Spring Break Part 8: Bern, Switzerland

  I loved this picture taken from the car between Lauterbrunnen and Bern.  

Bern!  We parked close to the bear pit and ventured out from there.  The city center is a World Heritage sight. 

The bear pit.   These guys are super lazy.  I don't think they moved at all while we were there.  ha!  Cute little things though.

Downtown Bern looks like an old movie set to me.  Lots of cute little shops leading up to the Zytglogge (clock tower).  Luke's asthma issues started creeping up on this trip, and the night before this, we were close to taking him in to a hospital in Zurich.  There was a pharmacy along the road here, so we stopped in to see if they had an inhaler we could buy.  At first they said we'd need a prescription.  Then, after talking to the pharmacist for a few minutes, he decided to just give us one for €5.  Such a nice old pharmacist.  That inhaler helped a lot, and Luke felt much better. 

Oh, and another asthma story from the day before... While in Innsbruck, we stopped into another "pharmacy."  Pharmacies overseas are so different... full of herbs, tea, and other things not found in  American pharmacies.  Jake tried to explain to the lady Luke's asthma issues, but she didn't speak much English.  Anyway, to make the story short, she insisted that Luke drink this crazy looking drink she mixed up for him and sent us away with the ingredients to make more tea for him at home.  We made it at Rochelle and Jeremy's house, and Luke couldn't gag the stuff down.  Can't help but wonder if it would have worked if he would have actually drank it! 

Family picture.  Thanks Rochelle for being our photographer!

We used the bathroom on our pharmacy stop.  I need their bathroom signs at our house.  haha

Bern public transportation..

Love how much Europeans ride bikes.  No wonder Americans are fatsos.  We should do the same thing.  Just about every big European city is full of bike lanes.  We have learned the hard way not to walk in them.

More view of the city.

 

Creepy.

Thinking the street names were funny :)

I really liked Bern.  Our last stop for the day was to see the temple.  This one was kind of tricky to find.   A road or two was closed in the neighborhood, so we could see it, but it took a few wrong turns before getting there.  Kind of funny. 
  

 We headed back to Rochelle and Jeremy's house for dinner.  They made some tasty Swiss dishes while we were there.  I think I need to get a Raclette set.  Very fun dinner!  You can't go wrong with cheese and potatoes.

Spring Break Part 7: Innsbruck, Austria and on to Switzerland!

After leaving Edelweiss, we stopped in Innsbruck on the way to Switzerland.  Jake's cousin Rochelle and her hubby, Jeremy, live outside of Zurich and were nice to let us crash at their house for a few days.  They are awesome hosts and tour guides! 

Innsbruck was small and charming.  I liked the colorful buildings.  We walked around downtown and enjoyed some gelato even though it was cold outside.  Gelato always tastes good.  Driving into the town...

 

Having fun exploring on foot.

   

Gelato!

 

 

Camera battery died in Innsbruck, so I took these next couple of pictures with my phone.

 

I could totally live in one of these apartments on the river.

 

We ate at a Chinese noodle parlor late in the afternoon and then said goodbye to Innsbruck and headed to Jeremy and Rochelle's house.  We didn't arrive until it was pretty late, so our Swiss adventures started the next day.  Rochelle showed us some of her favorite places, and we loved all of them!  First up was Lauterbrunnen.  I wanted to take pictures of everything as we were driving.  Switzerland is so beautiful.  I love the mountains! 

 

   It was so picturesque with the warm spring weather and snow still around.  We started the morning with coats and by noon ended up in t-shirts.   It was supposed to rain most of the time we were there (acc to weatherman predictions) but ended up being really nice.  I think there was just one day that it sprinkled for a little bit. 

 These pictures don't really do the place justice.  They never do.  I don't remember why, but Ella didn't want to walk with us this day.  She was ahead or behind most of the time.  Funny girl.  She looks like Waldo with her white and red sweatshirt in some of the pictures.  

 I wanted a family picture here since I loved the town, but Ella didn't want to be in it.  So, the fam minus Ella..

 

 

More cable car rides!  We rode up to the cute little town of Mürren. 

 

It was a great view.

Riding the train! 

Ella, Rochelle, and Liza ...

More of the purdy mountain view...

Family pic in Mürren :)

There was still so much snow up there!  We worked up a sweat walking around in our jackets. 

This girl is always "too hot."

Most of the stores are closed during lunch hour.  It was like that all over Switzerland.  Everyone just closes shop and goes home to eat lunch from around 12:00-2:00.  Anyway, after looking around for a bit, we ended up finding a little grocery store that was open.  We bought some rolls, meat, and cheese and had a little picnic.  Looks cold outside, but it was actually really nice!   Also, random trivia from some travel brochure I read while there... Switzerland has one of only two national flags that are square.  The other one is Vatican City. 

Fellow picnickers..

Baby Liza is such a cutie.   She and Callie can run around together at future Smith  reunions :)

Riding the cable car back down the mountain...

Beautiful afternoon.  After exploring Lauterbrunnen, we headed to Bern.  Guess that will be the next post.