Bern is the capital city of Switzerland and is very attractive. It has a well preserved medieval town in the city center with the trams running constantly. The first thing we did was walking around and taking pictures of the buildings: the Swiss national bank, the national building (curia confoederationis helveticae) and the market in front of it. Bern primary language is German. Switzerland borders Germany, France, Italy, Litchenstein and Austria. There are 3 different languages spoken here (German, French, and Italian). I guess that's why it's called Confoederationis Helveticae (CH). The market in front of the Swiss bank was nice. It sold flowers and food. I tried a salted mushroom and it was good. We didn't buy anything though. The weather was not nice since I got here. It rains a little bit and the sky was gray. Despite that, all the pictures I took in Switzerland is beautiful. Anyone one of them can be a postcard. I wonder what's it's like if the weather is sunny and warm.
We walked around the city and ate waffles. There are plenty of good restaurants and bakeries around but we didn't eat in. We brought sandwich for lunch. Then we visited the Church in Munsterplatz. The gothic design was beautiful. The facade was decorated with nice sculptures of the Last Judgement Day. We took the stairs (600 steps) up to the spire and the view there is breathtaking. The red roof houses, the Aare (clear turquoise) river runs across the city with a beautiful bridge, the lively city, it was worth the walk up. Here is a picture but no photos can describe/capture its beauty. You have to see it with your eyes.
I bought some gifts at the church gift shop. We then walked around the city a little bit, snapping photos and heading toward the bear pit. It's funny how they have the bear pit in the city by the river. I had a shot at the bear but it was sleeping and it wasn't interesting. Then we visited the clock tower where I was told it's going to do some animations every hour. We missed the 12 o'clock one so we waited until 1 pm. We also missed that one so we went to a local coffee shop to have a drink and waited. I had a hot chocolate. It was okay. Then we saw the 2 o'clock animations but it wasn't much. I guess you have to wait until 12 for a long animation. I was kind of disappointed.
In the afternoon, I met my friend from Vietnam who just arrived for her business trip to Switzerland. We sat at a cafe and talked for awhile. At night we went to eat with my aunt, who lives in Fribourg. We also met her daughter whom the last time I've seen was 18 years ago. It was a nice restaurant with lots of young people eating fondou and some kind of beef on a stick putting into a hot pot. I had a seasonal beef steak. It was delicious. I also tried the tatar beef. It was a kind of raw beef with some seasoning and spices. The fries tasted good too. Then we went home and watched some tv / movies and went to sleep. It was okay, I wish I went to more places. However, I got to meet lots of familiar faces and it was a good thing.
Day 4: Interlaken and Jungfrau region, Oberland
This was a day with lots of walking, riding the ferries, cabaway, the Bergbahnen Kandersteg, and walking in the snow (more about that below). First we went to Interlaken, which the name implies there's a river between 2 mountains. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. On the way we passed by the Zentrum Paul Klee museum. The view was spectacular. I thought I've seen the most beautiful places in Switzerland already. No, I haven't. I'll make this short and post more photos because I'm about to head to the airport.
First we arrived at a waterfall. It has many levels and down at the bottom, there's a beautiful old castle style hotel. The view from here was indescribable.
After lunch we ate ice cream at the hotel restaurant. It was expensive but good. I took an empty bottle of water because the crystal design was good looking (bottle of water is not free here just like everywhere in Europe I guess). Then we took the cabaway down to the river and waited for the ferries. From here we took the ferries to the other side and went to the mountain. The view was unbelievable here. The clear turquoise river, the wooden houses beneath the mountain, the snow on top the the mountain. It was peaceful and beautiful. The sun also came up FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SWITZERLAND. When I die please throw my body down this river!
After arriving at the deck, we headed toward the mountain and took the Bergbahnen Kandersteg up 1500 meter. On the way up, we saw SNOW... in May. The temperature dropped about 10-15 degree C. The instant we got off, the snow was falling quite heavily. We went from sunny warm weather on the ferries to extreme winter weather in couples of minutes. We walked about 1km to a beautiful lake on top of the mountain. There weren't that many people as this was not a popular tourist attraction. But it was a rare gem. It's like walking in North Pole, once awhile you see a Swiss flag. We finally reached the lake. Again, I can't put words together how beautiful this place was...
I hope to see more of Switzerland, though. It's a small but beautiful country. I learned a lot too. I wanted to see Zurich, Lucerne, more of Geneva, the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. I guess I'm greedy. But I'll be back here for 1 or 2 days in less than a month.
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