Bern & Thun
I was woken up by a message from my Dad asking whether I was awake and if they could call me. It was 8am anyway and not exactly some ridiculously early time so I didn't mind. I showered and then called them afterwards whilst I was cutting up some of the amazing bread Lewis had found in the supermarket last night - finally we can have jam on toast again and not just plain old cereal. Mum & Dad couldn't believe how large this loaf of bread was and I must say Lew did pick a large one! After speaking with them for a short while and wishing I could be at the Les Mills release day with them tomorrow we said our goodbyes and I got a bit of study in. Today we planned to go into the city of Bern which is in-fact the capital of Switzerland despite Zurich being larger and if we get time we will try and see Thun and Spiez on the way home as well. When we leave the house we always bring hiking clothes just in case the sun decided to shine or we find something adventurous to do. Leaving the house at about 11am it took us 30 minutes to drive into the heart of Bern but we spent 10 minutes on the side of the road trying to work out which parking structure would be the cheapest. On the way to our pick of carparks costing us something like 3 CHF per hour ($4.30 NZD) we spotted some timed parking next to the Einstein museum which had a 3 hour maximum but was only 2.20 CHF per hour ($3.20 NZD) which seemed like a bargain. We parked up translating a sign in German to make sure we wouldn't get towed. Leaving the car and walking across a bridge into town we hoped 3 hours would be enough. The bridge gave you wonderful views over the houses below and we realised that it was actually a much bigger city than we realised. One of the things that really caught our eye was the trams through-out the city and we though back to our home - Christchurch, NZ and how it would suit something like this. Before it was hit with the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 they had a old tram that used to run through the central city and we think we should embrace the tram idea and perhaps span a tram line out to the airport and all around down - with more modern version of course. We walked along the main street poking our heads into shops and finding a few things we liked until we looked at the price tags. This city had some serious gorgeous shops with large price tags thats for sure! Girls make sure you borrow dads credit card if your coming here for the weekend! There was this one shop which for the life of me I cannot remember its name (Tara Style) but it had the most stunning rain jackets I have ever seen. Unfortunately (local souvenir shopping) they were German as opposed to Swiss and I hands down would have brought this jacket if they had my size! The one I tried on was just a tad too small if you were wanting to wear a jersey or hoodie underneath which of course you do if it is winter. Not to worry I shall find it online somewhere!
It was about 2pm at this stage and hunger was starting to kick in. Lew had finally spotted burger place called Beef Burger across the road and we decided to splurge a little to get him away from McDonalds. After ordering two small burgers and fried for 24.50 CHF ($35 NZD) we sat down at a nearby table and then I noticed a door with a heap of German but the world toilet. I went to try the door but of course it was locked and Lew told me he was pretty sure that it said something about staff only and that there was a toilet next door in the restaurant. I began walking around the shops next door having to ask where on earth they were, after heading up an elevator I was disappointed to find that again we were being charged for toilets at a rate of 1 CHF ($1.50 NZD)! Oh well I guess we are eating lunch with dirty hands and a full bladder! I would say the burger was smidge better than a McDonald’s burger but I havnt had one of those for years, Lew on the other hand had one yesterday and though it was only slightly better also- cold bun, half cooked patty but I guess it’s name is fairly uninventive so we shouldn’t be have expected much! Post lunch we walked to probably the coolest thing about the town and that is Bear Park. There are actually live bears living in a large enclosure next to the Aare river. We could see two of the three roaming around and eating large chunks of meats and the best thing was that it was free! It has started to rain at this stage and neither of us had any wet weather gear with us. We also didn’t have much time left on our parking meter but we walked back through the cute small streets surrounding the town. The have some pretty awesome looking cafes and we were loving the use of Nordic style furniture and designs in a lot of the shops.
Once we got back to the car we decided to continue on to the town of Thun inside of finding another park and heading back into the city in the rain. Another 30 minutes of driving and just as it was getting dark we arrived into Thun. It was so not what we were expecting either as I really thought it was the same size as Interlaken but turns out it was a lot better and bigger. We parked up in a car park that wasn’t that cheap since it was basically in the heart of town but realised we didn’t have enough cash as it didn’t give you change. I walked into the supermarket nearby and found some coconut milk and also got my large notes changes into coins. Killed two birds with one stone there! Whilst away Lew has discovered that we were parked up outside an outdoor rink and Lew was watching as the young kids warmed up around the outside of the rink. He told me they looked like they were having so much fun and had also peaked in at the smaller kids in the ice. Even the young kids looked fantastic and Lew said no wonder they make good ice hockey players! We thought we would check it out on the way back but our parking meter was ticking as we were doing nothing. We just walked the streets in the rain and dark not finding anything in particular that we wanted to look at. We were amazed at how many people in this country continue to bike in the horrible weather - rain/cold/sleet/snow. They don’t even look like they have been caught in it accidently and they read the weather wrong this morning, they look as though they bike rain or shine. I doubt you would catch too many New Zealanders doing that unless they are forced!
We decided to come back tomorrow morning to really appreciate the town in the daylight and begin walking back to the car stopping by a department store where we found a free toilet! Booyah! The rink entrance has those metal bars that rotate as you walk through and I did just that since you can walk into our rinks when you want to come watch a practice. I got to the edge of the rink and looked back and Lew had been stopped by the lady at the counter who told us we had to pay 1 chf. When I walked back grumpy I had figured he had already explained to the lady that we were ice hockey players from NZ and wanted to check out the kids practice for 5 minutes and she had said no, turns out she wanted us to each pay 1 chf to watch kids practice, Oh well. We drove back in the dark to the accommodation pleased to be getting back into the warmth. I started making apple sponge pudding for dinner realising I hadn’t brought mixed spice and also golden syrup to make this dessert! I had to improvise using more cinnamon and brown sugar instead. For dinner I made mushroom pasta with herbes De Provence which is something I have never been able to find back home and had to chop up a mixture of fresh herbs from the garden instead. Accidentally I had used up all the butter for the dessert so had to make the sauce with oil and rice milk instead. Neither of them turned out too badly considering I didn’t have some staple ingredients! The rest of the night I spent searching for that jacket I found today in my size but couldn’t find anything at all. They seem to have completely run out of size small and only have extra small left. Lew had a search too and that’s when I decided I would just buy the jacket and make do with it being a little small. We were heading through Bern tomorrow anyway on our way to Lausanne. today Also marked the day we reached 6400km meaning we have driven from Cape Reinga to Bluff back up to Cape Reinga and back down to Bluff. In other words we have driven the length of NZ 3 times. We have also driven 1/3 of the distance back to nz. 5 days left until we drop the car back in Lyon. Tomorrow we head to Villeneuve near Lausanne and Lew is super excited because the place has a wood-fire!!
