Up earliesh to pack and headed out for breakfast. We went to a bakery that Becky and I found the day before – hoping to get some Arancini. They didn’t have Arancini, but we got lovely veggie tarts, pastries, bread, and Zane got a giant meringue. We decided to pay the price and take the boat to the train station. It was hot and crowded, but glad we did. Took some time at the train station to sit and wander. I got a Cafe Cream which is cold, cream coffee ice cream stuff. Amazing. Still not feeling great.
Made it onto our train to Milan, no problem. The crazy, crazy thing is that the family sitting next to us is not only from Oregon, but they live in Sisters and Bend! How do things like that happen? They are having 3 weeks in Italy. We exchanged numbers and will try to catch up and share stories about our trips. It’s great being in first class and getting snack boxes. They were very strict about 1 Service Only though – so only one drink. We had finished our water bottles before we even got on the train, so we were quite thirsty = I ended up buying a couple of bottles of water. There’s nowhere to fill bottles up on the train or in the stations.
Made it to Milan with plenty of time before our train to Bern. Wandered the station a bit. Got on our train = the Blacketts are all sitting fairly close, but Becky is at the far end of the coach and Graeme is in the next one. There’s also no snack boxes! So we have raided our meager supplies, which is fine. I am still not feeling great. I have moments when I am not dizzy and nauseous, which are lovely. We just ate a pack of ketchup flavored crisps on a train traveling from Italy to Switzerland that we bought in Spain. I love this stuff!
It’s been so good to have laughs and conversations with G&B. Still learning things about each other.
We’re on the train from Bern to Cologne. We arrived in Bern on Tuesday, and found our hotel which was very close. The transition from Italy to Switzerland was quite noticeable. The architecture changed and was very obviously Swiss. We were able to see the landscape change as well – the forest was thick and lush and soon the mountains began to loom around us. We were able to see the snow covered Alps in the distance though the air wasn’t particularly clear. The towns and villages we went thru were filled with Swiss chalets, rolling fields, and order.
After getting to our rooms and getting a bit settled, we headed out to find some dinner. Our hotel is great = nice rooms, centrally located, connecting rooms for us and the boys, the only problem is that there’s no AC.
We wandered a bit looking for food and didn’t really find any, but we found a lovely park, Kleine Schanze,
and lots of cool architecture. We finally decided on getting kebabs, Graeme found a takeaway with good reviews, but when we found it, they didn’t have enough food for all of us. So we found another one and had an amazing meal. This was the first meal that Colin was really excited about, Jude loved it – in the past, he didn’t like kebabs. It was so tasty! Well worth it.
Then we headed off to explore a bit. Had a wander around Old Town, ended up on a bridge, Kornhausbrücke, at sunset. Such a beautiful city. It looks like a fairy tale. Lots of greenery. The River Aare is a beautiful turquoise blue/green. There are lots of fountains with lovely, drinkable water. Lots of strange statues that depict odd things – including a monster/man eating babies. There were flags everywhere – Swiss, Bern, The Canton, and many others. Everything is written in German which is kind of jarring when you’ve only really seen it in movies about Nazis. Combined, it was quite militant at times, overall though it was so lovely, ordered, great public transport (free for visitors), lots of parks and green spaces, people were very relaxed. After being in Mediterranean places, it was strange to be out in the evening and have all the shops closed. It also stayed light quite late.
Lamppostings 