a fellow who collects and sells second-hand books. Every corner of the four-story building is positively crammed with books (over 200,000!), tucked in and on top of the original mill-works (pipes, engines, etc.). A real hit with Parkes as she loves books. Unfortunately, the top floor with the foreign-language books (i.e. English) smelled very strongly of mouse urine, so we didn't stay long. It was worth a look in any case. (Previous photos of the Book Mill can be viewed at the end of the following album: CLICK HERE)

Continuing on then to Bern, and by the time we arrived at 3 p.m., the clouds had cleared and the day grew warm. We were pleasantly surprised to find there was a festival of sorts going on in Bern that day, so besides a walk through the old city to admire the cathedral and the old buildings, we quite enjoyed watching the children get their hair styled in rather outrageous styles! It was a big hit. There was street food and street music advertised to start by 5 or 6 p.m., but us "old folks" were tired and our cookies were melting (needles to say, there was chocolate involved), so we left our guest in Bern to enjoy the entertainment and find her own way back "home" alone, which she managed just fine!

PART 1: Walk around the City of Luzern

The beautiful gate at the Lucerne train station. We've got a long day ahead, so we're en route early, it's only 8:30 a.m.!

The famous water tower at the Chapel Bridge on the Reuss River

A walk across the chapel bridge into old-town Luzern

A walk across the chapel bridge with its unique 17th-Century paintings. Many of these paintings were destroyed in the bridge fire of 1993 (the bridge was subsequently restored). This is the oldest wooden bridge in Europe and one of Switzerland's main attractions

Many of the buildings have intricately-painted façades

I am always particularly impressed with the signs indicating what kinds of shops these are

Crossing back across the Reuss River to the South side again. (Looking back to North side)

Taking a look at some of the buildings on the South side of the Reuss River

The other wooden bridge over the Reuss is called the Spreuer Bridge. The first bridge here dating from the 12th Century was destroyed by flooding in 1566, and then rebuilt. We are going to go up into the leftmost tower along the city wall.

Crossing the Spreuer bridge back to the North side of the River. These paintings famously depict the "Totentanz", or "Dance of Death". The first of these paintings was mounted in the year 1616

View from the Spreuer Bridge to the South side of the Reuss River

The second tower on the city wall (Museggmauer) is not accessible, although the third, the Wachtturm (Watchtower) should have been accessible, but for some reason it was locked this day.

A view down to the Spreuer Bridge and the Reuss River from the "Männliturm" Tower.

Being Tourists. In the background is another distinctive landmark of the city of Luzern, namely the Gütsch Castle. (Hotel Chateau Gütsch)

Männliturn ("Little Man Tower") on the city walls of Luzern

Heading back down through the City Wall.

Altogether we walked for about 4 kilometers around the city, and then got back onto the train at about 10 a.m. to go to our next destination: The Kambly Cookie Factory in Trubschachen

SIDE NOTE:

THIS is what the view from the Männliturm is on a nice clear day!

PART 2: Kambly Cookie Factory

Kambly cookies are very popular in Switzerland, and their factory has an onsite shop where you can buy the "not-the-best" cookies in bulk, and while you are at it, you can taste as many as you want from the sample cookie tins! (The first time I did this, I ate too many and felt quite ill). We like to take our visitors there. This time also, we agreed to let Parkes treat us to the coffee we purchased with the cookies....

Also, the village of Trubschachen where the factory is located, is in the Emmental, and we did a quick tour of the village to admire the typical Emmental construction.

The "Kambly Train", runs between Luzern and Bern through the Emmental. The factory is in the back on the left.

Mmmm, dozens of different types of cookies to sample! (The little guy in the background is only going to get to sample about 2/3 of the cookies!)

Since it was near lunch time, we sat in the coffee shop and had some coffee with our free cookies!

Parkes is happy to treat us to coffee... the cookies were free!!!

The "Kambly Experience...."

A quick walk through the village of Trubschachen to admire some Emmental-style houses

Details on the Bären Hotel building

(LATER that year we did another little trip to the Kambly Cookie Factory, just Urs and I. Here is a sampling of the cookies!)

Another visit to the Kambly Factory in November 2018.

PART 3: The "Book Mill" in Neumühle

In the village of Neumühle, not far from the Kambly Factory, is a unique second-hand book store: The owner has packed over 210,000 books and records and DVDs into four storeys of the old mill, built shelves into and around the old mechanical works, with labyrinthine nooks and old carpets and reading corners. Not sure how anyone would find anything specific here, although he is digitizing what he has, but just walking through the four levels of the building is an experience in itself.

We left Trubschachen at 12:15, and arrived at Neumühle at 12:45. The actual travel time is only 10 minutes, but we had a 20-minute layover in Langnau.

A 5-minute walk from the train station to the old mill in the village of Neumühle. This building is jam packed with over 200,000 books and CDs, from bottom to top in every available nook. (The owner lives in the front section, and if you want to buy something, you have to ring at his residence!)

Loads and loads of books here. No idea how you would find something!

Our plan was to catch the next train an hour later, so we had to hurry back to the train station! This little station is a "Stop on Demand", so Parkes is running to press the HALT button before the train zips by! (It's now 1:45 p.m.)

PART 4: Bern, the Capital City of Switzerland

We got to Bern by 3 p.m. and it was getting very very hot! We discovered that various bands were setting up and preparing for some type of music festival, and there were loads of interesting food stands going up as well, but unfortunately not yet ready for purchase. We ended up doing about a 5-km walk around the old town (for me the highlight was the artwork on the cathedral) and really got a kick out of the kids getting their hair done. By about 4:30 p.m, Urs and I decided to head home, while Parkes stayed to enjoy the music. But a day like this is much more tiring for us than 5 hours of hiking in the mountains!