Thursday, October 5, 2017

September 2017 Bern Switzerland

It was time to go have a fun weekend with the Roberts.  Jill and Don took us to Bern which is a city just west of the center of Switzerland.  It's a beautiful city.  The city was originally built on a hilly peninsula surrounded by the Aare river, but outgrea natural bounderies by the 19th century.  A number of bridges have been built to allow the city to expand beyond the Aare River. 
The structure of Bern's city centre is largely medieval and has been recognized by UNESCO as a Cultural World Heritage Site.

Car ride..................to Switzerland and France!
  We stopped at a little restaurant just by our hotel for lunch


We had a wonderful afternoon at the Swiss Temple with Jill and Don and had a young missionary take our photo.  We also bumped into a couple that we had met at the MTC who are serving in Italy.  




  
The countryside is so beautiful, I had to take this picture from the car as we drove past this beautiful farm.

 The streets and buildings are old but just so beautiful and quaint, like right out of as story book.


Since the 16th Century, the city has had a bear pit, the Barengraben.  The currently four bears are now kept in an open-air enclosure nearby and two other younger bears, a present by the Russian president, are kept in Dahlhozli zoo.  Here, Jill is just outside the bear pit and we were watching the two young bears.  I felt a little sorry for them and felt they should be in the wild like all the other bears instead of in a bear pit........



Jill Robert's and me.

All over the city we found these St. Bernard dogs that are painted.

 Just thought this was cute

 I took this picture from a bridge.....pretty

 Jill and I were walking ahead of the guys and I turned and snapped this picture.
 Just a pretty street just off the main square.

 All these cheese blocks are incredible!


 Outdoor market.......BREAD

 Just another St. "BERNard"



 Below is the Federal Palace, (Bundeshaus), built from 1857 to 1902 which houses the national parliament government and part of the ferderal administration.
I think this building below is the town theater but not sure....



 This was probably my favorite little find in Bern.  As we walked along the streets they have these things that look like "storm cellers" .....  when they are opened they decorate them and make them inviting and make the passerby feel a little curious to go "down" and see what is in there......they are beautiful shops down there, all kinds!  So quaint!
 We walked thru this little market in the middle of the town square.




 Jill eating a wonderful pretzel!  She was on the look out to buy a Swiss Watch!  She got a really nice one.  I may have to do the same before going home.


The train that came really close to Don and Tony......as they looked at the Clock.

Perhaps the most famous sight in Bern is the Zytglogge which means "time bell", an elaborate medieval clock tower with moving puppets.  While we waited to see the tower bell chime, Don and Tony were almost hit by the train that runs right thru the town.

Albert Einstein lived in a "flat" at the Kramgrasse 49 (name of street) from 1903-1905.  This was the year he worked out his theory of relativity while he was employed as a patent examiner at the patent office.

 You can see a photo of him above in the window sill....showing where his flat was.  Below is the plaque on the wall downstairs.



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