Bern baby Bern!

We had decided not to stay in Switzerland for as long as planned due to the expense so it was unfortunately time to move on from our mountain getaway in the Swiss Alps. On our way to Germany we made a pitstop at the Swiss capital Bern.

Although a capital city Bern didn’t feel it. We parked across the river and then made our way along the Kirchenfeldbrucke into the old town. We wanted the arcaded shopping streets – mainly in search of silver charms for me (NB tourist charms we 40swiss francs +, way too expensive).

We also did some sightseeing beginning at the Zytglogge (clock tower) famous for its hourly tolling and twirling figures (but unfortunately consumed by road works and scaffolding so hard to get a good pic).

We also tripped between Bern’s many street fountains depicting characters from folklore – unfortunately Kindifresserbrunnen –giant snacking on little children, was also mostly obscured by roadworks.

Closest to a good pic I could get

We continued down the main street past the Einstein museum which is credited to be the site at which Einstein developed his theory of relativity.

All a little bit too studious for us we once again crossed the river to find some real fun at Bern’s bear park. The bears or bear – the city and regions mascot (I think his name was Pedro) were kept in a rather sadlooking pit up until 2009 when they got a new enclosure on the river bank where they could swim and play. Mother and 2 cubs (although pretty much fully grown) are in 1 area and Pedro had his own separate enclosure. I think he was more preoccupied with sleeping in his dugout than swimming or playing.

Bear park

Big papa bear

Its a hot day - perfect for a dip

Nothing to do with bears but this is bike parking Bern style

And swimming Bern style aka jump in the river and float down

After Bern we headed off to Germany the land of free autobahns – the drivers dream!

We spent the night in the small campground on the shore of Lake Constance. It was cheap as was their food and beer all totalling to less than a night in one of Switzerland’s campgrounds.

Lake Constance - German/Swiss Border