"Bear-n"

After Munich we headed to Bern. This was the longest drive of the trip. But we kept ourselves occupied by listening to Patrick's mixed CDs, driving super fast, admiring the tunnels, looking at the beautiful landscape and eating chocolate!

Me trying to get a photo of the speedometer...



This one worked a little better. We probably topped out at 140 mph on the autobahn.







There were two highlights of Bern for me, first was going to the LDS Temple. It took a bit to find it, but it was so worth it when we got there. It was foggy when we got there, but beautiful and sunny when we came out.







Second was going to the small town that my paternal grandmother was born and lived until she was 4 (I think). The town itself wasn't anything special, but since it was such a close suburb of Bern I imagined that my grandmother and great great grandmother had probably spent some time on the same streets I did. We didn't spend much time in town, breezed through really, so no photos.

Our hotel in Bern was right in the heart of town, just off the pedestrian square. It was a perfect location! The market was small, but still fun to walk around. I also loved all the fountains they had with rails to put your buckets on to collect water.







There were beautiful doorways, and archways. I was also fascinated by the chimney tops that looked like bird houses.





We went in the main cathedral, which had beautiful windows and wood carved benches. The outside was of course covered in scaffolding, but we did manage to get a few shots.









I also liked the painted murals on the buildings, old-time signage.



Here's a famous Swiss clock tower...and Dan with all his packages!




Bern is know for it's bears, bear pits to be specific. So we walked over to check them out. It was fun to see the little habitat they built for the mama, papa and 2 baby bears.




I'm almost glad the actual "pit" part was being cleaned so the bears were roaming free in their environment. Here's Dan and Noelle looking into the empty pit.




It was a beautiful walk that day, seeing the views, little details, some odd things and some trashy trinkets (We loved us some cow bell!).






Our last stop in Bern was the botanical gardens. I took off on my own and really enjoyed some of the surprises there.




Especially this odd thing. At first I saw it from the bottom and wondered why the tree was being held up by a post and a beam.



When I walked around a bit more I discovered what was in the "beam".



I was a little scared, but I walked to the top on my way I saw Dan and Noelle through the trees and waved to them, at the top there was an amazing view...but I rushed back down when the whole thing started to sway.



Of course I ran over to find Dan and made him take a trek to the top too. Then we hung out for a bit more enjoying the peace of the gardens and the beauty of the sun.





Next the Swiss Alps!