Down Hall Country House Bern

... to catch the bus to Bonigen which was a quaint small town on Lake Brienz. The girl at the hostel had said that it was a 20 minute walk but in true Swiss style, we think that it was probably 40 minutes for any non-Swiss person. Bonigen was so quiet, hardly anybody was about but it was a good opportunity to see different styles of the ...

... it is much harder to be living the life of a person who is supposed to be developing his own country and livelihood. Also, I like that Switzerland avoids armed conflict, so they are unlikely to participate in humanitarian intervention. Our second lecture was on Switzerland's foreign policy on migration. Before coming to Switzerland, I had never even heard of climate refugees, despite the many classes and lectures I have heard on climate change. But, if the ...

... some snacks and fruit. I found some shampoo on the 1st Fl and took it with me to the ground floor so I could buy it with my food in one purchase. Apparently this isn't allowed. Because the shampoo came from the 1st Fl, it has to be bought up there. I said fine and carried it up there to buy it. On the way I saw some delicious looking Swiss chocolate that I wanted to buy along with my shampoo. Again, since the chocolate came from a ...

... nice view of the Altstadt (Old Town) and the river wrapping around the town. Everything in Bern is covered in snow which is a change from Basel where I haven't seen any white stuff yet. I quickly looked through the guidebook and decided on a sightseeing route back towards the train station. I walked across a bridge back into Altstadt and checked out the Untertorbrücke, which is Bern's oldest bridge and was first ...

... sausage ever, and comes with a huge dollop of mustard and a bread roll, but it was very very tasty! At half time we decided to move as there was pleanty of empty seats, so we sat pretty much at the same height but to the right side of the goals. The game was pretty good, I really enjoy watching soccer now, although im starting to think i am bad luck as the team that i go for always seem to loose! or at least this game Bern drew with Brugge 2:2. But close enough. Nothing ...

... of town, with its huge spire towering over the city. We drove through the main part of the town, then out to a huge bridge with a great view over the city, which proved as a very nice photo stop. After Fribourg we headed back to Bern and had a very Swiss dinner of Raclette, which i loved even more than fondue. Each person is given a small tray which you place in a huge big slab of cheese, followed by anything else you might like... onion, mushrooms, garlic, bacon etc. You ...

Julian (the youngest brother) came into town for the weekend to see Oliver and me. Julian has his last week of work in Herzogenaurach, Germany this coming week. He showed up, handed him a beer, then nearly cleaned out the fridge of all the beer and then went to the local bar. What a lame bar, all old people dancing to the worst live music I have ever heard, but it didn't matter since the brothers and I got loaded in the corner ...

... I took last week's group down what's probably the longest run in the world (definitely the longest of my life) from the top of the almost 10,000 foot Schilthorn 7,400 vertical feet down to Lauterbrunnen at 2,612 feet that's twice as much as the biggest ski areas in the US I think only a skier could understand how cool this place is and add to it all views of glaciers and waterfalls and huge cliffs and the 13,000 foot Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau ...

At one of our rest stops I met an outgoing Aussie Girl from Sydney- no nonsense down to earth and very organised- in short, the perfect travel companion who was to be my travel buddy for Bern and Lauterbrunnen. Bern was so beautiful. On the outskirts it is just like any other big city but the centre of the capital - the old town -feels like a small village. We had superb weather, it ...

... even in the summer, and although I didn't hear any English spoken among the boarding crowd, there were some Italians in addition to Swiss. Switzerland is a very international place, very popular with Japanese tourists. Karolina couldn't believe it when I was impressed that she speaks German every day at the stable where she rides her horses, comes home and speaks Swiss-German at school and with her dad (Swiss-Germans can understand German from the television, but German's can't ...