Awesome Alpine Adventure: Day 8 - Leaving Lucerne with a BANG

DAY 8-  today was our last day and night.  We hated to leave but alas all good things must come to an end. And what an ending we had - you couldn't have scripted a better one if you tried.  All I can say it ended with a BIG BANG.
Favorite image for this post:

Fireworks in Lucerne Switzerland

Lucerne was having a musical festival that last day we were there.   That in and of itself made it an incredible day - walking around and hearing all different types of music being played while enjoying the sites of the city.  It had a carnival feel to it.  And what better way to end a festival than to shoot of fireworks.  And what fireworks they were.  You would not believe all the photos' I got.  I really didn't expect any of them to turn out but some of them were pretty good.  What also got to me was I didn't even try to take one of everyone that was exploded and seen.  I just did ones that were different colors or configurations.  If I was smart I should have video it because the photo's just don't do it justice.  The show was absolutely incredible -- one of the best I've ever seen.  I gave a teaser of it with this post  July 4th fireworks  .  Since I've already used those shots this post will be completely different ones.
The sun was starting to set and we noticed the barges on the water. 

Mount Pilatus, and Lake Lucerne Switzerland

 And here they were also.  we notice that there was more than one barge out there and at first thought it was for safety. 

 There were 3 of them total. I include this shot so you could see we were on a balcony and had some of the best seats in the city.  We were in perfect position and couldn't believe our good fortune to be there at this time.

 At 10 o'clock pm when it started it looked liked this.

 then we saw this sizzling on the water.  

 Then the bang and the skies lit up.  I tried taking a picture with my camera but it wouldn't work fast enough.  I switched to my cell phone and waited for the next round to lite up the skies and was pleased to get this.  I love fireworks and watching them.  As we were watching them we could hear music being played at one of the pavilions that was set up along the lake front.

 We watched some more go off and exploded in the sky. Those fizzled out. The action turned back to the water only this time there was some color instead of it being just white. 

 While the water was sizzling then some fireworks started to shoot up from the barges too and exploded overhead.

 They had three things going at the same time.  It was pretty spectacular and we thought this was the end of the program.  A nice display kinda like what you would see at a ballpark not very long but still beautiful and a fitting way to end the day.  But wait the music kept on playing could there be more???

 Yes, they definitely kept them coming.

 We oohhed and awed over the stuff we were seeing.   Just look at all the stuff that was being fire off.

 The sky got filled with smoke and there was a haze in the air.  They stop shooting things up into the air.  We thought it was the end and started to clap. But the music kept playing some classical material.  The haze started to clear up and then things started up again only this time with more color to it.

 We ohhed and awed over this stuff too.

Fireworks

 I would look on things on my camera and almost deleted some of this because it was blurry but decided to wait until later when I was in better lighting. I was glad I waited because some of these I liked the blurriness to them.  It reminded me of images I've seen with the NASA Hubble telescope program. 

 By now I was learning to start to take the image as soon as I heard the boom.  If I waited until I saw it, it would be gone by the time the camera would take it.  

 Just look at all the smoke and haze that was in the air.  Also the fireworks were getting bigger and more colorful or so it seemed.

Fireworks during the Music festival, Lucerne Switzerland

 Again I thought we were through but once again they surprised us with more stuff being shot off near the water.   Only these were going up higher than the ones before.  Some of them almost looked like palm trees except they were red-orange in color

 We couldn't help but let the awes and oh's come out of us.

 Just look at how differently these things were exploding.  Not to mention the colors in them too.

 It got so hazy again you could barely see anything.  We thought for sure this was the end when they finished with this round.

 But no it was back to the water again.  They were giving the skies a break so that some of the haze could dissipate.

 It was long before they were going upward again.  And oh how magnificent they were.  

 We couldn't believe they were still coming and there were so many of them.

 At one point they looked like they were coming right too us and the sparks would fall on us but they never did.  They always landed into the water.  I decided to zoom in on one as it was exploding.  I liked the way it would blur and and have trails giving a sense of motion to them.

 The more they shot off the harder it was to see the individual bursts and it got this more hazy feel to it but the clouds were these extraordinary colors.  What I couldn't get over was when I saw these photos' I did nothing to enhance them - this is how the camera actually caught them. 

 Just look at the way these shot up with those tracers on them. 

 Once again we thought the show was over and once again we were fooled.

 It was amazing how they just kept on coming and coming. 

 Finally when we got to this point we realized this must be the grand finale and the only thing that gave it away was the tempo of the music.- It was reaching a climax too.

 Then the music stopped and we saw the rest of the show in silence.

 With so many fireworks exploding at once it made its own music.

 And then there was silence and the fireworks stopped.  We kept on waiting for another round but it didn't happen.  All we could do was talk about how amazing that show was.  And how most of us had never seen one quite as spectacular as that.  They started to joke about how much our tour host must have shelled out for a performance like that.   I would hate to image the amount of money that was spent on that display but to me it was worth it.    (I'm just glad I got the photo's I did)
   We sat still in stunned silence for quite awhile and just enjoyed the nightime view of the lake. 

 And I just had to get one last parting shot of the hotel balconies we were looking from.  And how pretty the lake was at nighttime too.

Like I said all good things must come to an end and that was the end of my time on this trip but boy what an awesome adventure that truly was.
Nothing like going out with a BANG.