Best Western Hotel Baeren Bern

... 3 families: von Allmen, Brunner and Feuz. With 130 townsfolk sharing hte 3 surnames. To keep prescriptions and medical records straight, the doctor in nearby Lauterbrunnen goes by birth date first, then the patient's name."<br><br>It is definitely one of those places where if you were able to located some brocade curtains and stich yourself a pinafore, you could twirl around, channel Maria von Trapp, and belt our a rousing rendition of ...

I left Daniel at about 1300. It was the first time I was sad to leave a country. I had much more fun there. It was a hot day in Bern especially when you are running to make your train connections with your unwieldy backpack flinging around. I must have looked fun. It was the first time I was hot since I have begun my trip. The city is very small, especially for a capital city and it is surrouned by trees which I did not expect. The city centre is tiny and only 5 minutes out you ...

... as David Hasselhof in Baywatch. We put our stuff down at the end of the swimming area of the river (everyone just left their stuff unattended&#8230;something I am not used to with my American mindset). We started walking towards the top and came across a 15-foot-high bridge that tons of people were jumping off. I went up to the bridge, asked an older guy who was about to jump for the best, deepest spot ...

... but when we got to the front of the line we found out it was leaving in 7 minutes so we wouldn,t make it. We got the times for the next day and than wandered around a little more. We decided to go up to the street and see what we could see and there was a hotel across the street. They did have a really nice room. It was way more than we wanted to spend but it had a lovely balcony and it overlooked the square so we ended up taking ...

... the lack of Alpine views, Bern is a beautiful city. The old town is located in a radical bend in a clear-running alpine river. Part of the river is diverted to a powerplant in the middle of town--but the plant is nigh invisible. The town sits upon a hill in the river bend and is tiered like a wedding cake with several different levels terraced down to the water's edge. Between red-roofed chalets and cobblestone streets are ...

... enclosures where bears are kept purely for tourist viewing. I stood next to a German couple who were speaking to the bear and getting him to clap his front paws together to earn a treat. He did this so many times and they fed him a whole handful of fruit throughout the process. Part of you sees the enclosure and thinks what an inhumane way to keep such a majestic animal locked up, but then part of me was so enamoured by the intelligent behaviour of the bear. They are ...

... YAY snow! I could have walked across it to the big cross on the peak where there is a magic view but it was too far and my shoes were wet through after a few seconds of making more snow balls. So i took more photos of snow and sat on my rock in the snow and ate my lunch. When 2 Swiss climbers came down from the peak and professionally trekked past me (and they were looking at me funny, can't think why, didn't look out of place on the top of a mountain eating my sandwich in my ...

Mark Back in Switzerland, still much the same weather... overcast, raining, or snowing! Decided to walk the Jura (a string of hills in central Switzerland) for the next nine days and we started of in brilliant sunshine from Balstahl on the first day. Didn't last long... by the time we got to Neuchatel four days later we had been walking in rain and cloud for the last three. Took a break in Neuchatel (to let the rain get worse ...

... large equipment. Some of the stories she told me were unreal. They left today and it was liking saying goodbye to a friend - relationships build quickly here on the road. But there are many more to come. I'm leaving Monday and will probably be heading to France, but not sure yet. I'm thinking eastern france then maybe barcelona then french riviera and down the coast of italy and sicily then athens. But that could all change in the next 5 minutes.

... Munich for more work related stuff. That day I washed the floors of my room and unpacked. I also had lunch (Kraft Dinner all the way from Canada) and when I was basically all settled in, I decided to have a shower. My first attempt at having a shower was quite unsuccessful as I could not for the life of me figure out how to turn it on! I have learnt in my time here that the Swiss have all kinds of funny ways of starting, opening, closing...etc. things and they also ...