When Queen Victoria came here for her summer holidays, Lucerne was already a bustling tourist destination. Today it’s just as popular. It’s easy to see why. When you emerge from the busy train station (Lucerne is far too civilised to have an airport), Switzerland’s loveliest lake lies before you, framed by a ring of mountains. The forecourt doubles as a quay. If you like looking at the Alps but can’t be bothered to trek up them, Lucerne will suit you perfectly. You can sit in a quayside café and gaze at them all day.
Lucerne’s biggest draw is its summer music festival (15 August to 14 September this year) which brings together Europe’s greatest orchestras. The Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic and Leipzig’s brilliant Gewandhaus are all here this year. This Teutonic accent is apt. Lucerne is the cultural heart of German-speaking Switzerland, and its annual musikfest began in 1938 as an impromptu season of al fresco concerts for musicians who didn’t fancy performing under Hitler’s swastikas in Salzburg or Bayreuth.
That first festival was staged in the gardens of Tribschen, an idyllic lakeside villa where Wagner lived from 1866 to 1872.
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