One of my most memorable hotel stays was a couple summers ago during my solo Eurotrip. I stayed in Lucerne for a few nights, at the Hotel des Balances. I've always loved Switzerland. The weather is always perfect (well, whenever I am there it is), the people are really friendly and well-dressed, and it's a great place to relax. The first time I visited Lucerne was with my mom in 2007. We did all the touristy sites that time, so when I went back to the city by myself, I mostly just stayed at/around my hotel to relax and catch up on my blog. (I also took a side-trip to Zurich one day) That was my first time travelling by myself. I planned the entire trip - spending only 2-3 days at each city, staying at many different hotels, and trying to fit way too much into my few weeks there. Needless to say, I was quite burnt out by the middle of it so I needed the "break" in Lucerne to rest a bit.
Hotel des Balances is a luxury hotel in the middle of Old Town. It has a beautiful facade and quite a small entrance.
After checking in, I got complimentary welcome drink vouchers and chocolates.
My room was a "Double Room with River View".
If you ever stay here, I highly recommend you get a River View as opposed to a City View.
The view from the balcony is perfect!
After settling in, I went to the hotel's restaurant to get dinner and catch up on my blog. I think I wrote THIS POST when I was sitting here! So cool reading back on my old posts hahah.
The view from my table
The amuse bouche. I don't really remember what it was..
As you can see, I stayed here for quite a long time.
I had a tub and shower in my washroom, which opened into the bedroom. After my dinner, I went on a nice stroll around the area before coming back for a looooong relaxing bath with Hotel Costes music of course:
The ceiling of the washroom reminds me of Rolls Royce ceilings.
I sat at the same table for breakfast.
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These little macaron-looking things are called Luxemburgerli. They taste similar to macarons but trust me, they taste a LOT better than any macaron I've ever tried..and you know I love macarons. They are made by Sprüngli, a Swiss luxury confectionery manufacturer. One of my German friends (who lived in Toronto at the time) gave me a lot of suggestions of where to go during my trip. He recommended Sprüngli for breakfast. I'm ashamed to say that it's rare for me to start a day early enough for breakfast. So on the day I dropped by Zurich, I came to Sprüngli for lunch and a box of Luxemburgerli.
If you are ever in Zurich, you should definitely come to this place. Make sure you go to the one on Paradeplatz - that's the main one. They have a very nice patio and an upstairs cafe with great food and extremely stylish Swiss people.
This is the Sprüngli on Paradeplatz.
Everyone in Zurich dresses really well. I noticed a lot of LV and a lot of H. Great example: man who accidentally got in my shot is using a LV damier graphite bag and Hermes belt. Ok, I admit I may have tried to get him in the shot intentionally.
I walked all along Bahnhofstrasse, their main street, and saw more Birkins than I could even count.
Here is the restaurant/cafe at Sprüngli. I took forever with the menu as I wanted to order so many things. I finally decided on a green tea, smoked salmon and a bowl of muesli. The smoked salmon tasted like regular smoked salmon but the muesli was so so so so good. That was the first time in my life I ever tried muesli and I loved it. It was so filling I wasn't even able to order dessert..I was SO tempted to order them just so I could take some photos of them because they looked so pretty:
They had a huge dessert menu but I resisted.
I remember when I was sitting here eating, there was an old man at a table in front of me. I vividly remember what he looks like. He looked really cute (in an old man way?) and was one of those people who literally has a permanent smile on their face. He smiled at me as I sat down, and kept smiling the entire time as he read the newspaper. He looked like he came out of a fairy tale. That's the best way I could describe him. He was also really well-dressed, like everyone else in Zurich are..
After I finished eating, I went back downstairs to pick up a box of Luxemburgerli. I really liked these gold champagne ones!!
I got a few champagne flavoured, and I think apricot, & totally forgot what the rest were. The texture and taste are in my opinion better than Laduree macarons (which I also love!). The flavours are very strong. Like eating one champagne flavoured one tasted like I just had a big sip of champagne.
After Zurich I went back to Lucerne. Totally lost track of time, as all the restaurants were closed by the time I was ready to go for dinner. So the box of Luxemburgerli became my dinner that night along with a pretzel I got from the train station. Does that sound depressing? It was slightly; the thunderstorm occurring at the time didn't help. But the next morning I was off to Paris!
PS - I just found out you can purchase Luxemburgerli from their online shop. They ship worldwide! I might just give in and order a box one of these days...even if they won't taste as good after the flight over.
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