| Jul 17, 2007 - Luzern
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 | | show all 7 | | Old town bridge in Luzern | | view of Lakefront | | Looking out into Lake Luzern | | |
| This morning we said goodbye to Zurich as we hopped the train an hour away to Luzern. Like Zurich, Luzern is built at the confluence of a lake and river, but its smaller and much more touristy than Zurich. It's famous for it's old wooden bridges and beautiful architecture. We dropped our bags at the hotel and immediately set out looking at hotels. The last few days have been a blur, Its my 2nd day of research training and we have been going non-stop, literally running from place to place. I thought I walked fast, but man, Rick practically sprints.
This is basically what my first day was like: We met a local guide at 9:00 am and Rick intoduces us and tells her what he wants her to do. He cuts right to the chase, not much time for small talk. He reads her his self-guided city walk and asks if it sounds correct or if anything should be added or changed. We spent the next few hours walking through the old part of town as the guide told us about various historical sites and recommended restaurants or hotels. I think she was a little surprised by Ricks style, as he politely interrupts and puts her back on track if she starts going over something that he isn't interested in. As we were out and about, we ran into several tourists who recognized Rick and stopped to say how much they enjoyed his TV show and/or books and asking for an autograph or to take a photo with him. He seems to love it no matter how busy he is. Our guide Iris had never heard of Rick and was a bit surprised by how people reacted to him and how focused he is. At one point she said to me "He is certainly driven, isn`t he? Does he ever slow down?"
After the tour we went around checking hotels. It was really interesting to see how the various hotel clerks reacted to Rick as he questioned them about their hotels. He goes up to the desk sort of incognito, asking if they have any vacancies, what the price is and if he can see a room. All the hotels in Zurich are pretty booked up right now because of a convention, so most of the places we checked out didn't have any rooms. This is when Rick identifies himself as the author of a guidebook, who is just checking the facts. Most people then showed us a room as long as the person wasn't in it, but some people became downright angry. One woman acted like we were trying to trick her, and got really upset. she told us that she couldn't show us any rooms because they were all occupied. Rick explained that it didn't matter if they were booked, as long as the guests weren't there, all he wanted to do was peak in the doors, so he could get an idea what the rooms were like. She could even stand there to be certain we didn't try and steal anything if she wanted, but she wouldn't budge, saying she was busy and that she wanted us to leave. When Rick asked to speak with the manager she said he was out of town (we had just seen him walk by 5 min. earlier). Rick argued with her for a few minutes, then decided to just take the hotel out of the book. We had a similar experience at the next place we went to. The manager wouldn't let us look at any of the rooms because they were all occupied. Rick started walking down the hallway, and looking into the breakfast room, the guy got upset and we left. I was thinking, "man, is this what it's always like?". Fortunetly, this is rare. Being in Ricks guidebook is big business for a hotel or restaurant, and most hotelers know this and will bend over backwards to show him the best room they have. This is one reason he likes to approach them incognito, to see the reaction a typical tourist gets when they arrive.
After a brief (and I mean brief) lunch break, we then went to check museums before going back to our hotel to meet the manager who took us out to look at restaurants. This was the hard part, I was getting pretty hungry, as it was now 7:30 and I hadn't eaten yet. We walked around to all the recommended restaurants looking at the menus and confirming the info. with the managers, which isn't easy at dinner time, when they are busy. We ate at the last place we looked at, right on the river with a great view of the city. After dinner and a beer, I was exhausted. We got back to the hotel at 11:00, I showered, went to bed, and got up, took a train to Luzern, and did it all over again today. Tomorrow we go to Bern and repeat it. whew! |
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