Yesterday was the first time I've seen someone I know since meeting up with Jason in Greece. It was so nice to see some familar faces! We met in the morning to figure out how we could spend their one full day in the area. We decided to go up to Lauterbrunnen and go hiking around the area. Once we got up there, it started raining. Not just a little, but pouring rain. So we found a restaurant, ate some Swiss food and headed back to Interlaken.

Shane's big into soccer, so we decided to blow off Interlaken and head to Bern, one of the host cities of Eurocup. The games were being played in Basel, but each host city has a 'Fan Zone' that has a huge screen tv, beer and food. It sounded like a good idea so off we went.

We lucked out since the Swiss team was playing so we knew the fans would be out in full force and they sure were. We wandered around the town for a bit since game 1 started at 6pm and we arrived around 3pm. The city itself is cute and has lots of fountains, very old buildings and a massive church. Oh and lots of clocks and some bears too!

At fanzone you buy a beer and get a souvenir cup. Instead of paying 5 francs all night for a beer, we bought some beer at the Coop and drank outside Fanzone with a bunch of other crazies all doing the same thing. Some people were on the ground and people were crowd surfing over them. Me and Shane did it and it was hilarious. We then split a bottle of wine three ways and went into Fanzone. It was absolutely crazy and full of people, probably 75% all wearing red. We met a bunch of Swiss people and hung out with them for the night.

At the end of the game, we rushed back to the train station to catch our 11pm train back to Interlaken which took about an hour. Once we got back to Interlaken, we went to my hostel which has a bar / club. We danced for a bit and by then we were all getting pretty tired. They went back to their hotel in a taxi after some farewells!

It was so nice to see them and to catch up on all the things I've missed in the past two months and to see some friends that I've known for more than a couple of days! :) Have a great trip you guys!

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

Waking up to a beautiful Swiss Sunshiney morn, we popped down for a yummy breakfast and then out the door to snoop around Bern! One of the best features of this trip was that there was no push to do anything...we simply were just moving at a leisurely pace...it was glorious!

We parked at the train station with loads of brightly colored graffiti marking the spot (where we parked! lol) and we walked into town! Of course, one of the first things we checked off the proverbial list was a Swiss Pocket Knife for the boys...8D  Bern, the capital of Switzerland and founded by Duke Berchtold V of Zaehringen in 1191, is represented by the Bear! When the Duke was building the city, he swore to name it after the first animal he brought back from the hunt...and that animal turned out to be a bear! You'll see the bear in statue form, on flags and in the ever popular bear pit! We absolutely loved it!!!!  We bought food there at the little concession area that sells 'bear food' and dropped food down to her...it was so fun! The kids were squealing with delight, laughing because they got the fruit in her mouth....it was just a very enjoyable experience!

Walking up and down the streets thru the new/old town was a pleasurable experience. The water that ran thru it (Aare River?) was beautiful and we stood there for a time just to watch it! Ahhhh...peace and tranquility! Heading on down the marktgasse, we marvelled at the many statues and local threads of history.  Speaking of history, Albert Einstein lived right here...or there...in that house on Kramgasse 49 from 1902 to 1909! WOW! In that very apartment is where he developed his theory of relativity and the law of the equivalence of matter and energy!!!!  DOUBLY WOW!!! Now, that apartment is a museum!!! **eyes doing that exaggerated blink** 

About this time, the familia is worn down and giving in to base needs...food, food and oh, um, food! So, we found a local restaurant and plop in for the yummies! Wrapping up the day, we find ourselves in Zurich tomorrow and then heading home!

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

Quick day trip to get my out of Zurich for a while...

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

Instead of Geneva, I decided to head to Bern next. It's apparently named after bears. So i get in my first night, and find my way to the hostel. It was past the clock tower but they had more than one so I got a little bit lost. Eventually I did find it. I dropped my bags and headed out like I do in any new city. I explore the city center a bit and familiarized myself a bit to the area. When I got back and met my roommate, things got a bit interesting. We had a few beers at the hostel, and then went to this shady bar in a shady part of town. By a stroke of coincidence, we met our fourth roommate there. We talked a bit then he headed back. By this time I'm blacked out especially after smoking a joint before heading out. What I remembered was I was stuck in the bar's bathroom passed out worried how I was gonna get home. What actually happened, we walked back to the hostel, hung out some more, drank and smoke some more, and then I passed out in the hostel bathroom. Imagine my relief. The next day amid a killer hang over, we saw some of the city, saw the bear pits, and visited Einstein's apartment. Then i spent the rest of the day in bed recovering. Go Bern.

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

After Briançon, we drived all the way to Geneve, visited the lakeshores and carryed on to Laussane and Bern. We slept in a camping outside Bern

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

Yesterday was a great day and clear, you could see for miles.  Went up to the restaurant on the peek of the alps at 10,000ft.  Crazy views.  There was a James Bond movie filmed there back in the 60's.  We got about 8 inches of snow last night and today.  I couldn't pass up sking so I rented skis and did a few runs.  First run was a little rough but then got my ski legs back.  I'm on my way to Austria.  In Bern, Switzerland right now just looking around for a few hours.  Bern is the capital.  Tons of shopping right around the train station.  I'm taking an overnight train to Vienna tonight.

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

First time I was in Bern I was looking for a gas station....imagine.  Since then I have been coming there more regularly. The town is very nice and the city center is a treat. Almongst all the cities in Schwitzerland Bern is perhaps the most immediately charming. The city is crammed onto a steep-sided peninsula in a crook of the fast-flowing River Aare. The views when you are walking here is facinating and the cosyness of this city is getting to you. Even after Swiss standard the city center is quiet, and beautiful with its cobbled lanes, lined with sandstone arcaded buildings straddling the pavement.

You can clearly see that this city have  changed  at all in over five hundred years except for the adornment of modern shop signs and the odd car or tram rattling past. The hills all around, and the steep banks of the river, are still liberally wooded. Views, both of the Old Town’s clustered roofs and of the majestic Alps on the horizon, are breathtaking.

If you first have been to Zürich or Geneva, it’s hard to imagine that Bern – once voted Europe’s most floral city – is the nation’s capital, home of the Swiss parliament and wielder of final federal authority. For all its political status, Bern is a very tiny city of barely 130,000 people and retains a small town’s easy approach to life.

The attraction of the place is its ambience; traffic is kept out of the Old Town and you could spend days just wandering the streets and alleys, café-hopping and – if it’s warm – joining the locals for a plunge into the river. The perfectly preserved medieval street plan, with its arcades, street fountains and doughty towers persuaded UNESCO to deem Bern a World Heritage Site.

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

In the middle of our second night we were woken up by the most horrible alarm I have ever heard so far. It wasn't just like an ordinary alarm, it made your hairs stand up because it sounded so awful! We were pretty shocked and thought it was a fire in the hotel. We went down to reception to find that other guests were also investigating the situation. The receptionist was very nervous and seemed a bit shaken because he had feared the same thing, but told us that he had learned it was in fact a flood alarm. It was for the fire brigade, intended to inform them that the lower parts of the city needed to be evacuated. Our hotel was in the upper parts, high up, but we were concerned about our car, which was parked 5 levels underground in a lower part of Bern. But according to the receptionist that carpark didn't usually flood at all so we hoped it would be ok.

We had checked the weather forecast online the evening before and it told us there was an orange alert severe weather warning for the region we were in. Apparently that meant that the event happened about once every 1-3 years... just our luck to pick those days! The entire alpine region seemed to have cloud and severe rain for the entire time we had planned to be there, no matter where we looked. We thought about changing our plans and going to the south of France but the closest place without bad weather was Marseille. As we had been in that area 3 years in a row (have a look at my Provence blog) we didn't want to drive such a long distance to do it again and decided to simply go back to my parents' place in Frankfurt to save on accommodation and take a few day trips from there. We were really down about that! But before we could leave I had to have a look at the bears of Bern - in the "bear pit" in the middle of town. The mascots of Bern, that was something I was not prepared to miss because of the weather.

The trip back was just as bad as the day before in Interlaken with appaling visibility on the motorway. At least we were stuck in a traffic jam for a good part of it, so there was no danger of having a mass crash because of it ;-) The trip didn't seem like it would get much better anytime soon.

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

"Le Mazot" is a restaurant serving Swiss food, located in one of the squares up in the higher part of the old town. At first we were shocked to see that people were smoking in the restaurant but then remembered that not every country has brought in a smoking ban for enclosed spaces. The place seemed quite busy and there were both locals and tourists. I had planned to have a fondue (you have to have fondue if you're in Switzerland) but was seduced by a cream and garlic Rösti in the end. That turned out to be an exceptionally delicious meal. It was so good that there was no question we'd come back the next day to have it again, and this time Matt ordered the same. Prices, from a UK perspective at least, seemed very reasonable, and the waiters were maybe a bit understaffed but always friendly.

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

The Hotel Continental is situated in the higher part of Bern, in the middle of the old part that is most interesting. Most of the main sights are within easy walking distance. reception is on the 2nd floor and you reach the higher floor by using your room key in the elevator, which we found quite amusing. The staff were always very friendly and helpful, as well as giving us a very good recommendation for a restaurant. There is a small internet terminal in a cupboard-like room just off the breakfast area. Our room was on the top floor, under the roof, and was very nice and clean (this is Switzerland, after all!) with all the things you would need. For a little less money, they also have rooms without shower or bath.

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

Bern was just as overcast with drizzling rain when we arrived as we had experienced during our drive. We left our bags in the car and went to search for a place to sleep during our short stay in Bern. After struggling to find the tourist information to get a map and a list of places to stay it didn't take us too long to locate a hotel. We decided to use Bern as a base for the Switzerland leg of our trip and so we booked two nights. After that was done we went back to get our bags, get settled a bit and then decided to have a stroll round the city. That's when the sun finally broke through and it actually got quite hot.

The receptionist at our hotel was very nice and so we asked her whether she could recommend a restaurant that offers typically Swiss food. She gave us the name and drew the location on our map. The place was quite full when we arrived but we managed to get a table. We ordered two types of Rösti and they were absolutely delicious! The trip seemed to get off to a good start...

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

After four full days in Zurich, I headed off to Bern, the Swiss capital for what I wasn't sure was going to be a productive research trip.  I ended up being able to not only see documents, but two whole boxes on exactly what I wanted at the Swiss Soccer Federation (SFV).  However, the SFV has nothing on the German Soccer Federation (or FIFA) for that matter, so why hang out there longer than necessary?  I walked all through the city, which is wide but not tall since it basically is in the middle of a hairpin curve of the Aare river.  Bern is like a combination of Brussels, Boston, and the Boardwalk.  Brussels, because practically everything you want to see that is old and cool is under renovations.  Seriously, what's up with capital cities doing that when I visit?  Boston, because Bern is doing its own version of the Big Dig.  Actually, I have no clue what they are attempting to do.  All I know is none of the trams run in the middle of the city (you know, where all the cool stuff is) and there's some enormous below ground hole right in the middle of the city.  But as a result of no one being able to walk in the streets, everyone is left to crowd on the sidewalks -- like going on the boards over labor day weekend. 

What's there to do in Bern?  There are quite a few museums.  I went to the Swiss Alpine Museum which is, for the most part, a cartographer's dream.  The last part of the special exhibit at the moment is a whole bunch of stations to learn how to make the topographical maps.  I probably spent 5 minutes putting the 9 all white squares together so that they fit properly and formed whatever mountains they were representing.  It was tough, but I figured all those years of gifted classes could finally be put to use!  The museum in general definitely had a environmental slant to it, that mankind is not being kind to the earth -- and especially the alps.  But it was a nice little museum to see before heading over to the Historical Museum of Bern.  This was supposed to be built as the Swiss National Museum, but as we can see, that is in Zurich.  Funny, though, that they never said why Bern lost out to Zurich for the national museum.  I went to both temporary exhibits -- the one on Einstein, and then one on Bern through the modern age.  In the first I learned that Einstein was quite the ladies man -- before he married his first wife, they had a kid together.  But he wasn't faithful to her, and nor was he faithful to his second wife -- who was also his second cousin.  oh, those great minds!  As for the Bern through the modern, it was mostly about one person/event each year in the 20th. c. from Bern that was important.  Did you know that the first Bond Girl -- the one in the white bikini coming out of the water -- is from Bern?  yup, she is.  now, don't you feel enlightened?  I saw some of the permanent exhibit, too, but nothing terribly exciting there except the throne that the Bern mayor used to sit in before the French Revolution moved over to Switzerland.  It's one of the few thrones that survived the Revolution.  American mayors sit on crap compared to this.

After the Bern museum I headed over to the Museum for Communication.  If there ever was a perfect place to take my parents (other than the golf course), this is it.  The two special exhibits -- one was on the computer, the other on stamps.  They were pretty neat -- and man, were there some old computers salvaged for this exhibit.  commodore 64, apples from before the IIGS that we all used in elementary school.....  no atari, though.  They had a bunch of old different joysticks, but none from the atari -- and definitely no paddlewheels for that.  If they would have had one, I would have had to ask if they had an extra set that works for my atari.  I mean, whose atari paddlewheel didn't stop working or break after some point?  The permanent exhibit is really interactive, especially for kids, with information generally on communicating, the history of the postal services, radio, television, the internet, and other sorts of communication.

Before I left Bern for Lausanne I went over to the Bear Pits.  Basically, the legend of Bern's founding goes something like this -- some king of sorts in the late 1100s said he would build a town wherever the hunters killed the first animal, and the town would be named after that animal.  One hunter killed a bear at the bend in the Aare river, and thus, Bern was born.  The point is, they have some live bears living in the middle of the city in a pit -- not caged in.  They also have 11 fountains in the city that perhaps tell a story, I just don't know what it is.  I tried to find them all, but I think I only got 10 of them.  I do know that one of them is an ogre eating kids.  Really, where do the Swiss come up with this stuff?  I was a bit picture happy with all the fountains and other cool stuff on buildings.  That's the nice thing about Switzerland, though -- they stopped fighting wars before the really destructive stuff was invented, so they never had to worry about losing anything old and cool.  well, there was a fire that pretty much destroyed the city, but that was back in the 1400s when everything was made of wood.  They got smart after that and rebuilt it with more permanent materials after that, and they've done a good job of holding up.

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com

I love Switzerland, it has the best chesse, the best mountains, the best chocolate :)

See more travel blogs and travel reviews at TravBuddy.com