Vierwaldstättersee - Northern & eastern shores (driving tour)
Leave Lucerne (altitude 438 m/1,437ft) on the Haldenstrasse, going past the Kursaal (on right) and the beautiful lakeside gardens and continuing close to the shore of Lake Lucerne. In 2km/1mi a side road goes off on the right (0.5km/0.25mi) to the public beach (park, camp site, restaurant) and the Swiss Transport Museum. The main road passes the Liliputbahn (a miniature steam railroad). Beyond this a road comes in on the right from the beach.
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Must-see attractions nearby:
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Then the hotels on the Bürgenstock and later the Rigi come into view. The first place to be reached is Seeburg (440 m/1,444ft; beach), an outlying suburb of Lucerne. Beyond this, the road winds its way up to cross the Megger Berg (496 m/1,627ft), with fruit orchards and many houses, past the Meggenhorn, a little wooded peninsula on the right.
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Brunnen (Axenstein)
In Brunnen (440 m/1,444ft) we join the St Gotthard road, coming from Lucerne and Zurich via Arth. The lakeside route from Brunnen to Flüelen follows this road. At the Wolfsprung Hotel an attractive little mountain road (3km/2mi) goes off on the left via the health resort of Morschach and the holiday center of Axenfels (turn left), past the Rütliblick Hotel to the Axenstein (708 m/2,323ft), with a superb view of both arms of the Vierwaldstätter See.
Lake Küssnacht
From Meggen the road enters the canton of Schwyz and continues along the northwest side of the Küssnachter See. 2km/1mi beyond the village of Merlischachen (444 m/1,457ft), below the road on the right, is the Astrid Chapel (1936), moved here in 1960 from its previous position on the left of the road, commemorating Queen Astrid of the Belgians, who was killed in a car accident here (spot marked by a cross) on August 29, 1935.
Meggen
Meggen is a long straggling village (483 m/1,585ft). In Vorder-Meggen we find Schloss Neu-Habsburg (1869), with the tower of an older castle which Rudolf von Habsburg had built in 1240, but which was destroyed by the men of Lucerne in 1352. The mansion of Schloss Meggenhorn (1886-1899) was built by Viktor von Segesser on the model of French Renaissance Châteaux; the Neo-Gothic chapel is worth seeing. The parish church of Hinter-Meggen dates from the 18th and 19th centuries.
