Bern, baby, Bern

Well, the time has come when I am too crippled from snowboarding in the Alps yesterday (YES, THE ALPS.) to do really much of anything, except post this panorama photo from the top of the mountain, and tell you about our adventures in Bern.

Mmmm those Alps. (Yes, phone camera quality. But it was necessary.)

Alright. So, Bern. First day we sat around a bit and I wrote the blog post about Geneva while we waited for the rain to let up. Surprise, surprise, it didn't, really. But heck, we're from BC. Twas nothing but a sprinkle. So we headed out to see some sights. We climbed up the hill (our hostel is at the very BOTTOM of Bern) and headed back to the cathedral that we saw the day before (the one with the 15-minute bell performance) and went up in the tower! That was LOT of steps, for the height of the tower exceeded the length of the cathedral! But, amazing views and, as we have always thus far discovered, fully worth the price. (still only 5 francs) I cannot stress this enough- if you come to cool cathedral in a beautiful town, and the price to get up in the tower is around 5 euros or less, DO. IT. It never fails to impress, and sometimes you end up inside the spire with wooden beams, or catch an unexpected close-up glimpse of Switzerland's biggest bell. Trust me, it's worth it.

Excuse me, yes, do you think you could make this a bit more detailed? I don't think it's quite enough.

The view from the top. Mmmm, Bern.

Gettin' into more German architecture! Kinda sweet.

I like the roofs and chimney stacks here.

See what I mean? Secret surprises up in the towers. Switzerland's biggest bell!

We were just in the top of that sucker!

After the cathedral, we went to a cafe and had lunch of a baguette and a delicious croissant-type thing that had had praline and hazelnut stuff inside it. SO. GOOD. And we got little hazelnut chocolates with our order as well, which were to die for. Delicious. We`ve been scouring the internet for recipes for the croissant thing, and have written down the name of it so that we can look for it elsewhere, because it was literally heaven in a pastry.

The rest of the day was spent walking ALL over/around the Old Town, which is beautiful and all cobblestone streets and such, which was amazing. We also came across a square that had big chess boards, and one other game that we were thoroughly confused about, which we looked up when we got back to the hostel, and are currently practicing to get really good and show off to people at home. Heh. We stood and watched two old men playing the game for probably 20 minutes. They were hilarious!

Sweet old clock tower in the middle of the city.

This weird game. Can you figure it out?

This guy had so much character. Loved him.

Bern is beautiful.

Parliament buildings. (and blue sky!)

This building was  MUSEUM. Einstein Museum, to be exact. Too pricey for us to get in though, unfortunately.

Then, for supper, we splurged on a cheese fondue dinner, which was heavenly. Bread and potatoes in warm cheese. SO worth it. And our waiter was quite hilarious. The people here are so nice! It's great!

Sunset that night on the river.

The second day we were there, we hiked up to the Rose Garden (which is about double what we have to do anyways to get up to the town), after stopping at the cafe/bakery that we were in the day before to buy bread and hot chocolate, and buying cheese, ham, chips, and CHOCOLATE from a grocery store. At the top of the Rose Garden, which I'm sure is much more spectacular in spring/summer (but which still had AMAZING views of the city), we had a picnic type lunch with the supplies bought. Super delicious, and as I said, amazing view. Slightly cold, but isn't everything here? Favourite part of the picnic?- A MASSIVE chocolate/hazelnut bar of budget brand that was deeeeeelicious.

I. am. in. love. with. miniature.

View from the top of the Rose Garden! (in miniature, of course.)

Also view. 

And again. Can't get over how beautiful this city is.

After sitting up in the cold on the hill for awhile, and taking miniature photos (above), we walked through Old Town some more, and found an AMAZING old book shop that had books from the 1600's and older! It smelled incredible in there. So good. And then we headed back to the hostel and had leftovers from lunch for supper. Also, the hostel we were in had a piano sitting in the common area, so we both pulled out a few tunes for awhile! Very much fun.

We walked by this guy who was playing the accordion like no tomorrow. He was SO good and you could see he was FEELING the music. I love seeing that.

And the next day it was off to the train station to get to Zermatt, where we are now! We had a good time at one of the train stations where we booked reservations for our next destination. The guy at the counter had a bit of an inside joke going with TJ behind my back, and then when we were leaving, he shot a rubber band at his co-worker. Very funny! And so nice- another proof of the niceness of people in Switzerland.

As I said earlier, we snowboarded the Alps yesterday, and literally can't even breathe without SOMETHING hurting, so that's fun. But it was fully worth it. Worth it even just for the view! Plus, I haven't been boarding in probably 2 years, so it was fun to be back. Even if it caused me immense pain, haha!

Zermatt is amazing, covered in snow, which is nice because it's kind of the first real snow we've encountered on this trip! It's beautiful, and the views of the Alps and the great Matterhorn are incredible. Everywhere you look it looks just like a postcard!

And I think that's about it for now! Talk to you soon!