Switzerland | tripacross

Her View

Switzerland - Caywood's perspective

Bern: the unofficial capital of Switzerland, lover of all things bears, and a mere 20 minutes from a gorgeous view of the Alps. Even the train ride into Bern presented some truly magnificent scenery. The countryside, the animals, and the mountain hillsides were so beautiful. We arrived in Bern around 5:00 and took a quick walk around the train station before heading to our host’s house. Right next to their main train station is their Parliament building, and every night during October and November they have a 30-minute light show on the building’s facade. We didn’t know this, but we stumbled upon it just in time and were eager to watch. This light show was spectacular. I’ve never seen anything like it. At first I was iffy because they were speaking in German which I barely know three words of, but about half way through it started to get really impressive. There were a variety of themes that took over the entire building - from kids painting the building the colors of the rainbow, to a love scene with the building being covered in “i love you” in every language, to a prehistoric dinosaur being seen by cavemen.

In Bern, we got our first couchsurfing experience as “surfers.” If you haven’t heard of CS, it is a website where people who love to travel open their homes to fellow travelers. It gives you the opportunity to meet a local and get the local perspective of a city rather than just the typical touristy things. Our host in Bern, Patrick, was really great. Our first morning in Bern Patrick gave us a walking tour around the city, in which we saw nearly everything on our list of sights. We saw Bern’s landing gate, the bear pits, the Bern Munster, the castle steps (which are almost the only piece remaining today of Bern’s old castle), and much more. We spent a lot of the time walking through Old Town, which includes a clock tower, lots of medieval buildings, eleven public water fountains, and the longest covered shopping promenade in the world. Another beautiful part of Bern was getting to walk along the Aare River, which is the longest river in the country. The tour started in Rosengarten with a breathtaking view from above to see the entire city, and ended with a gorgeous view of the Alps in the distance.

Fun fact for you: Switzerland is one of the top two most expensive cities in Europe. A mere quesadilla at a Mexican restaurant was 23 euros. Safe to say we skipped that! Although, we did splurge on a delicious lunch in Bern: Switzerland cheese fondu. Apparently it is not very common for a local Swiss to order fondu in a restaurant, but it’s something commonly made at home. Feliks and I love fondu, so we quickly agreed to go with Patrick’s recommendation of “half and half” cheese fondu while in Bern. It was so amazing. Seriously. But the price tag definitely matched the deliciousness. Twenty-five euros was a very pricey lunch for us, but we decided to splurge on the swiss fondu… only after the meal to find out that it was twenty-five euros per person! Even though the price was an unexpected shock and more than half of our daily budget, the experience was still worth it. But we will be more careful next time to look for a small “pp” on the menus!

His View

Switzerland - Feliks' perspective

Switzerland: the land of swiss cheese. I was so excited, until I saw how much things actually cost. This was one of the most unexpected surprises I think we’ve had. We knew that Switzerland was up there for how expensive it is but our expectations were set too low. Just to give you a quick picture, at a Mexican restaurant, nothing too fancy, a steak quesadilla was about $24. Switzerland is really expensive. That's all I’m going to say on that subject.

We had our first couchsurfing experience where we stayed with an awesome host, Patrick, who also happened to be our Free Guide tour. We started about 10 in the morning meeting the rest of the tour guests at the top of a hill overlooking the entire city. The tour took us through some historical moments and explained a lot of things that I would never have even thought to ask about Bern. The city was beautiful and the shopping area was insane. It was so long, and pretty much spanned the entire length of the city. There were churches and massive government buildings, random statues, and clock towers. The neatest things were the shops below the street. There were wine cellars that were turned into shops. It looks really sketchy at times but they are legitimate business.

The city of Bern has 11 fountains in the city, all with different meanings. Some were cool, others not so much, but the one that stands out still is of a bear eating a baby. Yes, a bear eating a baby is depicted in a statue in the city of Bern. What's even worse is the bear is wearing a bag full of babies. There are multiple stories of why this statue exists but they are all theories; one is that monks and nuns used to meet at this spot for activities, you get the rest.

One of the things that is very traditional to Bern is cheese fondue. Obviously, Switzerland is known for cheese and the house specialty is the 50/50, a fondue with two cheeses. At home, Caywood and I normally make fondue with beer not wine, and we generally use cheddar, not swiss cheese. Needless to say, the cheese fondue was amazing! Melting pot needs to re-examine their recipe.

Around 7 at night we saw a huge group of people standing in front of town hall just waiting. Without knowing what for, we started waiting too, and it was worth the wait. Every night, at two different times, the city puts on a light show using the parliament building as the canvas. The first part was kind of weird but the rest was actually pretty good. It was almost 3D and used the building's design to create awesome scenes that were almost rollercoaster-like.

Overall, I really liked Bern. It was a small city but had that big city feel to it. The center, where the city started and grew from, was amazing. Really like something in a movie. The best part I would say was seeing the Alps in the distance, just sitting back there, snow tops and all, just like in the pictures. Even though it was the most expensive country we’ve been in, it was well worth it. WiFi was decently easy to get and bathrooms were around.

Bern's Parliament building	Bern's Parliament building
Bern's Parliament building	Bern's Parliament building
Bern's Parliament building	One of 11 public fountains
One of 11 public fountains	View from the Rosengarten
The old bear pit	Bears everywhere!
The new bear pit	Aare River
Cannonball in building	Landing gate
One of 11 public fountains	Largest covered shopping promenade
One of 11 public fountains	Aare River
Munster Cathedral	Munster Cathedral
Bern Clock Tower	Munster Cathedral
The weirdest of 11 public fountains	Bern
Patrick, Feliks, Caywood & the Alps	Switzerland cheese fondu
Bern Clock Tower urinal	Our free walking tour group
Swiss Alps	Swiss Alps
Swiss Alps	Swiss Alps
Swiss Alps	Swiss Alps
Typical Swiss house	Swiss Alps
Swiss chocolate	Swiss Alps
Swiss Alps and countryside	Swiss Alps