A couple of weeks ago, we visited the Swiss capital, Bern. You can see the snow-capped mountains from the Alps in the background from this view taken at the Bundeshaus.

After seeing the Bundeshaus (“White House”), we passed through an open-air market (with even a Vietnamese stand selling egg rolls) and then strolled through the inner city streets with all the stores. The kids wanted to see the bears in the Bärengraben, so we headed east for the Nydegg bridge. After all, the capital’s name is derived from the word for bear. We saw two bears, a big one and a smaller one; here is the picture of the smaller bear resting on a tree, the big bear appeared hungry and was restless:

The old town is 3/4 surrounded by the Aare river, which meanders through the city. On the right the Nydeggbruecke.

First, the kids would not walk (no nap for Lukas on this day) and every step needed some kind of deal (bad for the parents, good for the kids), then we decided to have early dinner, and sat down in a Thai restaurant with on-street seating. The food was quite good, Liz had Thai noodles, Thomas a bento box with sushi, and the kids edamame (which was the only thing they would eat at this moment in time). At that moment, the Lukas and Anton would not sit any longer, and were unstoppable. Both kept running up and down the street. Note Lukas’ tongue after running for about half an hour.

A highlight of the Bern visit (for the kids) were the firemen activities (see earlier post). In this activity, the kids had to extinguish a fire in a house. Both Lukas and Anton accomplished the task with bravour. Note all the concentration on Lukas’ behalf – this is serious business, while the fireman is pumping the water.

Here is a picture of us walking through the downtown area of the capital. Note that the small wood and metal panels in the ground open up to businesses that operate in the basement. Some are art galleries, while others are small cafe houses. Business are lined up left and right on the street and people live upstairs in the higher levels.

All in all, we had been very positively impressed by our short visit in Bern. It was very nice.