Bern

We had actually planned to spend our whole day at Zurich as our flight was at 10pm. But we changed our plans when we checked the weather forecast at Zurich and it said heavy rain. Since we did not get a chance to visit Bern while we were at Interlaken, we decided to take a train to Bern as weather forecast for Bern was better – "just cloudy with possibility of light showers". While waiting at the Hertenstein ship station, the rain fell as hailstones! That was our first encounter with hailstone. The hailstone was small, the size of little pellets, which started to melt immediately upon falling.

The boat we took this morning was different from the previous trip.

The train ride from Lucerne to Bern was about an hour. And we were greeted by sunny Bern. Bern is well worth the visit. It’s a quiet city and its cobbled lanes, lined with sandstone arcaded buildings straddling the pavement, have changed barely at all in over five hundred years.

The perfectly preserved medieval street plan, with its arcades, street fountains and doughty towers persuaded UNESCO to deem Bern a World Heritage Site. With its stately sandstone buildings, historical towers and 11 magnificent fountains, Berne is one the most impressive examples of medieval town architecture in Europe. It is here that Albert Einstein worked, the Toblerone chocolate bar is made, and Emmental cheese, known as Swiss cheese, reached out to the world.

We followed the suggested city trail recommended and marked on the city map. We started from Schauplatzgasse and headed towards the House of Parliament where we had a lovely view of part of the city of Bern.

We again chose to visit the churches. We headed toward Munster Cathedral, an impressive 15th century Gothic cathedral. It has the highest spire in Switzerland: 344 steps above the entrance, 100meters high – very impressive.

And from the garden at Munster cathedral was the lovely view of the river and the city as we were on high ground.

We crossed the two bridges of Nydeggbrucke and Unterbrucke to view and take shots of the bend of the meandering river. And then we headed towards Kramgasse and Marktgasse and window shopped as we sauntered along one of the longest shopping promenades in Europe munching on the hot dog bun we bought at a hotdog stand.