Condé Nast travel magazine readers voted Lucerne the 3rd world most attractive small city worldwide. Over 430 000 readers took part. San Miguel de Allende in Mexico took place one, followed by Salzburg in Austria, Basel came in fourth. With over 220 000 overnight stay in the city Americans are Lucerne’s number one tourist demographic, although more Asians come to the city as day tourists. the main demographic group are Swiss themselves who come to the visit the city of lights.
The warm weather is good news for hikers as both Engelberg and Melchsee Frutt have decided to prolong their summer season by another week and keep their gondolas running until October 21. This also means that the restaurants Berghaus Jochpass, Restaurant Alpstübli and the Berghotel/Restaurant Trübsee will remain open. On the downside this means that snowboarders and skiers will have to wait as the snow is not on its way quite yet.
The Aquarius ship made headlines in the summer as it saved the lives of over 30 000 of asylum seekers fleeing north Africa by sea. Now stranded in Marseille, Panama under whose flag the Aquarius used to sail having rescinded the ship’s right to fly under its colours, the ship is unable to go back to sea. Now 27 000 people and several politicians have signed a petition asking for Switzerland to give the ship, which is owned by doctors without borders, the Swiss nationality so that it may resume its activities of saving lives.
