Bern, Switzerland - Another trip with the girls!

Dawn's husband is working here as well (thank goodness we are not alone here!) and we've been able to play while the boys are at work. Her daughter, Ashley, has been in town this week for a visit. We've been able to cram an incredible amount of exploring - and an even more impressive amount of food - into the past few days! Monday we went to Luzern and explored the city - this was briefly covered in the last post. We headed to Bern on Tuesday. Let me explain a little about "headed to" in Basel. We met each morning at the local train station about 8:30am. For me, this requires walking a couple of blocks, catching a tram, taking it two stops and switching over to a bus. This bus then takes me to the local bus/tram/train station. From there, we just pick a destination, buy a ticket (fortunately they have an English option on the ticket machines, because none of us are remotely fluent in Swiss German!). Then we find the gate (gleise) and board our train. Each destination we chose was about an hour away on the fast train. So we get to chat, eat and look out the giant windows at the gorgeous scenery.

So, back to Bern. We did a tiny bit of research before getting there, and had a short list of things to do. The main attraction in Bern is the bear pit. After that, we decided we'd hit the Munster and check out the Clock Tower. We were very impressed by the amount of shopping, and slowly worked our way across the town towards the bear pit via several small shops.

Now, I've been studying German for a few weeks, and one of my study methods is to try to learn a new word each day. Tuesday's word, as it turns out, was "tot". We got to the famed bear pit, worked our way around the small tour group and found a good view of the pit. The empty pit. I mosied off to try and find out if there was an "inside" were the bears were on display while Dawn and Ash looked around the pit. They ran across a sign that said "Pedro ist tot". Now, being American, we assume that this has something to do with a toddler. Is Pedro a new bear that's inside with his mother? This was getting more exciting by the minute! Until they read the english translation below... "Pedro is dead". German word for the day: tot = dead. Now, this was not at all what we were expecting, but being the resilient tourists that we are, we made the best of it by finding a good spot for our picnic while we mourned Pedro's very recent demise.

After what seemed to be an appropriate amount of grieving (ie. eating), we headed back down the mountain to the Munster. (While it may technically have been a hill, I am from the south and as far as I'm concerned it was a mountain!)

While the girls hung out in a park outside the church - - I decided I had to climb to the top of the church's tower. It was only 344 steps one way. Big deal, right? Yeah - until about half way up the tiny, twisting, steep, torturous staircase when I started to question who's bright idea this was. (Ashley?!?) Obviously, I am not the only one to find the steps somewhat difficult. This was immediately inside the door at the first landing:Just so happens I found a widow about then. The view from that respectively low spot was great and encouraged me to continue the climb. It was worth it!

Going down the stairs was not nearly so traumatic. (My calves may argue that - they were shaking when I got to the bottom!) And I headed into the church to check it out in all of its awesomeness:

By this point a storm was blowing in. We made our way, via a bakery or two, back to the train station to head home.

Now I'm off to relax!