Down Hall Country House Bern

... zig-zag. Stones called schindles sit like heavy checkers on old rooftops, awaiting nature's next move. These stones protect the slate from the violent winter winds. Gimmelwald's biggest building is the school in which 2 teachers share one job. There's nothing but air between Gimmelwald and the rock face of the Jungfrau a mile or two across. Kick a soccer ball wrong and it ends up a mile below on the Lauterbrunnen Valley floor. Gimmelwald ...

... had bratwurst on the street and pretzel's. Delicious. We then had a guided city tour where we saw Einstein's house where he developed the theory of relativity. We also saw the "clock show," which was pretty cool. The Bern clock, or the Zytglogge, is from the 1770's, and every hour there is about a five minute process for the hour to change. That evening I went to a lovely dinner with two of my close girl friends and then one of the guys from our group. Our ...

... any bears in them now. And I guess the last one that was living in them died. <br><br>So I decided to fork over the 1 CHF for the Bern Show. Which was a 20 minute history lesson complete with ads for Bern tourist sites. It was kind of cheesy but informative. It was a mix of video with moving models and what not. They had pneumatics running a lot of it and even had some pop-up chair that for some reason was funny to me. Next I ...

I wasn't intending on going to Bern today, but I went there to change trains and ended up staying. I walked around a bit and tried to make it to the Zytglogge in time to see the performance (4 minutes before the hour) but I was late and only saw the last minute or so. Maybe next time! This time the fountains were running so I checked those out but I will definitely have to come back here again when it is warm and the Munster tower isn't under restoration.

... Lucerne was okay, but prettz much just like any other swiss city. And apparently if its going to rain anywhere in Switzerland, its going to be here. And rain it did, though lucky for us it wasnt too heavy. We were over it by that stage and went quickly to check out the beautiful timber bridge that crossed the river, full of flower boxes filled with bright flowers. Jaqueline dropped us off at Leilas appartment in the city on the way home, firstly as this was the last chance ...

... you will all just have to get over here and try it for yourself. After lunch we drove up to the top of one of the hills in the area to check out the view over the lakes. They - as most lakes in Switzerland are - are absolutely massive. Sometimes they are so big that when you stand on the shore, you cannot see the otherside, and could probably mistake them for the sea. They have such a huge ammount of water, although they are still very consious of wasting it. But even ...

... prepare lunch for midday (here the main meal is lunch, with dinner and breakfast consisting of bread, cheese, yoghurt, and milk). Also many farm houses are one huge building with one end the house with up to 2-3 separate residences, and the rest is the barn with the dairy, hay stack, workshop etc. Once again we are making an entry the night before we leave (for Italy/ Brusio), and once again we have been looked after incredibly well. Not just by the ...

... collection of really important pieces, from modern art to the classics...we saw pieces by Picasso, Monet, Mondrian (of course, Matthew freaked out over that...JB loves Mondrian....so that explains it!!). We also met up with Steph, Nick, and Stu for the day, and just took in the sights. That night, we took a quick train to Luzern (and found a good Indian restaurant in Switzerland). The city was amazingly beautiful, with all these old covered bridges with frescoes painted on them to ...

On the coach and here's the goss. The first people to hook up were Steve and Kylie. Apparently Kylie was quite keen on Steve but Steve wasn't so keen. Sam and Cody - hooked up too and are becoming closer. ****, I hope your guys don't mind the Woman's weekly gosip here! :) Cody is spending more time with Sam on the coach. Dana hooked up with John but they havn't talked since. Dana hooked up with an Ozzie from another tour. Donna1 hooked up with an Italian guy in Munich ...

... for vacation -- I don't get it. Even at the center we don't hold classes, most of our students are gone, so there is really no point to try. And the last few weeks we have not even had enough participants to have the weekly meeting. I know what you are thinking, "well, that sounds like a nice time for a vacation for you too." At first, I was against that idea, I went to the center every day. I worked on the website with Lois and worked on an update page regarding our ...