We woke the girls by 7:30, showers and shampoo for all, and the girls said goodbye to the Glasgow Guides. Because it was Scout Camp, and Scouts "Leave the World a Better Place," we had to clean our own rooms, which included stripping the beds, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, etc. We then had to wait for a Pinkie to be available to inspect the room and check us out. I got tired of waiting, and told the Pinkie that I would be at the bus stop. There was no way I was going to miss a bus that runs only once an hour while he checked the floor for dust bunnies. I knew it was clean, and so did he, but he felt bound to follow the protocol. We caught 9:54 bus to the Kandersteg train station.
Waiting on the platform for our train from Kandersteg to Speiz, and then on to Bern.
When we arrived in Bern it was overcast and muggy but no rain, thankfully. We put our bags in lockers at the train station, and found the TI (Tourist Information) to get a free map. No city map unless you stood in line, which was stupid, given all the free brochures in racks for the taking (none bearing a map, however). We wasted half an hour in line just to get a free map, which they kept below the counter.
We saw a number of tour groups gathered under one of the famous clocks. It was almost 13:00 so we decided to stay for the hourly show. Bells would ring, little characters rotated and waved, and music played. It wasn't much of a show, however, because it wasn't run on the 24 hour clock. Instead of 13 chimes, there was only 1. Apparently the noon show is the best to catch. We walked away unimpressed.
Before having lunch at the Migros Restaurant I wanted us to use the toilet and wash hands. The girls got to experience an "attended" toilet for the first time. We had to pay 1 CHF each to go through a turnstile, although children were free, so I had the girls slip under the bar for children. They were too tall by a few cm, but they're 12 and under, so they got away with it. A tiled hallway led both men and women to what you see above: a staffed reception desk. The woman eyes you up and down and points to which side you should go, men to the right, ladies to the left. I'm often mistaken for a man at first glance based on my height, and if my hair is tied back, but thankfully this time they recognized my true gender and didn't send me to the men's section. The toilet areas are back around a corner, but while washing your hands you can see men on the other side of the desk washing their hands.
Migros Restaurant buffets never fail to impress me with their vast offerings of fresh foods.
The girls and I shared a Cantaloupe Lemonade. We took the chocolate milk along with us for later. Everyone had a satisfying lunch, and then we ventured back outside.
We walked straight down the main pedestrian street and crossed the bridge to the famous Bärengraben "Bear Pit," which thankfully is no longer a pit, but a much improved BärenPark, where the bears can roam in a green, forested area with a view, instead of a cement pit.
Today the pits have been transformed into a gift shop and an interpretive area filled with statues. People can go down into the pit and look up at the view the bears had for centuries: pretty bleak.
Although bears have been kept in a pit in the city since 1513 as the city's mascot, it wasn't until 2009 (!) that the bears were freed from the concrete pits and given a much larger, more natural area.
I don't know why it took the city of Bern so long and the Tierpark Dählhölzli (which owns and oversees care of the bears) so long to make this change. You'd think an educated, wealthy citizenry would have demanded this humane upgrade decades ago. Perhaps the fact that it is Swiss heritage site of national significance led those in charge to be unwilling to consider change.
Information plaques tell about each bear -- age, where they were born, who they are related to, and even personality traits.
The new area for the bears allows people to view them from above, below, and alongside. "Dens" built into the hillside give the bears dark, quiet places to retreat from view.
Food for the bears. Look at all those fresh cherries, radicchio lettuce, and celery! The health of the bears is much more of a concern today, thankfully. Signs admonish people not to throw food to the bears, whereas once tossing bread to them was encouraged.
The river Aar flows past the bear park, as well as around the historic city center of Bern. The channel is deep and the current really swift. Swimming is not allowed in this section, although outside of town where the current is not as strong, inner-tubing is popular.
We wondered what it would be like to live in these houses across the river from the bear park. How great for them to look out the window and see bears!
We decided to go to the famous Rose Garden up the hill for the panoramic view of Bern. Daddy's knee was hurting so trekking up the steep brick walkway wasn't really an option. We were able to take 2 city buses in a rather circuitous routing, dropping us off at the east end of the garden. Here's the view of Bern from the Rose Garden.
Aubrietta needed to use the toilet. The Rose Garden had automatic self-cleaning toilets, however figuring out how to use it was a challenge. The spring-loaded black plastic seat could be pulled down, but you had to hold on and sit down quickly, or it would snap back up.
After you did your business and the seat sprang back up, you pressed buttons on the wall and the toilet bowl became your sink, where you washed your hands! It was confusing, but it was also spotlessly clean, and odor-free. Ah, the Swiss!
The Rose Garden had more than just roses. In addition to a playground, there were also fun trees to climb.
There were quiet places to sit with coffee or a picnic.
Roses are a high-maintenance flower which I'm not really into, so I didn't appreciate them as much as a true rose aficionado would. They smelled good, they were pretty, but I wasn't on a mission to discover rare varieties or get inspiration for my own garden back home. It was nice to see such a large, manicured public park in the city.
The long, steep path between the Rose Garden and the Bear Pit. We avoided going up this by taking the bus up, but figured if we took it slowly, we could walk down and not completely destroy Daddy's knee.
Free water at the base of the trail from the Rose Garden.
We rode the bus back up the main street part of the way, then got off near the Migros to buy ice cream bars for an afternoon treat. Most ice cream cost between 2 and 5 CHF (1 CHF = 1 USD), but Migros had these delicious little ice cream bars for only .80 CHF. My favorite was the coffee ice cream covered in dark chocolate.
Yeah public transit! I love how you can find buses and trams in every toy store in Europe. If only I had more room in my suitcase. I did end up getting a small tram, matchbox-car size, for my little collection back home.
One thing we found really interesting in Bern was that many of the shops were underground in cellars, accessible through storm doors opened wide, and steep stone steps. One was a candy store, which had a slide alongside the steps, to quickly deliver children into temptation. We didn't descend, but now I wish we had. Rain was threatening and it was getting late, so we didn't take the time, plus Daddy has little tolerance for shopping.
It was time to head to the train station and continue our journey back to Zurich. We could tell we were getting close the the train station by the multitude of parked bicycles.
Reuniting with our bags and loading up at the luggage lockers.
Schedule checking. The man beside us had the biggest bags I'd seen on a traveler thus far. I think he was a paraglider, carrying his own gear.
Everything runs like clockwork in Switzerland, without much variation, so they can print up paper scehdules and track assignments and all would be correct 99.9% of the time. Unfortunately for us we experienced the .1% when things go wrong, as we were boarding our train from Bern to Zurich. The train we needed was assigned to track 9, but just as we got there the electronic reader board above the track switched our train over to track 2. We had 90 seconds before the train left. Back down the ramp, in the tunnel under the tracks, up the ramp for track 2. There was our train, so we hopped on the car nearest where we'd come up the ramp. It was 1st class, so we had to work our way through the train cars, hauling all our luggage down the narrow aisle. We made our way through several 1st class cars, a dining car, and then 2nd class cars which were completely full.
Worst of all was that these were double decker cars with a single connection between cars at a mid-level with stairs going up and down. Each time we went from one car to the next we had to go up and down stairs. By this time the train was moving and it was even more difficult to drag our luggage along without being thrown into someone's lap. Finally, finally, we found a car with a few seats for us, as well as a place to stow our bags. We must have trudged through 10 train cars, and we were utterly exhausted.
By the time we got to Zurich it was raining pretty hard. By now we knew our way through the station, down 2 levels, to Gleis 2. We also finally located the tiny hidden elevator! We arrived back in Sihlau at 5:38 and Antje was kind enough to pick us up at the station. She prepared a delicious barley soup, bread, cheese, veggies, and meat for dinner.
The girls watched The Sound of Music together, huddled around a mac laptop, and slept together on the floor in living room.
NEXT: Day 38 -- Rapperswil -- Saturday, July 21st »
>>>>>>Click Here to go to the Index<<<<<<