Bern

We took a day trip to Bern the day after we arrived in Switzerland. It was about an hours drive from Montreux. Bern is a lovely place. Here they don't speak french but instead speak german.

The streets in Old Town are lined with the flags from Bern and Switzerland.

This is the flag of Bern.

Old Town is part of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

For a while we walked around the town just looking at the buildings and window shopping.

The streets of Old Town are paved in cobblestones and cars are not allowed making it that much better.

Everywhere in Switzerland there are water fountains and the water is perfectly delicious and potable! We took advantage whenever we could.

This is the Zytglogge (aka Clock Tower) and is just as much a symbol of Bern as is the bear. At four minutes to every hour a little display of mechanical figures come out.

There are many fountains around Bern but this one is by far the most interesting. It's an ogre eating children! It's said to be a monster made up by Swiss parents to scare their disobedient children into cleaning their rooms!

This one is of Moses and the 10 Commandments.

Just to remind us all to be good.

'But why Jen? Why do we have to be good", asks Ben.

'Because otherwise the Ogre will come eat you, that's why.'

Speaking of eating, let's get us some Raclette!

It looks disgusting but it was so good!

After a nice lunch we decided to walk over and see the bears.

Bern got its name from the founder of Bern, Count Berchtold V von Zähringe (that's a mouthful), who killed a bear on the Aare peninsula which then led to the German 'bar' name.

The bear pits house two bears and two cubs along the Aare River.

The two cubs were so fun to watch. They were so playful with each other and played hide-and-seek!

The area is a neat place to be. The Aare river runs rapidly along the edge and surprisingly there were no barriers to keep people from jumping in...

... or deterring a certain someone from throwing me in!

Luckily he took mercy on me and I came out of that dry but with a few rapid heartbeats.

We decided to take a more scenic route to our next destination, the Bern Munster Cathedral.

'Ya know Ben, I got a little hungry from throwing Jen in the river, you reckon we still have some of those cookies left?'

'Oh yes, yes, these are delightful'

'Hey man, save me some!"

mmmmm coookiiieees

The boys just liked to goof off which was good fun - at least they can keep themselves entertained easily.

"Hey, look what I can do!"

"Aw, that's nothin'. I can do that easily!"

"Whoooaaahhh"

All together now!

Oh you guys are so good. You should really consider trying out for the circus.

So here is the Bern Munster. It's a gothic cathedral built in 1893 but it took over a century to complete it. It has the tallest spire in the country.

We decided to walk up the many steps to the top for a good view of the surroundings.

After the church activities we headed over to the Natural History Museum. By this time we were pretty tired but it didn't deter the boys from acting a bit odd. They wanted me to take their photo with their heads in this tube. Don't ask me why - they just did.

There were some pretty cool things to see such as animals from Africa, Switzerland, the Arctic, etc. but this was by far the most odd. It's a giant ant farm. And the ants were escaping! They were everywhere and it was gross.

Later I found the boys asleep in this video room. Guess they had had it for the day.