Not a lot to say about our time in Bern (it's 3 days ago, already...lots of water under the bridge). It made a great day trip from our house - it was only around an hour by car. Pretty, old town, but under heavy construction. I guess they're hosting the big European soccer tournament in 2008, so they're getting the place spiffied up. We just wandered around the town on foot, soaking in the atmosphere and snapping a few photos. (Unfortunately, we left our Switzerland guide book on the plane between Vancouver and London, and so we're kind of winging it, hoping to catch the "big" attractions at the places we visit. Another book's on its way, thanks to Amazon UK. In the meantime, we are very fortunate to be able to talk to friends or family of the Webers (our hosts) and get the scoop on where to go and what to do while we're here. Sure beats tourist info offices.
It's been really warm here recently (high temps ~30 degrees), and so the random water squirters shown on the left were a welcome relief to some of the local Swiss kids. Lucia was a little wary of the strange streams of water erupting from the ground at unpredictable intervals. A few kids were running around in just their undies, and we told Lucia she could do the same (when in Rome...) but she's much too proper for that.
Despite the very medieval feel to the town, there are LOTS of modern shops within the covered arcades lining the streets and below ground. Access to the latter is via stairwells that are behind funny looking doors that open at an angle (see photo on the right).
Apparently, Einstein spent some time in Bern and came up with his theory of relativity here. His apartment has been fully touristified, and I had to take the obligatory photo to show "I was there". That was enough for me (and Danielle). (We don't make very good tourists.)
On a side note, a point of interest for the coffee drinkers that might read this. Needing a little pick-me-up and not finding anything appropriate but a Starbucks (honestly, we tried), we ventured in and ordered a tall iced Americano for 5.20 Swiss francs. OUCH. That's just under $5 CDN. We won't be doing that again anytime soon. (We keep repeating, "...but we're not paying anything for accomodation", as justification for frivolities like this.) Funny too, how all of the signage in the Starbucks was in English.
And speaking of language, this was an interesting outing for us in that we moved from French Switzerland to German Switzerland in such a short distance. Switzerland is quite an interesting place in that regard, being the size of Vancouver Island, and having 4 languages (French, German, Italian, Romansh). Amazing how they can fit at least 3 languages on all of their food labels!
Not much else to say about Bern. Probably the biggest highlight of the day was the hail/thunder/lightning-storm we encountered on our way home. Don't experience many of these back home and this one was a doozy. Thinking back to the human lightning strike in Alberta recently, I was really worried about Danielle who had to cross the road between the grocery store and the car. (Honestly, the thunder and lightning were in such close succession, I was sure it was happening just outside my door.) Thankfully, she dodged the lightning bolts and made it to the car safely.
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