Bon voyage

Start brushing up your Schweiz before the 7,500-km Flugzeug across the Atlantic to a Willkommen in Luzern that ISBA President-elect Irene F. Bahr will head up in September.

After about eight hours on the flight, the ISBA entourage will alight at the Zurich Flughafen and hop aboard a motor coach for the one-hour transfer to Lucerne and three nights in a first-class hotel near glacial Lake Lucerne.

The locals call their Swiss hometown both a cultural city with style (Kulturstadt mit Lebensart) and a city with a past (Stadt mit Vergangenheit).

A fishing village in the Middle Ages (Mittelalter), Lucerne developed into a flourishing center of trade on an important commercial route. Its people prospered through contracts to provide supplies to mercenaries.

Located at one end of the lake, which is crisscrossed by old-fashioned steamers, the city is nestled in hillsides that lead to a panorama of Mount Rigi and Mount Pilatus, which change their moods with the weather and the seasons.

Picturesque Lucerne is marked with spires of churches (Kirchen) and dotted with medieval wooden bridges (Brucken), historic monuments (Denkmalern) and flowering promenades.

After Lucerne, the ISBA travelers head to Lake Como (Lago di Como) in northern Italy for four nights in a first-class hotel. Circled by magnificent peaks of the Alps, Como lies amid a colorful tableau of exotic flowers and terra cotta roofs.

Abounding in history, the region was ruled by the Hapsburgs of Austria in the 18th century, and by Napoleon in the early 1800s. Dictator Benito Mussolini was executed in April 1945 at Dongo on Lake Como.

Bahr's nine-day tour is scheduled from Sept. 22 to 30. Global Holidays, an ISBA-affiliated travel coordinator, has outlined an itinerary at the affordable price of $1,849 per person, double occupancy (plus taxes), with departure from Chicago, and $1,949 from St. Louis.

Highlights include round-trip trans-Atlantic air transportation to Zurich and return from Milan, ground transfers, hotel accommodations, professional guides, a welcome reception, daily buffet breakfasts and a farewell dinner.

Participants may choose to plan their own individual journeys in and around the two destinations, or take advantage of custom-designed optional excursions.

At Lake Lucerne, they are: Lucerne City and Lake Cruise, and Spectacular Swiss Peaks. At Lake Como, they are: Treasures of Lake Como; Lake Maggiore and Borromean Island, and Milan.

For more information, call Global at (800) 842-9023. Brochures will be available soon in ISBA offices.