Bern, Switzerland

Arriving in Bern Switzerland I met up with my couchsurfers’ (from Zurich) cousins’ friend named Beat. A nice young man with good knowledge of the city. We waited at the train station during a downpour for our bus back to his apartment. We chatted for a bit and I was fortunate enough to write a bit on my blog. Once the rains subsided enough he took me for a tour of Bern. A beautiful city with a lot of history and gorgeous buildings. There were several funny statues around, including a pair of legs and a fountain with an ogre eating children.

While waiting in the Train Station I took a picture of their “Royal with Cheese”. Right after I took the picture a polite French speaking McDonald’s employee yelled at me.

One of my favorite signs

There were many great viewpoints along the way to the “Bear Gardens” an area where bears are kept for public display. Fortunately their original concrete prison was being renovated to be a much more pleasant living environment closer to the river. We stopped in at the resturant for a drink and headed home. Luckiliy for me he really enjoys cooking, and I was fortunate enough to eat another fantastic meal.

In the morning I headed for Zermatt, gateway to the Matterhorn.

Sedrun, Switzerland

Something great about Switzerland is that everyone wears hiking boots.

The train ride to Sedrun was breathtaking. The train traveled along cliffs high in the Alps giving all the passengers spectacular views of rivers, valleys, mountains and birds’ eye views of some of the towns along the way. I was absolutely mesmerized by the sheer beauty surrounding me. My couch surfers from Zurich had invited me to stay with them at their parents’ cabin in Sedrun. When they showed me to the room I would be staying in, I could not believe the view from my window. It looked like something out of a fairy tale. Shuttered windows, perfect drapes and wooded framed windows opening up to a gorgeous view of the Alps brought a vast smile to my face. I had arrived just in time for dinner. Christine made some excellent pasta before we headed out to join in the festivities of National Day.

How cute is this…

We found our way to the center of town where it seemed like everyone was gathered to celebrate. The area was decorated with Swiss flags, and the state flags. In addition there was a band playing traditional music and they were serving sausage and beer. We jumped right in and got ourselves some of the local brew, and brats. The music was strange but I enjoyed listening to it and being a part of another countries national day.

Children are given Swiss flag – paper lanterns with a candle inside. Once they were lit, they started walking down through the town to a giant bonfire with us in tow. While standing near the bonfire it was really cool seeing the hillside with a scattering of lanterns from all of the children. After the sun went down fireworks began from all areas. Also, bonfires started to appear everywhere. You could see bonfires on all of the surrounding hills, and on some occasion’s fireworks accompanying them. It was a fantastic night.

We headed back and went to sleep rather early. In the morning after breakfast I headed out to catch a train back to Zurich. Along the way the train stopped in Disentis for a bit. I decided to get out and do some exploring even though it was starting to rain. I began walking around the very small town and admiring the quaint buildings and churches. I started walking around the outskirts of a church to find one of my friends’ last names, Loretz. I was surprised to find it several times. By this time the rain has started to become a downpour and I was totally soaked. My coat kept me fairly dry, but my shoes were seriously soaked, and I was pretty cold. I headed for a nearby monastery to get out of the rain for a while before heading back to the train station.

I enjoyed my ride back through the Alps to Zurich where I caught a connecting train to Bern.

Zurich, Switzerland

Arriving in Zurich, I met up with my couch surfers Christine and Jens, they were very friendly people and we got along great! They even let me use their washer and dryer. I was surprised to find that they had a dryer, it was the first I had seen in Europe. But upon opening it, I noticed that they used it for storage of extra toiled paper. People just air dry their clothes, which I have become more of a fan of. For dinner we had a wonderful Swiss dish where by cheese is melted in small personal “frying pans” and then drizzled over potatoes, tomatoes and other mouth watering foods. It was ridiculously delicious. Real Swiss cheese is the BEST!

These are the spatula/frying pans used to melt the cheese on the potatoes

Which created this delicious meal

We decided that I would see the majority of Zurich in the morning, then see Lucern and then accompany them to Sedrun, a small town in the Alps for National Day festivities. Christine and Jens were biking towards Sedrun while I explored.

First stop was Zurich.

Zurich is a beautiful city, which I had the pleasure of visiting on August 1^st, National Day, very similar to the 4^th of July, in the USA. Situated on a lake, it has a river flowing through the heart of the city. Along the banks you find magnificent buildings, clock towers, and bridges. Walking through the old streets made of cobble stone, I couldn’t help but smile. Everyone seemed very happy, everything was clean, organized, just how I like. I got to see a church with the largest clock face in Europe!

I took a boat tour of the city. The bus ticket is good for use on the boat as well, which takes you up the river and into the lake a ways. I was able to get a nice vantage point of the city. It was so relaxing that I may have even fallen asleep when we were out on the middle of the lake. J However, as we got closer to town I certainly couldn’t rest anymore due to the chiming of the bells on all of the clock towers. The amount of bell noise was astounding, and being in the middle of it all was even more intense!

After hopping out of the boat I raced to the train station to catch the next train to Lucern. Since it was National Day I bought a special bread that is sold only on August 1st. It comes with a little Swiss flag sticking out of the top, it is a delicious bread!

Happy to have my bread!