No rain or snow today - it was nice and mild and the sun came out to play in the afternoon. We started off by walking to the tourist information centre to find out what we were meant to look at. We got a map which showed us a walk through Lucerne to see the sights. Unfortunately quite a few of the sights were closed, being winter, but we still had a nice walk - we went through the markets, went over Chapel Bridge with its octagonal water tower and the Spreuer Bridge (oldest timber bridge in Switzerland), walked along the Musegg Wall with its nine towers (which were unfortunately closed for the winter) and just generally took in the peaceful and beautiful vibe of the place.

We munched on the cookies from our last Airbnb host and then had plain Lebanese bread from the supermarket as our pre-lunch snack. Then we came back to the hostel and cooked pasta for lunch.

We then went to look at the Dying Lion of Lucerne monument which was about 5 minutes walk from the hostel. As we were wandering around after this, we heard a band playing so we followed the noise. Turns out there was some sort of festival today (not really sure what it was for or about) and we got to watch all these brass bands (dressed in costume) playing some awesome music - and it didn't cost us a single cent! They wear some scary looking masks (which perhaps are meant to look like Fritschi?) and one tourist who was trying to take a selfie got the biggest fright of her life when she saw this ginormous scary head appear right next to her! Kate was in fits of giggles.

Each band played about 5 songs each before marching off and the next band would come down the stairs in the laneway. We watched them for about 2 hours. They played lots of well known songs and then quite a few Swiss / German songs (we assume as we hadn't heard of them but there were plenty of people in the crowd who obviously knew them). The bands were fun, the crowds were lively, and the streets were busy with stalls and people dressed in costume - it made Lucerne look positively vibrant!

It was 5:00 by the end of the performances so we then walked back to the hostel via the lakefront and then relaxed a bit before having more rice porridge for dinner.

After reading a bit more about Lucerne, we discovered that the Dying Lion of Lucerne monument is actually one of the world's most famous monuments. It commemorates the heroism of the Swiss soldiers who died in 1792 trying to protect the Tuileries Palace in Paris during the French Revolution. The rock carving now seemed more important and interesting than before so we decided to revisit the monument at night so we could give it more of the respect it deserved.