European Meander – It’s Sunday, must be Bern

The days are coming together, wasn’t sure what day of the week it was this morning. We’ve been in Bern for two days and they have been full days. The most important thing to say about Bern, and Switzerland, is that we are coming back. This has been the most expensive stop, but we have fallen in Love with almost everything we’ve seen.

Getting to Bern was a little difficult for a number of reasons. We took a regional train, shown above, to Frankfurt. Our connection would leave in 30 minutes after arrival… no connection showed on the board. We went to information (luckily we got in, there are usually crowds) and were told the train was now leaving from Frankfurt South, were given a train and track on which to reach it. Surprise!! We now have 15 minutes. The local train takes off with less than 10 minutes to spare and STOPS on the way (we’re waiting for something). We start again. By the way we have about 4 or 5 people also making their way to this new location. We make it into Frankfurt South with probably 2 minutes to spare. We arrive track 6 and the train is on track 7, no problem right? Nope, track 7 is “run the length of the train, down into a tunnel, up onto the other track and jump into the very first car we see. We make it with less than a minute to spare. My bones now creek… but wait, we’re in first class, where is that? We walk to the front of the train… nope, turn around and start walking to the back. We pass a conductor and ask, he says first class is that way “in Berlin”… so funny. I’m sweating profusely by the time we make it. Find a seat, it’s very crowded. In the next stop we’re told the seats we’re in are reserved! How do we know? They point out a small electronic message on the edge of the seat… ok, find another seat, we do. Nope, those too in a few stops. We finally find some seats and make it to Basel where we change to a Swiss train, and make it to Bern. Beware, pay the extra to reserve seats.

But when we arrive… wonderful

The statue was interesting. When I put it on Facebook I got a message that it might violate their standards against nudity and sexuality. I was given the chance to remove it.

To my few folks that are actually coming out here, there may be a bit of a hiatus. This is taking a lot of time to keep the site going. I think I’ll need to take a break. We’re in Luzern now, another marvelous city, and I’m starting to feel the strain of travel. I’ll finish off Bern and then… who know, maybe I’ll be invigorated.

Bern continued –

One morning we’re having breakfast at the Einstein Cafe, which is just under the apartment Albert rented during his 7 years in Bern. We look out the window and notice a crowd of (mainly) Asian folks taking pictures of the building… what are they photographing? As we left and looked up they were taking pictures of the sign “Einstein Haus” and the windows. Seemed interesting. We didn’t go in, there was quite a crowd lining up on the stairwell to go into the apartment… maybe next trip.