Downtown Lucerne was in lockdown yesterday as over 160 firefighters fought to contain a blaze at the Hotel Schlüssel. The fire broke out around 11.50 in the kitchen, and although an employee tried to put the flames out the fire quickly spread through the ventialtion system. The building the hotel is in was built in 1545 and the firemen were aware of the historical value of the building and tried hard to saveguard as much of it as possible. Lukily noone was injured. The fire could be put out around 14.00 but downtown traffic remained a chaos well into the evening.
At the beginning of the week we mentioned that the new president for the city businesses was calling for longer shopping hours. This suggestion doesn’t seem to enthuse many shop owners who claim that they don’t see any benefit in staying open until 19.00 during the week, and that the most they could imagine was for the shops to open an extra hour on Saturdays. We will keep you updated as this story develops.
Traffic continues to be a favourite topic for locals. The latest plans are for an underground parking for coaches downtown. The concept would be for a 2 story underground parking offering room for up to 166 coaches. The project would cost 140 million francs and the idea would be to charge coaches up to CHF 120.- an hour. However currently the most coaches are paying is CHF 10.- an hour, parking at Schwanenplatz is free, so it remains questionable whether coach companies would then be willing to fork out so much.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Saying of the day: “Es schiffet” – it’s pouring (rain)[/perfectpullquote]
