Hotel Stadthaus Bern

... mix need reviving. The weather was clear on the main view side and overcast on another. Evidently God didn't feel that the view and revolveing restaurant was good enough for us, so he threw in a couple of snow falls for good measure. Gotta love the guy!<br> <br>We made a couple/few revolutions, took a few dozen pictures, and started our descent. We decided, at the encouraging of Rick Steves, to stop off at the tiny, and I mean TINY ...

... so I also got to freshen up on my German while I was there.<br><br>On Wednesday morning we left for Bern. It was a field trip with my program. We had a lot of free time while we were there with the intention of us getting to know the Swiss-German culture and comparing it to Swiss-French culture. Pretty much, the Swiss-French think the Swiss-Germans are rednecks, but the Swiss-Germans are less pretentious than the Swiss-French. Bern had a much more relaxed ...

I arrived from Zurich after an incredibly(Joking) long 1-hour train ride. Again the weather was rainy and miserable when I arrived. I easily found my youth hostel and dropped my bag off. <br><br>I got a map and went to work. I managed to do the complete walking tour in about 3 hours. The city was named an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 which is pretty prestigous. I think they deserve it because the city is really neat to walk ...

... roll dice or flip coins. I eat chocolate, take naps and let my mind wander. And every now and then, I wake up from a nap with such clarity that I think I'm still dreaming. Yesterday morning, two hours before my alarm, my eyes popped open and the first thought in my head was, "A life in Switzerland could seriously happen." A well-established, yet rather permissive structure, green attitude and reputation for ...

... and checked out the lake - as i expected it was cold wet and dark, so we promply headed back to the car! Yesterday Jaqueline drove us back past Interlaken and through the mountains to a glassblowing museum about 15 mins from Lucerne. Glassmaking had been going on in the area for a few hundred years, and they had created a free display using created scenes, video and audio to show a history of the area. It was in Swiss-German, so i didnt understand any of the voiceovers, but ...

... were closed except for the very touristy ones and a couple of cafes, so we had some hot drinks down by the lake, and then Desiree and myself caught one of the ferries across the lake and down one of the canals to a small town called La Sauge, where we met up with Desirees parents and the car, and had lunch in a cute little restaurant. As it was so cold we all decided to have soup, and a couple of bottles of Sauser - my new favourite Swiss drink. Its made with grapes ...

... Europe with Lynton. For the last 4 days we have been managing the farm while Peter is on holiday in Germany. So it has been some early mornings to get the kids up for school, feed the animals, and clean the pig pens. This has allowed us to get some sight seeing in for the afternoons though. Previous to the last 4 days, we have also been helping on the farm with Alistair doing some tractor work and Simone doing some fruit picking. Alistair has been loving the ...

... foolishly packed for Florence weather (which is getting warmer!!! it was even 70 degrees yesterday and NO rain!!) Well, I looked out the window at one point on the train there, before we'd even gotten far enough North...and noticed that the grass in Switzerland was white....That's right folks, there was snow on the ground, and we'd brought along with us tanktops, t shirts, and no winter jackets to wear!!! We froze a little bit, but still had an awesome weekend... We really loved ...

... range on whose slopes our barn rested. On our last day of three (the ruddy -cheeked, bare-footed and strawberry-blonde trio of kids giving us just one more reason to stay) we woke at dawn in the midst of a cloud to the sound of cow bells and, after brushing the straw from our hair, tramped through the sodden grass to the farm house where the farmer, Mattaeus, was loading the milkchurns. Hitching a ride down through the forest to the bus stop, we left this little ...

... classes, we had many more than expected and many even stuck with the program for the entire time -- remember it's summer classes and their free, so the question always come to mind, "would I want to spend 3 evenings a week in 'school' if I had a choice to do other things?" I think I may say no. But we were encouraged! **** It was wonderful to see [people] opening up and talking, and, more importantly, listening! Soon after classes ended the groups from Michigan (Becky ...