We'd split up some during our wanderings, but Bern we split up a lot. My Mom was still sick from our trip up the mountain, so after we took a bus (Bern has an amazing bus/tracks system that while it's very ugly, is very effective) to the Rose Gardens and walked down to see the bears and cross the old town bridge she couldn't do any more. My Dad found a bus and took her back to the hotel to rest. Janelle decided to go with them and Seth, Jer and I kept walking.
I thought this was fairly cute. Like Paddington Bear.
This was neat. This violin maker had the how to build a violin in his display window.
There were two Einstein museums. He lived and worked in Bern when he worked out the theory of relativity. I think it's interesting that in our heads we often say that while we're working on what we want to work on, often we have to work on something else as well. Einstein was working in the patent office.
We went to the Munster church (Swiss reformed church in Gothic style). It was closed for some kind of event. We took a minute to walk around the park off to the side of it. There was a group of men playing bocce ball, so kids playing on a play ground and lots of people just strolling. While we were there, the church bells started ringing and they just kept going. I think they rang for almost a half an hour. Then we walked to the Rathaus and the Church of St Peter and Paul. That one was pretty. It looked like they started building it like the Munster church and didn't finish. It gave it a grandness (spacially) without the Gothic decoration. The simple flowers painted on the ceiling were my favorite. Then we walked to see the Zytglogge, the mechanical clock, ring. We got there about half way through it's chimes, so we missed a lot. Then we walked by to the Munster church. It really is an amazing piece of art. They're in the process of restoring it. It's going to take at least a few years to restore, but you could see the difference both in the paintings/cloth and the outer carvings. After that, we walked Seth back to the hotel and Jer and I headed back out together to keep wandering and get some dinner.
There were plastic dogs all over Bern. I don't know how many were in this art installation, but we found about 18/19 of them just walking around. Each one was painted differently.
This was Einstein's house while in Bern. We got to it just after it closed for the day, so we missed this one, but I didn't feel too bad about it.
These two shots were from our hotel balcony.
This was the farmer's market where we bought lunch. It was so fun and pretty yummy. I regretted mine a little later. I had some fried shrimp... I hadn't had anything fried for at least 3 weeks and my body didn't like me later. It wasn't too bad, but it kept me from climbing the steeple in the Munster church when we had the chance. My Dad had sat down where someone had spilled birdseed. There were tiny birds all over under his feet. Janelle kept calling him princess Roger.
View from the Rose Garden
This one was right by the Bear enclosures.
View of Bern from the bear enclosure. My Mom is such a trooper! Not only did she do this trip with a broken toe, but she kept going even when her heart didn't enjoy it. I'm glad she took time to take care of herself as well as enjoy the sights... that's a hard balancing act. I'm also glad that my Dad was so willing to go with her and make sure that she was taken care of when needed.
The child eater fountain. Janelle used to hide from the child catcher in the Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang movie. Dad had to tease her about the child eater coming to eat her. There are three different theories about the fountain and I'm not sure which one is real, but I loved the detail of a child sneaking away around the back of the fountain and the fact that at least five fountains in this style (not the subject, just the style) were done by the same artist in the 1500s. How neat would that be to be commissioned to make the places where you get water from in the city pretty. My favorite one was a bear in a suit of armor.
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