City Slickers

We woke up to rain today but not the downpour we had anticipated.  Instead, we had fantastic moody skies, showers and a brisk wind.

Knowing that the weather might not cooperate, we decided to spend the better part of our day in Bern, Switzerland's capital city.  Having been to Bern a few times before, I knew that many of the sidewalks are covered with long arcades making hem perfect for walking in the rain.  Situated on a 'peninsula' formed by a bend in the Aare River, Switzerland's capital city has several unique features - the long arcades are one, it's 11 colorful fountains are another and several bears (the city's emblem) in a pen at one end of the city are another (Bern is derived from 'bear' in German).

The main 'square' (actually an extra wide street formed when one of the old city walls was torn down) was filled with a lively market where Noah particularly enjoyed listening to a very good busker singing Bob Marley sings.

We walked past Switzerland's Parliment Buildings ...

... The National Bank ...

... And through a square under which half of Switzerlans's gold reserves are stored (the other half is in Zurich).  Meanwhile, the clouds came and went, threatening rain one moment and sunny the next.  During one of the sunnier periods, we stopped in a small park to feed Catherine while Noah played.

Finally, we made our way to the end of the 'peninsula' and crossed the bend in the river to see the bears in the bear pits.  Actually, the bears have recently been moved from the 'pits' (they really were pits - just concrete holes in the ground) to newer and snazzier accommodations along the banks of the river.

On our way back to the parking lot Noah kept talking about the bears and how they were 'waydonthere', as I had told him to look 'way down there' when trying to point them out to him.  He was also keen to keep pointing out that one of the bears was digging when we saw them.

We thought the parking garage was particularly interesting as they had built it around the old city wall.

On the way home we weren't sure what Noah had enjoyed most during the day - the bears, the escalator (in the train station) or the tunnels we passed through to get to Bern and back.

Once we were back to the apartment there was time for playing before dinner and then a bath in the kitchen sink (the doctor advised not to get his liquid bandage wet for 2 weeks, so his usual shower when we travel wasn't an option) before bed.