We were gonna have a whole day in Bern so we slept in. The distance to the old town was about 2.5 km, so we decided to walk. We followed the river Aare, which was very pretty. The current was quite strong, and there were several signs saying that it's dangerous to swim in the river. I don't get why anyone would even attempt it, but we did see some people swimming there during the day. Crazy.
Yet another strange-colored river... |
It took us about 25 minutes to walk to the old town. And as always the first thing we did was start looking for a place to eat. The info booklet that we got at the camping site had some suggestions, and we decided to check out Spaghetti Factory. The pasta there was very good, and the portions were pretty huge. I wasn't all that hungry to begin with, so I couldn't finish my spaghetti with bacon, mushrooms and onions :(
Something weird. Note the painted toe nails. |
After lunch we started exploring the old town - the astronomical clock (Zytglogge), the Federal Palace (Bundeshaus), Einstein's house, some of the many fountains along the way. The child-eater is definitely my favorite :D
The backside of the Astronomical Clock, and the Bundeshaus
The Child-Eater Fountain |
We basically walked through the old town and ended up in the bear park, BärenPark. We thought it was very cool. Mama-bear and the two cubs were sleeping when we got there, and Papa-bear (Finn, from Finland) was pacing around his enclosure. We spent some time there, but since 3/4 of the bears kept napping, we decided to come back later.
The bear park |
Björk, the mama-bear |
One of the cubs during nap time |
The bridges of Bern were spectacular, in my opinion. They were all very high, and unlike any other bridges I'd seen before. The views from the bridges were awesome too. I really liked Bern in general, it didn't feel like a capital city at all, so calm and down-to-earth.
...See what I'm talking about? I <3 those bridges. |
We had coffee at a small cafe somewhere near the old town. It was starting to rain, which wasn't very nice. But it didn't last long, and the weather was fine otherwise. We strolled in the old town some more, saw the city hall (Rathaus) and the church of St Paul and Peter, which was right next to it. Eventually we crossed the river again and walked to the Botanical Gardens. The plants and flowers were pretty, although my knowledge in botany is far too limited to fully appreciate it all.
Another fountain, and the Astronomical Clock behind it |
The day passed pretty quickly, and we couldn't leave without seeing the bears again, so we went back to the bear park. All the bears were awake then, and it seemed to be dinner time. One of the cubs was eating (and playing with) a carrot. They were very cute. The cubs looked especially cuddly. After that we took a tram back to the camping site. The day doesn't seem eventful at all now that I wrote about it, I think we were probably quite tired of all the walking :P
Some of the stuff that has fallen into the bear pit over the years :D |
-Brain