Day 5: Feel the Bern

 

We woke up and had breakfast and prepared to go down to Switzerland. Here, we would see the Alps, valleys, and waterfalls. Not what I expected, but still cool to see.

Before going into Switzerland, we visited Le Linge, a World War I memorial site. This is where we got to see dug-out trenches that the French and German armies used during the war. You could tell which was which because the Germans had time to prepare and put cement in while the French just dug it out. It was a little somber, but it was cool to see. There was also a museum that Mom and I looked at, but we were kicked out because we didn't pay for it.

Pretty soon, we passed into Switzerland. As we approached Bern, we stopped to see the temple, which was the first LDS temple built outside of the United States when it opened in 1955.

Shortly after, we arrived at the Swiss capitol of Bern. It was like a fortress with a big moat around it and several old buildings. There was even a den where they kept bears, which so happens to be the Bern region's official animal. There were several old statues, a clock tower, and other large buildings that were so intriguing. Even though the girls wanted to shop after we had lunch at McDonald's (which is slightly different from its American counterparts), Dad and I wanted to further look around. We found a casino and a government building.

Dad and I looked inside of an old church. Unlike the other ones we've seen on the trip, this one was not a working one. It was missing a lot of holy elements and it had a gift shop inside of it.

So it turns out that they have drinkable water coming from their fountains. I ended up drinking it. Surprisingly, this was unfiltered water from the Swiss Alps. Even more surprisingly, it was the best water I've tasted. We all went to fill up our drinks as much as we could, just to taste this wondrous glacier water.

After our time in Bern was up, we went riding into the Alps. Since Mom and I had won a trivia game that they played on the bus, we got to sit up front and see it all as we went in. The Alps were impressive, rugged yet beautiful. According to what we were told, it's actually one of the younger mountain ranges in the world, which is why it's so rough around the edges. We went to this town called Lauterbrunnen, which is set against a towering waterfall.

Upon our arrival to our hotel, we were given a drink made out of Elder Flower. Although it tasted awful, we still drank it because it is Swiss tradition to get those as a welcoming gift. As we settled into the hotel (which was devoid of technology), we looked at dinner options. We eventually went down to a pub and got food, even though everything was so pricey. They use francs instead of euros in Switzerland because they're not in the European Union, and they put high prices on everything. After dinner, we went walking to see what the town had to offer. Mom and I went into a cemetery to see what the oldest dates we could find were. I was expecting graves dating back to the Medieval era, but unfortunately, the earliest we could find were from the late 1800s. We did find a memorial for all of the people who died doing Alpine sports in the region, which was interesting. It said where they were from and how they died, and many were not from Switzerland but simple vacationers like ourselves. After some more walking time, we returned to the hotel and got settled for the night.