Bern

We gave ourselves time to sleep in, but had a difficult time because of all of the clock towers that go off every hour in Bern. When we decided it was time to get up, we went back to Aldi to grab breakfast and coffee and ate back in the hostel’s lounge.

After breakfast, we went to the markets which just happen to be held on Tuesdays. We started at the produce market and looked at all the fun fruits, vegetables, and plants they had. Then we went to the other end of the block to see the traders market where we looked at jewelers, hammocks, clothing, woodwork, and lots more. It was really cool but we somehow resisted buying anything.

When we had seen everything at the markets, we went to find the last two fountains which weren’t too far away before hopping on a bus to go see Bear park (which seems to be the most famous attraction in Bern). It’s essentially a big pit in a small park which houses three brown bears that are considered to be a sort of mascot for the city. It was cool to see but also a little sad because the bears didn’t look very happy (but that could be because so many people were watching them try to nap). While we were in the park, we also found a bench with a statue of Einstein so we had to take a ton of pictures with him.

Our next destination was Gurten park which is at the top of a nearby mountain and had AMAZING views of Bern. We took a tram to the bottom of the mountain and then a funicular up the side. The reason we wanted to go was because they have a coaster along the side of the mountain which we really wanted to do. Luckily, the weather cooperated because we had a great time on all 5 runs. We got really fun GoPro videos of Stephanie’s runs. While we were on the mountain, we decided to also explore everything else we could find up there. It was definitely set up to be activities for kids, but that didn’t stop us. We climbed on the giant playground and played with a really cool ball machine where you have to help guide a ball through a track by performing different tasks along the way. We wanted to go on the little train but we decided we were too big for that one (it looked like it was designed for 3 year olds). We had a great time and stayed until we were starving and decided we needed to go back down for lunch. We took the funicular down and took a cool Timelapse of the journey down which shows great views of Bern.

In our search for places to eat that were less expensive, we found a sandwich place that had excellent reviews so we decided it sounded like the perfect quick lunch. The reviews were right and it was exactly what we needed. On the way back to the hostel, we ran into Aldi to grab some yogurts to go with it and then ate back in the hostel. Late afternoon showers must be a thing here because as soon as we finished eating we heard another clap of thunder and it started pouring. It felt like the perfect opening for another quick nap on the couch.

When we woke up, we were happy to see that the rain was done so we grabbed our stuff and took a quick bus over to the Rose garden, another popular spot in Bern for a great view of the city. We wandered through the flower gardens and sat on the ledge overlooking the city taking it all in until we realized we had to go back before the grocery stores started closing. Our first stop was to a chocolatier because we wanted to try some Swiss chocolate. Then we headed to the grocery store and grabbed some Ramen, a chunk of watermelon, and beer and brought it back to the hostel. While we were eating, we heard music outside so we looked out the window to see a circus performance happening in the streets outside our window.

Overall, we had a great day and really enjoyed our time in Bern. We are currently on the train heading to Interlaken!!

The train ride into Switzerland was gorgeous and we loved looking out the windows to mountains and very cute small towns. Once we reached Bern, our hotel was a very short walk into the old town (it’s in the perfect location). We dropped our bags and then decided to stop into the Aldi next door to grab yogurt and blueberries for a quick snack. 

The Old Town of Bern is full of gorgeous fountains that you can find. Our hostel had a map of their locations so we took a picture and decided we would find them all. In the process, we gave ourselves a very nice tour of the old town. 

After making deciding on a path that would pass all of the fountains (marked on the map), we set off admiring lots of churches and clock towers and bridges along the way. The fountains are so cool as they are all unique and very detailed. 

We finished our loop and counted the pictures to make sure we had hit them all and realized that we only had 9 pictures even though the list had 11 names. We looked back at the map and realized the map only had dots for the 9 we had found, so we looked up the other two names and realized they were the opposite direction. Since we were starting to get hungry, we decided we would get food and find them later. 

There is a Swiss restaurant a block from our hotel that looked popular and had good reviews so we decided to give it a go. The menu was entirely in German with pictures of every meal. We asked if they had an English menu and they did but it had much less detail than the German menu so it was still a bit of trying to pair the English with the pictures to figure out what we wanted to eat. Isabel ended up with chicken wrapped in bacon and Stephanie ended up with beef with 3 sauces, both served with fries. Luckily we were both very happy with what we ordered and really enjoyed it, but we will definitely be spending more time at Aldi because Switzerland is expensive! 

After lunch, we went to check into the hotel and moved our bags into the room before checking out the rest of the hostel. They have a very cute lounge area with a cool view so we decided to sit on a couch facing the view for a few minutes and ended up both falling asleep. Soon after falling asleep, we were awoken by a loud clap of thunder right before it started pouring. We agreed that neither of us really wanted to get soaked so we stayed in for a little longer and make some plans for the rest of Switzerland. 

It finally stopped raining just in time for us to run down the street to a grocery store for some food. We decided to try a different store we had passed on the way to the hostel which looked like it had a larger selection. It worked perfectly and we filled ourselves up. We still wanted to see the last two fountains, so after dinner we went out to find them. Mother Nature must have had other ideas though because it was raining again. We decided the last two would have to wait and instead went up to get ready for bed.