Landgasthof Sternen Bern

... spent in Gimmelwald would likely seem like an eternity. Unless those Gimmelwaldians are loose with the alcohol and their money in a card game.<br><br>We passed a barn and my friend ducked her head in to get a whiff and notified me that she loved the smell of barns. Now there's a little fact I wished I'd known in advance. The reason? Well, it just so happens that in many of the small Alpian villages you can actually pay to sleep in the ...

Bern is an incredibly picturesque city, especially the old town. You can walk along the banks of the Aare, on Aarestrasse, have a coffee and sip the afternoon away as you people watch along the river. I had a special connection with Bern as it was the setting on Einstein's Dreams, and the names of the streets and brükes (bridges) are so familiar to me!! <br ...

... for a change (shower no longer needed from my time earlier on the hot Italian train as the cool, clear Swiss water had already served the purpose of making me smell a little better), I went out to walk around and find some dinner. I ended up in this really cool market that was kind of like an upscale food court where I had a sandwich and a beer. After ordering the beer, the lady at the counter, who seemed ...

ARRIVED from Lugano<br><br>arrived early just to stop for the day on my way to Prauge. Bern had some interesting streets. skated through on the smooth sidewalks i could find. went to the bear pits (bern was named after bears) basically a depressing concrete pit with tourists ...

... celestial sign. On either side of the main street are numerous winding side-alleys, which are fun to explore. The shops in town are cute (though still too expensive) and every building sits atop a basement with more shoppes, cafes, or other businesses down below. Two large churches dominate the skyline of Bern, their steeples poking higher than even the house of the Swiss parliment. One church is quite massive while the other ...

... some of the really steep bits and just squatted down on my little shoes and slid down (they really have NO grip). So i have been skiing, it was just dry mountain skiing. And i raced to back through the valley, over a hill back to the cable car station at Gemmi (2350m) and just made it for a car red faced and panting again and legs (very unaccustomed to this kind of exercise madness) shaking. Got there at 10am, left at 2.45pm. bloody hell. So went for a dip in the ...

... Italian Tiscino (sunshine in Lugano). Went back via Lucerne before meeting Dad in Basel. Still no bikes! We have been assured they have arrived in Hamburg and will arrive in Basel end of April. It seems no amount of complaining can make a ship go faster, the wharfies go faster, or the truck (to Basel) go faster. At least our Shipping Agent is no longer talking to me (thanks to my email) but they are still talking to Dad.

... cows and goats and a few other people. I started out walking with the woman from my room from yesterday - we were up and out of the hostel after breakfast by 8am. I just went up and up trails not really positive where I was going. When I asked someone to take a picture of me, they realized I spoke english and became very interested in me. They owned a small chalet in the mountains for over 50 years with no ...

... aiming straight out) and ended up drenching myself and all my clothes. Smooth Rhiannon...really smooth! So after that little preshower, I had an ACTUAL one which was fabulous. I am now friends with the shower and have no hard feelings towards it anymore...haha. Another exciting thing I did in the first couple days I was here was go grocery shopping. It really is quite scary choosing foods that you have no idea what they are. I spent about ten minutes picking cheese and ...