Tuesday, June 13th

We are off to Bern, the capital of Switzerland today. Mark and I get up earlier then everyone else so we catch the 7:50 train to Bern that gets in around 9:00. Jim, Chuck and Earl will take a later train and meet us around 12:00. There are three stops between Luzern and Bern. The trip to Bern is fairly flat and not scenic, but there�s always interesting sites as you take a train ride in a foreign country.

Once in Bern we are off to the Old Town . It�s a short walk since the main train station is at the west end of the historic area. Before we get into the main part of the Old Town we find a soccer store. The first floors of all the buildings are shops. I get a Swiss jersey. The sizes in Europe seem different because I have to get an XL. I put the jersey on right away. I�ve cycled around on some of my clothes since the weather has been better then expected.

We walk through the former gate (the Kafigturm) into the Old Town. Old Town is basically the same since the 15th century. The streets are all cobblestone. Statues and fountains interrupt the streets every couple hundred of feet. The houses all seem to be the same color; with small balconies filled with roses and other flowers, and red tiled roofs. The flowers provide contrast from house to house. As much as the town maintains its old look, overhead wires still run through all the streets. The wires provide the power to all of the buses that run through the Old Town and outside the area.

We walk to the clock tower, the Zytglogge, which has an astronomical clock. Little figures of bears and other figures move around at 4 before the hour but we have some time before that so we move on. There�s a tour of the tower at 11:00 (according to my research), which allows you to get to the top of the tower.

We walk by the Einstein house, which inviting tells you to come upstairs to check out were a patent clerk figured out his theory of relativity. We are suckered in and walk upstairs where we are quickly run into the sign indicating the charge to see the house. There doesn�t seem like much to see, so we pass, and head back to the street.

In the street we seem some more Swiss kids on a field trip. As we walk by they say something to me that I don�t understand. Mark has to tell me that the kids are saying �Go Schweiz� to me because I�m wearing the Swiss jersey. The France vs. Switzerland match is on tonight so I guess I�m showing my support.

I�m on a mission at this point to take a picture of all the statues in the street. I don�t do a good enough job of getting a good perspective of the statues. I end up taking pictures to close to the statues and at a severe upward angle. One of the pictures does turn out to be good, I think.

Next stop is the Munster , the gothic cathedral. The front arch of the church depicts the Last Judgment, with colorful figurines of the damned on the right and the saved on the left. I drag Mark to the top of the tower. You don�t pay at the bottom, but at the top. I guess if you can�t make it to the top you aren�t charged. There are over a hundred steps to the top. We take a few rests before getting to the top. There are more kids at the first landing of the tower. I get some more �Go Schweiz� from the kids.

The tower provides a great view of the Old Town. You can see how the river Aare forms a U around the Old Town. The Zytglogge stands out from all the other buildings. There�s a nice park just to the south of the Church that we can see now. We can also see how the river is slowed before it moves around the Old Town area. There�s also something like this on the River Reuss in Luzern.

We climb up to another level of the tower but it�s not much different from the first level. You can see the bell in the tower at this level. We go back down to ground and into the cathedral. More people and kids on field trips and tours are in the cathedral. We take a rest in the pews and I try and take some unsuccessful pictures of the ceiling.

We walk to the clock tower for the tour, but my info is wrong and the tours at 2:30. So we walk down other streets and over to the east end of the Old Town. We don�t go to the bear pits because we want to wait for Jim and the others. Jim has been to Bern before, and wants to show everyone the bears. We walk around some more and find a small shop that just sells all kinds of beer. The proprietor speaks some English so we have him recommend some beer. We also ask him if it�s a problem if we walk around with the beer on the streets. He tells us that it�s not a problem. You have to wonder why we can�t seem to handle this concept in the U.S. except for New Orleans and Las Vegas. We walk over to the park that we saw from the top of the cathedral, and relax and drink the beer.

At this point its 12:15 and the boys should be in town, so we head back to the clock tower where we said we would meet. As we walk back we see everyone on their lunch break sitting on all the building steps having a sandwich and drinking a beer (have I pointed that out enough yet?). I here Jim over the walkie-talkie tell us they are at the first tower (the Kafigturm) instead of the Zytglogge. So we walk to meet them and then start walking to the other end of town where the bear pits are located. We stop to eat at an Italian restaurant. I get a good fusilli pasta dish, but it turns out to be too much food. It�s probably around 90 degrees at this point and in the small streets there�s not a lot of wind.

To get to the bear pits (B�rengraben) you walk across the bridge over the River Aare at the east end of town. There are a lot of other tourists checking out the bears. There are two pits and 3 bears with a 2-1 split. The pits aren�t that large; they are circular, maybe about 40-60 feet in diameter. There are some trees in the pits and things for the bears to climb on. Some people throw in carrots or oranges but we don�t see the bears eating anything. We read that the bear�s food is normally hidden in the pits, so that they are forced to find their food. There used to be up to 12 bears in the pits, but the number was shrunk in 1996 because of animal rights activists. People still complain about the bear pits, but I read where there�s probably no chance they would be totally removed. The bear is a symbol of the city Bern.

We go back across the bridge and down to the lower level of town near the river. There�s not much down here so we are just walking around in the heat. To get back to the upper level of town we can take an elevator or walk up a winding path. I had read about the elevator so we take it. It�s just a public elevator with an entrance on the street. It costs .8 Francs so about 60 cents. The elevator takes us back to the park near the cathedral that Mark and I drank our beer in earlier. We have another drink in the park from the park caf� and then head back towards the train station. The trains run like clockwork so we have to hustle back to the train station in order to catch the 3 o�clock train, or we have to wait another hour.

Back in Luzern we head over the apartment to clean up and go back out to watch the Swiss vs. France match. The restaurant we go to has a happy hour but doesn�t have much of a selection of food. We split a meat and cheese plate with some good proscuitto. Love that stuff! The match is a draw, which is probably a good outcome for Switzerland. We head to a place called La Cucaracha, a Mexican restaurant for dinner. The food is excellent.

We head back towards Pickwick�s for the last match of the night and pass a bar with a lot of Brazilians watching the Brazil vs. South Korea match. As we are there Brazil scores and the whole crowd at the bar goes crazy. Pickwick�s is crowded again with people but we don�t see anyone we�ve met before so we head back to the apartment after the match. Jim and Earl try some other bars in town but on a Tuesday nothing much is going on so they come back shortly.

We�ve decided to stay in Luzern on Wednesday, relax, enjoy the city and take it easy instead of traveling to another city. Chuck is cooking breakfast tomorrow.

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