How often do you revisit places on vacation? We rarely visit the same place twice (a couple exceptions include the Hendersonville/Asheville area of North Carolina and Charleston), but with the wide range of new places to visit we typically opt for new vs. been there.
This past weekend was another exception. We planned a weekend away in Lucerne, Switzerland for Juneteenth weekend. Hurray for another federal holiday to celebrate! Lucerne was the final stop of our European honeymoon nearly 14 years ago and I loved it. We stayed in a quirky hotel, had the best chocolate we've ever eaten and had an overpriced takeaway pizza. These were all things I wanted to recreate on our recent visit. 
Alas, my expectations were a little too high. For one, we visited on what may have been the hottest weekend so far of the year. If you have ever traveled in Europe you'll know that hotels do not necessarily have air conditioning. Ours did not, but we brought a fan and figured we could tough it out for two nights.
We also chose to bring our dog along which always limits what we can do while on vacation. And because we brought our dog, we could not stay in the same hotel we stayed in during our honeymoon. But we stayed in a hotel right on the lake just outside of town which included free bus passes! That was a really nice perk.
On the first evening of our weekend trip, we hopped onto the bus into Lucerne and walked around. The first picture is a tower that is across a small square from where our honeymoon hotel is located.
The next picture is just a view from one of the bridges. Lucerne is so beautiful!
Our hotel advertised as having a private beach area. That was a fact. The thing I was not expecting was for it to be so small. Also, the door leading out to the beach area had a no dogs allowed sign. Suzie loves the beach and water. Obviously, as you can tell, we chose to ignore the sign and let Suzie relax in the water for a bit. I put my feet in. It was cold!
Suzie has now visited five different countries, if I remember correctly. Doesn't she look so content just laying in the lake?
Here you can see the full beach area. It did have some nice grassy terraces with lounge chairs where you could sit and enjoy the view.
The hotel was actually really great. Our room, despite not having air conditioning, was comfortable. The hotel restaurant had a lovely terrace where we enjoyed a glass of wine from a winery right up the street. And it had free parking, which can be a rarity in Europe. The letdown was the area around the hotel. It was beautiful, but was mostly residential homes. There was little space to walk Suzie without her burning her paws on the road. So after sweating it out the first day, we chose to cut our losses and head home early where we could at least enjoy our portable A/C unit. Not all trips will meet all your expectations, but at least we can say we visited Switzerland last weekend!
