The Halfway Point: Switzerland

Switzerland is beautiful. From Munich we traveled up to Stuttgart in Germany on down to Zürich. There we had a relatively nice hostel in the old town near the Limmat river . Along the river are several neat buildings that give the appearence of what I imagine Venice looks like, only without the stench (http://images.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=http://www.city-skylines.de/zuerich/images/zuerich%20001.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.city-skylines.de/zuerich/imagepages/image1.htm&h=480&w=640&sz=89&hl=de&start=2&um=1&tbnid=_wYsV8o2tI6u6M:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images?q= ) . We saw the Grossmünster, one of the birthplaces of the Reformation, and Fraumünster with its five different-colored Chagall windows (http://travelguide.all-about-switzerland.info/zurich/fraumunster_windows_chagall_1341.jpg).

To celebrate our fourth anniversary (June 28th) we booked a room with two other people in it! Ok, so it was not so romantic, but affordable. To make things more interesting, the couple we stayed with were either very rude or oblivious--I am guessing the latter. The guy who slept in the bunk above me hung his nasty towel over my open space. I woke up to quite a surprise. The girl who slept above Amy ate cookies or crackers the night before and swept them off on to Amy´s bed. When they left, at about 5 in the morning, the guy accidentally bashed his forehead while sleepily trying to get to the bathroom and left blood spattered around the room and communal bathroom. Nice. While this was unpleasant...almost comical...we certainly enjoyed Zürich as a city. We visited the National Swiss museum, which had a lot of historico-cultural objects in it dating back to the Roman period. Also, we had the unique opportunity to see "Aida" the Opera by Giuseppe Verdi in the town square for free. We only had to sit on the ground. Some young opera goers next to us enjoyed the same feature with a few enhancements. We held our breath.

The train ride to Bern was not as eventful as I thought it would be. I expected huge sky eclipsing mountains, but it turns out that the high mountains are mainly in the South and are not that big...compared with North American mountains. Still it was nice.

Bern is quaint. Throughout the city are miles of arcade (covered sidewalk) for shopping. Old town, dating back to the middle ages, has been preserved and is a UNESCO world heritage site. We took an ipod self-guided tour of the main sites: the Zytoglogge (old clock http://www.eut.eu/images/upload/Image/countries/CH/Bern/_web/ch_bern_001_zytglogge_2270.jpg ), Munster (a huge church), Bundesplatz (the seat of the Swiss Federal government), the Bear Pits (we have pictures...they do tricks...one rolled on its back for treats) (http://www.g26.ch/abb_bern_baerengraben_02.jpg), the Rose garden, etc. Yesterday, we had a nice lunch at a Swiss restaurant and visited the Kunstmuseum (art museum) which had a couple of Kadinsky paintings, a few Picassos, a Van Gogh and several other neat artists. It was a nice compact collection. No nonsense. I thought it was just right. Amy thought so too, although she said, "No more art until we get to Florence, ok?"

Prices here are crazy. It is not unusual to find a prepared to-go sandwich for the equivalent of 7 dollars. Yikes. Even McDonalds can be a 20 dollar meal. We have been fighting the prices by cooking a lot at our hostel. Lots of GF pasta, GF bread, nutella, bannana in the morning and candy to keep Amy going (Duttons: the modern day equivalent of the gummy bear stop only here they are called "goldbärren"). Bern is not exactly the place to go sight-see as it is a nice place to be. The old city itself is a sight to see. Tommorow we are off to Gimmelwald, nestled up above Interlaken.

Again, my apologies about the photos. They lock the CPUs up in a coin machine box...thus no access to the USB port. We are safe and having fun. Keep us updated if and when you can. We love hearing from you!