4. Old Swiss Architecture; Castles; Alpine Towers… Almost too perfect to be believed. 8/31/22

We began the day in Thun – leaving our rather sweet hotel that was unfortunately in a rather unlikely location—by walking the town; about 11,000 steps and the equivalent of about 10 floors. 

Thun is a delightful town of 40,000 people, predominantly German-speaking with a small population speaking Italian and also Romansch. Less than 1% of households speak French as their home language. Thus, walking around Thun (and actually around Bern where we are ow) you hear almost no French; just German (which is hard for us since we know no German, but everyone speaks English). 

We strolled the old town, crisscrossing the rivers on footbridges and bridges shared by cars, bikes, and pedestrians. We walked the little island between the rivers which was filled with shops, carts, cafes and people. We meandered our way up the wooden stairs that lead to the castle (equal to about 7 flights in each direction) to get great views of the city and to see both the 11th Century church and the 14th Century castle – both in exceptionally good condition. I managed to nearly get locked inside the church as the only door open for exiting was extremely heavy and had an intricate locking system, which apparently had closed behind me. I tried several different ways to open the door but nothing worked. I realized there was a list of instructions on the back of the door explaining how to unlock the door, but it was only in German and way too complicated for my less than elementary German. My solution was to phone Mike and see if he was close by; he laughed but did open the door from the outside.

Eventually we took the elevator down so that we didn’t have to make this into an all-day affair. As we descended on the elevator to the street level of the old town (7 floors below where the church and castle stood) we walked through a well-lit garage with piped in classical music. The car area, like all of Switzerland was immaculate, bright white walls, and freshly painted parking stalls done in red. As we walked underground from the parking area to the old city the music continued and the walls kept changing colors – a sophisticated light, changing show making all the white walls turn first to green and then blue and then purple and then red and then orange!).. Like walking through a light show.

The stroll around town was amazing. Every inch of space surrounding the river was taken up by street musicians, restaurants, shops, and more. As we crossed the two narrow rivers that run through the town we realized that people were swimming and “surfing” (near the locks which create waves), paddling, and just having fun in these rivers that abut buildings. We even spotted two women swimming with their dog. The river is so clean you can see bottom. These water activities make the city so alive and vibrant. And the swimmers were joined by ducks and swans who also seemed to really enjoy the river as well (and certainly entertained all the kids). We chose to have lunch at a little restaurant adjacent to the river to be able to watch all the different activities going on… After strolling some more, we headed to the car to get to Bern. We left Thun at about 4:00 to head for Bern, our next destination.

The drive through the Swiss countryside (we opted for no highways and no toll roads) was amazing with the cute and charming quotient going off the top. Tiny, narrow roads skirting the edges of tiny villages No fences around farms; everyone on bikes; lush, lush green and occasional corn growing in perfect rows. Great old farmhouses and residences made of wood, with red tile roofs (although many now sported solar panels).

We arrived in Bern at about 5, and are staying at the Bellevue Palace Hotel—the state’s guesthouse for visiting heads of state (like us?)  We settled into our gigantic room and eventually headed downstairs for drinks on the terrace. And then we walked to “moment” with a lower case ‘m’ – a restaurant we had read about. The walk was about ½-mile in each direction through arcaded streets filled with mostly an under-30 crowd, so we fit right in. It was a beautiful night, so it seemed like all of Bern was out having drinks and dinner… truly blocks and blocks lined on both sides with small restaurants. Don’t know how anyone chooses which place to eat at. ‘moment’ did not disappoint. The place was very very casual (as is all of the country). We started out outside … but moved inside halfway through the meal as it started to get a little chilly. Not sure I can recall all the details of each course… especially after some prosecco and a few glasses of wine… but I recall a few things: each dish was fantastic and used some surprising combinations of ingredients. Here goes: 

Started with a set of about five little plates which they called the bread course.. great homemade bread with all sorts of tidbits like homemade “potato chips” with an herb dip; a curd with herb spread, celery and apple juice shot, and more; small piece of trout with yummy veggies and a bed of cooked greens; flat iron steak (sliced) –cooked perfectly, sous vide and quickly seared with polenta and a mustard sauce of some kind and roasted zucchini cut the long way; a tomato dish which melted in your mouth and included a tomato sherbet; and finally a dessert with berries and sorbet sitting on a sort of sweet muffin with cream – Anyway, it was a great meal and then we meandered back through the arcades to the hotel…  

Oh, and we are trying to follow the news… and hope to see Trump in jail by the time we return!!!

Tomorrow we explore Bern –

Fern