And then it was Monday! My final day in Switzerland on this quick trip was spent on the train and in beautiful, fairytale-esque places! I overslept, of course, and forgot my train ticket at the house, but not to worry! We still made it to the train and were able to get to all the places we wanted to go! First stop: BERN!
Bern is the capitol of Switzerland, and the word itself means "bear," so their flag has a bear on it, and the bear is a recurring theme throughout the city. Their capitol building's design is actually based on the US Capitol, so that was a neat thing to see! I'd been to Bern once before, but it was already dark, so it was nice to see it in the light! It's a very beautiful city on a river, and Alps can be seen in the distance. So nice! A funny thing was that there were giant chess sets everywhere. Apparently it's a big thing in Switzerland. People could be seen playing chess with life-sized pieces--it was really cool! Nick and Chris played a round and I watched and took pictures. =) We also made our way to a couple of shops and got souvenirs. A friend had asked me for hot cocoa (NOT Swiss Miss!), so I got a bag of the good stuff, and we were on our way! Next stop: THUN! (Pronounced like "toon.")
Thun is a beautiful, picturesque city that is everything you might think Switzerland should be--Alps in the background, a beautiful lake, a castle overlooking it all, little Swiss houses on the hillsides, etc., etc., etc. Also near Thun is Grandma Alice's hometown of Steffisburg, where she is now buried. Chris was very close to his grandmother (Grossmutter), and she and I had a great camaraderie between us every time I'd go visit. I had asked Chris before I left the States if he would take me to her grave so I could visit her again. So that's just what we did! He took me to her place, and she is quite privileged, as a matter of fact: she is buried in sight of her favorite mountain peak in the Alps! And she's resting beside her husband. The ground is still settling, so they haven't put her headstone in place yet, but hopefully I'll get to go again and see it when the stone is there.
Chris also told me an interesting fact while I was there. Being a ghost tour guide who leaves people in graveyards, I'm interested in these kinds of things. =) He said that the Swiss have such limited space, they can only rent a grave plot for 20 years, unless they actually purchase the plot permanently. So every 20 years, they dig up the coffins, burn the leftovers, and then they use it again! I'm still trying to decide what to think of that!
One to other exciting adventures... we got to explore a castle! It's A real castle that was built around 1200 yes, that's the year, not the time), and people actually still live on the castle grounds! It's simply called the Castle of Thun, and there are pictures to see! They're toward the end: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.789691240788.2164673.52700845&type=3&l=ee65b15414
Anyway, the castle was used for literally centuries, and one of the prison towers was still used as a prison up to the 1990s! Now it's a museum with several exhibits about rural life in Thun, as well as medieval armor and dress. There were also exhibits about their pottery. I thought it all looked strangely similar to the Hittite pottery we saw in Turkey... the reason is because the city was actually occupied by the Romans in the 50s BC... the designs and types of pottery had been passed down for centuries and made their way around to so many other countries! Pretty cool to be able to make connections like that!
After traipsing around the castle and exploring what looked to be a protestant church (quite different from the huge Cathedrals that are in so many places!), we went to a fancy place to eat supper and headed home to the Steinhauers'. The adults rode in Dan's car, while Chris, Nick and I rode the train, and we actually beat the car riders back to Basel! And we even had to wait 30 minutes for the next train, so they had a head start. Pretty efficient. =)
We got home and got to bed around 10:30 or 11, then Dan and I were up before 5 the next morning so we could pick up Allison's parents and head to the airport. It just so happened that they and I ended up leaving the same day.
I was missing my Swiss family before I even left the country, but I know I'll see them again. =)
So that was my adventure! Thanks for coming along with me. =) I leave for Poland on Thursday, so get geared up for more adventures!
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