Tick Tock

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GENEVE/BERN Day 33

I arrived in Geneve and was a little disappointed. Yes, the alps are beautiful but there is not much else to this town. It would be great if I had a crap load of money to spend on expensive clothes and watches but I don’t so I only stayed 2 hours on got on the next train to Bern. I did find it really funny the amount of clocks and watches that are EVERYWHERE. I get that Geneve and Switzerland is the mecca for watches but really so many.

I made it to Bern and immediately knew it was a better choice to visit. It is a small town but all the buildings are very swiss and the old town is really neat to walk through. You still have a lot of expensive clothing stores but there is more to see by just walking around. I started with walking through the forest area towards the original location of the bear pits. Bern’s history is connected to bears and it is said that that is where its name came from. The first ruler of the city decided that the city would be named after the first animal they caught in the hunt, which was a bear. And since that time there have always been bears in the wild and now in captivity in Bern. The bear pits are the very sad pens where the bears used to be kept but now they have a new large home that is far nicer but it could still be far greener. Throughout the old town there are loads of fountains and many of them have bears somewhere on them.

In the old town there is one funny street called postgasse that had lampshades strewn across the street between the houses. They are so funny and I have no idea why they are there but it is hilarious. Also, Switzerland had there own carnival the same weekend as Spain, having to do with the beginning of lent, so I could still see the paper confetti all over the streets. It would have been nice to see the parade here as well but I haven’t been able to perfect being in multiple countries at once.

Another funny thing in the old town is the ogre fountain. Now this almost cute fountain depicts an ogre eating small children. From far it seems comical but up close you can see the fear in the children’s eyes. But I still found it funny. Another feature of the old town is the old clock tower, which has the crazy looking astrological style to it.

Bern is definitely on the list of nice places to visit. But you can see it in one day for sure.

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