The Halls Perspective: Bern, Switzerland

Bern is the capital of Switzerland. It's a nice 4 hour drive from Volgelway starting off in the dark and arriving at a decent hour to get in a good day of sightseeing and shopping. We are going to be departing Germany for good in a few months and thus we are trying to get in as much of Europe as we can. Between USO bus tours and heading out on our own we are doing pretty fair. Bern is the first trip after we got back from our short hiatus in the U.S.

This is our Tour guide letting us know we are ready to launch at 0410. We waited ten minutes for a no-show to make it and they didn't. I like to point out about the USO; we that are paying customers enables the USO to put on tours for free for the Wounded Warriors.

This was an oasis where we had breakfast along the Autobahn. This glassed in room caught Brenda's eye and so I shot a quick picture. If you notice in the center it says Smokers Room in English.

Brenda by the bus at the oasis after breakfast. Cute ad for the Children's Zoo wherever it may be.

Brenda. We made this trip in 7 August.

First sighting of the city as we came down a hill to the bus parking area. It looks much bigger in this shot than it really is. We walked it from one end to the other and side by side.

She is ready to head out. This is a tourist spot near the bears. As you might have guessed Bern is German for Bear and the city has had a couple bears in residence for a few centuries. More on the bears in a bit.

Alright, now I know it isn't suppose to be a guy thing to display interest in flowers. And I could easily say Brenda posted them when you see them. But, it's me, I like pretty flowers and the German's and it seems the Swiss too love their flowers. They grow them everywhere, in the window boxes, in pots, gardens and even in cracks in the sidewalk. So, when you seen more flowers you'll know why.

Here's the Bern. The larger one was shot by police some time back when a retarded fellow dropped his backpack over the wall along the lower walk and climbed in to get it. Of course, these are not tame bears. So the fellow was attacked. He was hurt seriously, but recovered. And the bear was patched up and obviously survived the ordeal as well. The put up a high glass wall on top of the walkway wall to prevent something like that in the future. There was a bicyclist killed by the bears or his fall into the bern pit. We aren't clear on which it was. The bears use to be kept in a pit near where those flowers are and the cyclist took a dive head first into it back when the bears were still in it. Not sure I have a pic of the pit. If I do I'll put that up next.

Well, caught a corner of it. Ha... corner on a round pit. Anyway, the railing where the people are is above where the bears are now.

The river flows most of the way around Bern. It was their main line of defense. Of course, you had to be a person of means to live in the city. The other side equated to our modern day suburbs. When attacked you tried to get into the city before you were killed or worst. Back a few centuries there were no bridges.

This is the way into Bern from the bridge you see in the preceding pictures. I'll post a number of city pics without comment unless there is something specific to mention.

Mayor's Offices

Brenda with the tour group.

Just a few days ago I was at a craft fair in Prescott, AZ and on the other side of this gold tipped gate is a craft fair in the Bern park. Other than the language and the lack of western flair crafts you'd never guess they were 5700 miles apart.

What's this picture for? Why, the flowers, of course.

One of my favorite pictures from this trip.

The Capital building.

View from the Capital building wall.

Here's the bus we rode in on. By the time we got back to the bus at 3:30 we were wiped out from walking. Those are the drivers walking up to unlock. Thank goodness, there was no where to sit down outside. After we left Bern we went out to the countryside to visit a Swiss cheese factory.