The capital city of Bern is a remarkably sophisticated world capital for its size. I had a gyro sandwich. This is a big deal in Switzerland where the food choices vary from bratwurst to sausage and everything in between. They also have the national dish of chicken curry. (This is true.) Actually, the resort town of Interlaken where I am writing this is according to one tour participant's guidebook "a mecca for Indians and Arabs who seek relief from the monsoon." I would have thought that the Arab's might think Mecca was the only "mecca", but you can't fight with guidebooks. At any rate, we saw a number of Indian and Middle Eastern families enjoying the cold and wet weather which is a relief from the very hot weather dry monsoon ("monsoon" means SEASON; so there are wet and dry monsoons). Readers of the guidebook would be very confused trying to understand why someone would try to escape rain by going to rainy weather. But I digress.
Today's wet excursion was via the the high speed German ICE through agricultural lands bound for Berlin, but we went only as far as 1 hour away Bern. We walked in the rain through the rose garden to see an overview of this preserved city (neutrality has its virtues, kind of), saw the bear pit (!) where the animal for which Bern was named lives uncomfortably (something about someone saying they'll name the country for the first animal shot by the group. Good thing it wasn't a weasel.), walked under the wonderful shopping arcades, and visited a few churches after watching the 600 year old--never stopped--clock do a little mechanized silliness. Nice but cold day with an early return, although some opted for a narrow gauge train ride to a nearby town with a woodcarving center. Oh joy. I came back to the room instead and ate my Swiss chocolate bar.
Weather is supposed to be better for the last two days for trips up and down mountains. The Jungfrau, the highest point in Europe, is just out of town here.
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