Allergies in Switzerland

We spent the whole day today in Lucerne, and it was refreshing to sleep in a little and leave my luggage in the room for a change.  After a cruise on the lake in the crisp morning air, I spent most of the afternoon walking around the city, exploring in general and looking for a apotheke in particular.

The pharmacies in Switzerland, at least the ones I managed to find here in Lucerne,  seem amazingly restrictive.  In both cases, very little other than beauty products and vitamins were available for customers to browse.  Everyone was helpful, more than willing to discuss my needs(allergy symptoms, in this case), and hand me something from behind the counter, but options were clearly limited.  I really wanted diphenhydramine to take for allergies and sleep at night, and I have yet to find a package anywhere on this side of the Atlantic(maybe I should have checked in Amsterdam🤔).  While brand names change from country to country the generic names for drugs are universal.    Allegra, Zyrtec, and Claritin were all called by their generic names and were offered to me as alternatives, but asking about diphenhydramine induced a blank stare, even when referred to as a sleep aid as well.  I can't help wondering about the rationale for restricting such a benign drug, especially in a country where I can go down the street and buy artificially colored blue ice cream(which was delicious, by the way).  I also picked up some chocolate, a practically obligatory souvenir.   They tried to get us all to buy fancy watches, but the last thing I need right now is to be keeping track of a timepiece worth more than everything else in my luggage combined.   

After repeated urging from our tour guide, I caved this evening and went to the Swiss folklore dinner that's put on for tourists at a local restaurant called Stadtkeller.    I went in expecting that it was going to be cheesy, and not just because of the the fondue, but I was pleasantly surprised.  There were a few corny things, of course, but for the most part it was an impressive performance.  They featured a lady yodeler whose range made me madly jealous; a gentleman who played bass, trombone, alpenhorn, wooden spoons, broom, and saw(but not at the same time), and multiple forms of audience participation resulting various levels of embarrassment.  The traditional music had very obvious German and French influences, and also it had a good beat and was easy to dance to.  While I doubted the authenticity of the Swiss conga line and their covers of "que sera sera" and "the chicken dance," it was a good time overall, and we were well fed in the process, too.

I could go on about what I saw today, but I've already made it clear how much I like old things, and it's time for bed now.