Beautiful Bern!

Daniel and I had the chance to spend this past weekend in the beautiful city of Bern, Switzerland.  Before moving over here, I had never heard of it before, but after spending some time there this weekend and back over Labor Day weekend, it is quickly becoming one of our favorite places to visit.  Though it is the Swiss capital, it has a small town feel.  It such a pleasant place to walk around, very peaceful and relaxing.  Plus the 4-hour drive down there is very nice, first passing through the German countryside and then the rolling hills of Northern Switzerland.  All in all, it was an enjoyable trip, and I just thought I would share some of our pictures from it...

On Saturday morning, we had a chance to go on a hike in the hills surrounding Bern with some of Daniel's friends who work down there.  As you can see, the morning clouds were trying to burn off as we made our way up... unfortunately it never became totally clear or we would have been able to see the Alps to the South.  Oh well, hopefully next time!

Here is a shot of us at the top, just before taking this hillside tram called the "Gurten" back down.  As the photos show, it provides quite the view of Bern during the descent.  

Later in the afternoon, we braved the cool weather and walked around the city.  We saw the Bundeshaus (on the left), which is basically the capitol building as it is where the Swiss Federal Assembly meets.  With winter approaching, the sun sets rather quickly, casting shadows everywhere, so I apologize for the darker photos.  We also walked through an outdoor market (to the right). 

As I have mentioned in a previous post, the Aare River runs near Bern... it actually forms a sideways U around the center of the city, surrounding it on all but the western side.  Here we are enjoying the view from one of the many bridges that span the river.

The symbol of Bern is the bear.  Legend has it that the Duke of Zahringen, who founded the city in 1191, decided to name the new settlement after the first animal he killed during the next hunt, which apparently was a bear.  Bear in German is "Bär" so the town was called "Bärn" and then it eventually became known as Bern. Speaking of the German language, did you know that Switzerland has three official languages... Italian, French, and Swiss German (which is like a combination of some French and some German). The linguistic abilities of most Europeans amaze me... I am trying to learn German, but it is definitely slow-going! Anyways, I digress... my point was to explain the story behind the mascot of the city, the Bernese Bear. And here he is!

Lastly, we visited the Münster Cathedral, which is a good example of Late Gothic architecture.  With a steeple of 100 meters, it is the tallest church in Switzerland, and it also boasts a very serene courtyard overlooking the Aare.

On Saturday evening, we attended one of Daniel's "work functions"... as the picture shows, it was quite the elegant event!  We had a very nice time.

So as you can see, Bern is a very pretty town and we had a great trip, and I hope we will be able to visit it again soon.  But for now we are gearing up for more travels... we will be visiting London as well as Marrakech, Morocco, in the near future, so stay tuned for posts on those two spots very soon!