August 13th is my son’s birthday. This year, we celebrated his 9 year birthday at a very beautiful city Named Lucerne in Switzerland.  It’s hard to believe that today’s Lucerne, which both has the modern society’s vitality and medieval harmonies, had been just a little fishing village with only a few households back in Roman times.

Here for the first time we felt the warmth and generosity from the calculative Swiss. Upon knowing that it was my son’s birthday, the restaurant prepared a free, cute birthday cake for him. What a surprise! My dearest dear, you are 9 years old now. Another year has passed by for carefree childhood. You might already start to feel the pain of growth. I just wish you could become stronger, more independent and can adapt to whatever conditions you might in. 

There are several places in Lucerne definitely worth visiting. First is Hofkirche St. Leodegar, a beautiful church that combines Gothic and Renaissance style perfectly into one.  No wonder Audrey Hepburn chose it to host her wedding. Unlike Freiberg Cathedral, Hofkirche might not as grand, but has a royal and peaceful touch attached.  We also had a great time at Kapellbrucke Bridge. And happy times always passed in minutes!

We used to say that “Ten thousand scrolls are no better than ten thousand miles of journey”, but for me reading is as the same important as the travelling, or to put it more precisely, I tried to have them both.  The world is a book. To fully understand this book, we need both do research reading and onsite explorations.  Before this journey, I tried to learn more about the places we would visit through reading, if not deeply at least to have some general ideas: the history, the legends and the traditions. And I found these readings did help me to better understand these places.  In Lucerne there is a famous Monument “Dying Lion” which was described by Mark Twain as ‘the saddest piece of rock in the world’.  After read the story behind it, I almost could see that cruel massacred several hundred years ago. Looking at its sad eyes, I understand more about the Swiss persistence on Peace.

But for kids, the most interesting place probably would be Alhambra Mirror Labyrinth. If time allowed, I suspected that they could stay there for a whole day!