Switzerland Day 2: Part 2

Good evening from Bern. We had another glorious day. But first, let me respond to some of your comments:

Mike: Our hotel in Paris was the Hotel Royal Phare on Monte Piquett (not sure about the spelling of the street name.) It was a very simple, small room. But the bed was comfortable, and we had clean linens every day. There was even a small refrigerator and a hair dryer in the room, and we had our own bathroom. It was right near a metro stop (Ecole Militaire), a small grocery store, and Rue Cler was the next cross street. It was 76 euros per night, which was one of the best deals we found while searching for a place to stay in Paris. We would stay there again.

Julie: We'll bring you back some chocolate - it is soooo amazing here - rich and smooth. Yum! For everyone else, we are also going to try to bring back some chocolate because it is unbelievably good!

Mom and Dad - We will help you plan an itinerary that you will enjoy better than hot chocolate in front of the travel channel! Love you!

Kristin: We're still on the hunt for some hot chocolate - I'm guessing it's in the higher alps region, where it's colder. We head there tomorrow and will let you know what we find. :-)

Now back to our blog....
Eric's quote of the day "That was the best 3 swiss francs I've ever spent!"

This was his comment after we purchased fruit to feed the bears at the bear pit. We entertained a crowd of about 50 people while we fed fruit to the previously comatose bears. I was gesturing with my hand for the bear to sit up, which we had seen them do yesterday, and he put his hands in a begging gesture. The crowd awwwwed. So I threw the bear some fruit, and he did it again. Eric made some hand gesture and got his bear to lay on his back and grab his foot in a cute pose. We'll try to post a picture of that. (The reason we were the only ones with the fruit is because we had seen the tiny window yesterday. It looks closed, but if you ring a bell, the bear lady will sell you fruit. I tell ya, I think we need to bring one of those bears home with us!) Wonder how Julie and Josh would feel about cat sitting then?

From the bear pit, we went on another beautiful walk around the Aare river, this time on the other side of town. It was hot and we were really anxious to get to the part of the river where you float down (yes, even I was so hot that I was willing to take the risk of going over the dam.) So we made it back to our room to change, and by the time we got to the part of the river we needed to get to, rain clouds had come in, and it was on the coolish side.

But this didn't stop Eric, and he braved the freezing cold water, 4 different times and had a blast. I made it as far as waist deep, and then thought, "The heck with this! If I can't feel my legs, how will I ever get out before the dam?" I know, definitely not as adventurous as my husband, but I still had fun!

And now for the culinary highlight of our trip, we just got back from the best meal we've had so far on our trip. Eric found an Italian restaurant, off the main drag, where many, many locals were eating. The food was so unbelievably good - we cleaned our plates! We both had pizza, but it was unlike any pizza we've had before. The crust was very thin and light, the sauce was light, all of the ingredients were light, so it didn't make us feel too full. Now you know how adventurous Eric is with food, and his pizza was no exception - mussles, prawns, squid, cheese and sauce. Mine had pears and gorgonzola. Delicious! It was called Rialto, incase anyone is headed to Bern.

So tomorrow we head to the Berner Oberland, which is the Alps region, to the town of Lauterbrunnen. In a much earlier posting, I put the website for the hotel we are staying at. It looks like such fun. The rain has come in tonight, so we're a little worried about the weather in the Alps and if we'll be able to hike or not. I'm sure it will be an adventure one way or another!

I will end now so that Eric can post his thoughts. :-)