Nothing you can say or do will make me stop loving Bern.
We got up early this morning (for us) at about 9:00 am and made a delicious breakfast- our first hot breakfast of the whole trip (not counting toast in London). We had scrambled eggs, buttered toast, (instant) coffee, and sparkling Gravensetin apple juice. Another example of the awful prices here is eggs. Ten eggs (they don't come in the dozen) cost 5.20 CHF, which is about $4.80 (I had the exchange rate backward). This is crazy, considering a dozen at home is about $2.50 or so (if I recall correctly). Bread is the same, with a loaf of generic white weighing in at 1.90 CHF. We're still eating cheaply, but thanks to the great kitchen in the hostel, we're eating well also. Hot meals are so much more satisfying than the bread, cheese, and sausage we've gotten used to in Amsterdam and Paris.
With our stomachs full of our delicious breakfast, we set out to explore Bern.
There was a women's foot race today in the city, which took up a lot of the main streets we were trying to follow to get to the river. This afforded us an fantastic opportunity to take in a little local culture. The streets were lined with onlookers with noisemakers and signs yelling "hopp!" (which translates to something like "quick!") as the runners passed.
As we walked the streets I became even more enamored by the city. Everything is well-organized and clean. The people are all clean-cut for the most part, and everything just has an air to it that no American city can even begin to approximate. After a nice walk we arrived at our destination- the river Aare. There's a park on one bank, so we rented a locker, changed into our swimsuits, and prepared to soak up some local culture (and sunshine, after applying some sunscreen).
We staked out a spot on the lawn of the park near the riverbank and deposited our towels and sandals before walking upstream for a good ways to take the plunge into the quickly-moving blue water. There was a small fountain near the entrance we chose that people were dunking themselves under to get used to the frigid water (maybe 60 degrees Farenheit) that we dipped in as well. Wow! There's really no way to get used to cold water other than to just throw yourself into it, and Michael was the first to submerge himself in the fountain pool. After we steeled ourselves for the river, we descended the stairs into the freezing water along with some other equally shocked swimmers. Pushing off the rocks, we floated along with the current for a while to a nearby stairway to practice grabbing onto the handrail to break out of the current and exit the river.
Unfortunately, the river and Marc were not friends. The currents proved too cunning, and he and Michael called it quits early. I floated on alone (in the vicinity of other bathers, of course) downriver for quite a while on the speedy current to the point where we had left our towels. Managing the current is difficult! Between the cold water and the current, I exited the river quite out of breath. Perhaps the workout I got from my swim is why everyone in the park seemed to be in such good shape!
For the rest of the afternoon, we laid on the grass and enjoyed a lazy day in the gorgeous weather along with the rest of Bern. The park was absolutely packed with swimmers and sunbathers young and old- from naked babies running around on wobbly, pudgy legs to old men and women in swimsuits that were far too revealing for their age. After a wonderful, relaxing afternoon we called it quits. We headed to the grocery store to buy food for dinner (pasta, chicken, and four cheese sauce) and then took a long route back to the hostel, where we cleaned up, changed, and made our dinner.
After talking to another traveler here, we discovered that Interlaken may not be worth its salt, so we're considering extending our stay in Gimmelwald instead, which is supposed to be an absolutely picturesque little Alpine village.
Wunderbar!
Here are a few more photos that I couldn't jam into the text somewhere:
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