Bern, The Swiss Capital

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January 19, 2008. Once recovered from our long, overseas adventure home for the Holidays, we hopped a train to discover Bern, the Swiss Capital. It is a beautiful Gothic city, with tons of history and incredible architecture. The big highlight for the girls was the "Bear pits". I had heard tons of opinions about the "bear pits", which are exactly that, two pits in the city, which house the city's mascots...two big bears. I was really expecting the spectacle to be somewhat sad. It is heavily debated that the situation is cruel and inhumane, but the bears truly appear quite comfortable in their set up...they get fed continuously by tourists, who drop apples and oranges down to he waiting critters. They were very silly and would just lay with their big mouths open, waiting for a tourist with good aim to hit the hole with a treat. They are making the bears a new, more cozy hangout in another part of the city. Bern is marked by some of the most beautiful clock towers I have ever seen, very ornate. Each clock tower marks a new ring of growth as the city developed. Nate got to step foot on the "nerd-holy-grail", Einstein's house in Bern. It was very cool! It was interesting to visit the Capital, as visitors can just walk right up with virtually no security..you probably could peek in the presidents window, if you wanted (we didn't, honest)

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Photos

Baby eating Ogre sculpture
the girls were very impressed...see the babies butt hanging out of his mouth?

baby eating Ogre
That's what it is called!..See the ogre eating babies?

store front
Many of the shops were below ground..the yellow doors are the entrance to the store.

riot truck
the police were preparing for a political protest, so the city was swarming with armed guards..this is a police truck with riot guard on it.

The bears of Bern
go to page 2 to see more photos!