Both of the temples in Germany are closed for renovations, so we have been temporarily assigned to the Bern, Switzerland temple. Our ward had our first temple trip there last week, and we were able to go. I was excited to see this temple because it's the same model as the one in New Zealand, but it didn't really feel familiar. I mean, the New Zealand temple is up on top of this huge hill, so it's presence is a bit more grand ;)
We had a great turnout from the youth. I love our youth!
After the temple our family went downtown to explore Bern. It seemed like a very quiet city, and not a ton of people, but this may have to do with the fact that it was a gray and cold day, and pretty much EVERYTHING shut down by 5 o'clock.
Our first stop was the Parliament building.
The building is made of sandstone that has a grey, but slightly greenish hue to it. All of the buildings downtown are made of the same sandstone, and I heard that they are required by law to do that, in order to maintain architectural harmony.
Behind the Parliament building there was this giant chess set. My kids love chess and probably would have been content to just stay here and play, but I wanted to see other things.
There was also a great view of the city back there.
In front of the Parliament building is the Swiss National Bank. It was undergoing some kind of work, so I didn't get a great picture.
This bank manages the official gold reserves of Switzerland, which are valued at over 30 billion dollars. Supposedly, underneath this plaza, are huge vaults that store most of the gold. We didn't go digging for it though.
Next we walked over to the Zytglogge-Turm, Bern’s famous clock tower. It was built in 1530.
Straight down from the clock tower is one of the main streets in Bern, Kramgasse. It is a VERY long street with lots of shopping. You can't drive on this street without a special permit, so it's mostly just pedestrians. Watch out for the trams though! They don't seem to be too concerned about the pedestrians.
On this same street, Albert Einstein lived in #49 for a couple of years, and it was here that he wrote his Annus Mirabilis papers, which basically created the foundation of modern physics and changed the worlds views on space, time, mass, and energy....no big deal ;) Their is an Einstein Museum here too, but we didn't get around to that.
At the end of this street we crossed the river and got a glimpse of the original Lindt Chocolate factory (1879)
We wanted to go across the river to see the Bärengraben, or Bear Pit, where there are supposed to be actual bears. The bear is the symbol of the city (bären is bear in German), and you can see statues of bears throughout the city.
Anyway, bears have been kept in Bern since 1857. Their hibernation is pretty much over for the winter, but apparently they still don't come outside very often until it really starts warming up. So we didn't actually see any bears. The have an adjacent pit to the bear pit that has pictures and more statues of bears, but it was kind of disappointing, especially after walking so far to see them. Not to mention the fact that by the time we got there we were all pretty much over Bern because
someone was throwing a huge fit over not having souvenir money, and we were all embarrassed and mad.
So we crossed back over the river to head back to the car. I had really wanted to see the cathedral, but it closed at 5, and we got there at about 10 after 5, having had to deal with a tantrum for about 20-30 minutes. Grrrrr. Here's a shot of the cathedral in the distance, from across the river.
Getting closer.
And here it is.
Overall, I would say that we weren't that gaga over Bern, and OH MY HECK was it ever expensive! Lunch was expensive. Chocolate was expensive. Souvenirs were expensive. Parking was expensive.
The one bright spot in this adventure for us (other than the temple) was where we stayed for the night. We found this almost 200 year old farmhouse on airbnb, out in the quiet countryside. We LOVED it.
It is a working farm, with a few cows, run by a cute, old couple. They said that they started renting out the bottom floor because the farm itself is just not profitable. We could hear the bells on the cows all day and night (not loud or annoying), but we didn't actually see them - they were in the barn, which is attached to the back of the house. I didn't get pictures of it, but there was this GIANT teeter-totter in the yard that the little kids loved. The lady went out their and showed them how to maneuver it and get on and off. She was very patient and kind. All of the old farm houses in this area had a distinct look, very unique, and they were huge.
We would love to go back and just spend some time here, and more time in the Alps. Oh yes, did I mention we drove out to the Swiss Alps? We didn't stay to hike around, we were just too tuckered out from the day before and wanted to get home, but we did drive around a little and took some pictures. Unfortunately it was still grey and cloudy, but it was still beautiful.
