So now that the threat of thunderstorms has passed, it’s time for heat warnings for the next week. Temperatures are expected to soar into the 90’s and possibly even hit 100 in parts of Switzerland.

Today we visited Bern, the capitol of the Swiss Cantons. The train ride was really nice. You travel along the shore of Lake Thun the majority of the way and have great views of the lake and surrounding mountains. The trip only took about an hour and was an easy journey.

Once there, we headed for the old town. It was just a short walk down to the Zytglogge or clock tower. The tower was built in the 1200’s and was part of the city’s western fortifications. The famous clock was added in the 1400’s. It features an astronomical calendar clock and an animated mechanism that chimes on the hour with moving bears, lions, a bell ringing jester and Chronos, who flips his hourglass at the hour change.

Bern clock tower

Astronomical clock and animated mechanism

Next, we headed over to the Einstein Museum. They have a wonderful exhibit that takes you through his life and times. Lots of interesting photos, documents and even film clips of his life and accomplishments. It was fun seeing some of the items that were patented while he worked in the patent office.

What do you mean the Bills have no chance?

The even had an illustration of his theory of relativity in layman’s terms. As I understood it, the speed of light is constant, but you can drink cool Rosé faster on a hot day. I may have to read through it again for clarity.

Theory of Relativity explained with bouncing balls.

After the museum, we made our way over to the Bear Park. As the official mascot of Switzerland, bears can be found everywhere – not real ones, of course. However in Bern, there is a special place along the river that was built for them. On this day, there are three bears present. Berna was sent away to Bulgaria to shack up with a boy bear after clashing with her mother. Kids!!

Bear butt

Many things to see as you walk through the town. There are quite a few fountains, the riverfront and the casino as you walk, plus the sidewalks are covered most of the way, so even on the hot days you can always find a little shade.

Bern had been celebrating the return of Formula-E racing on Friday and Saturday, so today they were cleaning up. With that going on all around, we decided to head to Thun so we could take a boat ride back to Interlaken. When we checked on the boat schedule, we found that we had missed the last one for the day.

On such a nice day, a boat ride would have been perfect. No sense crying over spilled milk though. We just caught a train back to Interlaken instead.

Many restaurants were closed since it was Sunday, so we checked with the restaurant from the night before and we were able to get a reservation. It had been so warm in Bern that we both needed to cool off with a nice shower before getting ready for dinner.

We sat outside and really enjoyed the beautiful evening. Just a light breeze as the sun was beginning to set behind the mountains.

Tonight’s meal was equally as good as yesterday’s. We started with an order of spinach dumplings that I was nice enough to share with Sue. Then we both had the Veal with mushrooms in a light gravy, along with Rosti and grilled vegetables. The customary bottle of wine presented itself in the form of a red blend called “Lune Noir”.

After dinner, a nice stroll back to the hotel completed our time in Interlaken. Tomorrow we are off to Lauterbrunnen.