Switzerland is over almost as soon as it began. Very different to Italy, which is just as well or it wouldn’t be Switzerland. You get a sense that there is much more order in Switzerland. I doubt if you would find the Swiss parking anywhere they damn well please. Bern looks much more medieval than anywhere we stayed in Italy – wide cobblestone streets and architecture very Gothic. 
After giving the old town the once over last night we decided we should start the day with a visit to the Bear Garden. Bern is apparently named for the bears (they are everywhere in one form or another) and the burghers have had them in bear pits since goodness knows when. After an interesting walk through parts of the old town we didn’t see yesterday, we came to the bear park – but no bears. The bears are on leave whilst their enclosure is made over. Good news though – two bears remain in town, over at the zoological gardens. Let’s check them out.
Another meandering walk back through a different part of town and along the river bank should have found us at the zoo. Miles later, no zoo. Can’t anyone read a flaming map?
“Look, it says right there ‘#44, zoological garden’, see?”.
“What’s that little arrow under the 44 mean?”
“What little arrow? I can hardly see the 44.”
“So it’s off the map then.”
Damn. Here goes Rome and Florence all over again.
“We haven’t even see a sign pointing to a zoo, are you sure it’s this way?”
“I don’t know. What does that sign there say?”
“I don’t speak German, who knows?”
“Okay, then. What about the one just above it that’s, like, 3-feet high”.
“Oh, ‘zoo’. Must be up ahead then.”
It was, but the bears were still elusive. We gave up on them and caught a bus back into town.
Let’s just get some coffee and chocolate then. We did. Both were lovely. The Swiss seem to have a simple secret to prevent people overeating their chocolate. The damn stuff is dearer than gold. We bought some anyway, and we ate it.
After lunch (chocolate is food) we split up. I ventured off to the Communication Museum and the girls shopped and checked out Albert Einstein’s flat, where he apparently lived while he developed his Special Theory of Relativity. Let’s hope some of that cleverness rubs off.
Because we are in Switzerland, and because the country is renowned for its banks, I’ve opened an account. I’m starting small.
Tomorrow is Luxembourg. Most of the day on the train, except the bit where we have to run for a bus. If we miss that we sleep on the streets somewhere in Germany. What can go wrong? The train gets in 15 minutes before the bus leaves and we don’t even know where the bus leaves from. No problem. Let me check out the map…
If you don’t see a post tomorrow, you know what happened.
Cheers, Steve J.
