Berne to Lucerne

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Our first stop of the morning was to pick up Hector, our local tour guide for the city of Berne. He was very knowledgeable and had quite a sense of humor. Berne was named when a bear was the first prey found after a hunt in the woods. Thus Hector was ready with the "bear" puns. We stopped at the Rose Garden for a wonderful overlook view of the city of Berne including the first area of houses surrounding the church. In the distance the cathedral of Berne rose above the city. From here we made our way to the old city center. Leaving the bus we walked to the Astronomical Clock which tells not only time, but date, moon phase, calendar, day of the week, among other information. A crowing rooster announces the approaching hour, bells ring and chimes are hammered.

We then walked down the street to the house where Albert Einstein lived when he developed his theory of relativity. From there we passed the cathedral with a beautiful depiction of the Last Judgement over the doors. Moving on through town past gardens we reutrned to the bus to travel to Bear Park where three Russian Brown bears are housed repesenting the naming of the town.

Leaving Berne, we moved on to Interlocken and the Trummelbach Falle. This series of 10 falls are unusual as most of them are inside the mountain. An elevator took us to the area of the 7th waterfall and we climbed stairs to reach the higher falls and then walk back down to visit the rest. It was quite a workout.

In the area we passed views of the Jungfrau mountain, a glacier covered mountain in among green tree covered ones.

Our final destination was Lucerne. We arrived early enough in the day to visit the Lion Monument. The monument is a memorial to Swiss soldiers who were killed in a massacre in 1792 during the French Revolution. When the sculptor was not paid his promised fee he sculpted a pig around the opening.

From the Lion Monument we stopped at the Chapel Bridge (Wooden Bridge) and walked to our hotel via the bridge. After settling in our room, we wondered about for a bit, enjoying the nice evening.

For dinner we had selected the excursion to a restaurant for a folklore party including alpine horns, music and singing, yodeling by performers and guests (us included) and a visit by a large Swiss cow. It was a truly fun evening.

Tomorrow we will take the cog railway up on Mt. Pilatus.

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