Swiss tourist 1: Fribourg and Bern

Hi everyone!
My first weekend trip of Swiss travelling is officially done, and I can add two beautiful cities to my "been there" checklist.
First up was Fribourg on Saturday. Being only 45 minutes by train from Lausanne, we got there around 9:30 in the morning. It was, unfortunately, raining. BUT, what does one do when it's raining and there is a massive shopping mall right across from the station? One goes shopping of course!! :D Not too much was bought in our approximate hour inside, but the weather did lighten marginally when we went back outside. We wandered a little aimlessly around to get our bearings a little, and then decided to have an early lunch since the weather was not ideal.

We ended up at a very nice Italian gelateria and restaurant in the walking street running through the town centre. Food was great and ice cream better so we were pretty pleased at the end of it.

Our main plan for Fribourg, however, was to play the infamous "CITY GOLF". My boyfriend is very big on golf, and when I found this I thought we might have a bit of a laugh while seeing the city. It turned out to be a lot of fun, starting off with a map, two balls, and a club to share and going "hole-hunting" through the city. 18 in total, the holes were placed all around, some in small secluded parks hidden in the steep ridges below the city, some on playgrounds that lay along the river in the valley. The weather got progressively better, and ended up as sunshine towards the evening. The whole round took about 4 hours, and we got to see the city from all sides, including bridges, the cathedral, the convent (we were apparently walking the same route as a large group of nuns-on-tour, they looked at us a little suspiciously when we played our hole diligently right outside a smaller church where there also happened to be a wedding going on), the river, sheep... It really turned out to be a great day, and we really got a feel of the city although it was quiet.

 

 

So that was Fribourg, we left at about 17:30 and headed north to Bern.
It was actually only 15 minutes on the train to Bern, so our first excursion didn't take us that far from Lausanne. Bern was quite busy on the Saturday evening, and there was a nice buzz to the city when we arrived. Our hotel was really only a couple of hundred meters from the train station, and it was easy to find. We checked in an relaxed for a half hour (we had played an 18-hole golf course... sort of...). We went out pretty fast though, as we were getting hungry. We were really in the old-town part of the city, and the streets were small with lowrise buildings. I was surprised to find the city so "old-fashioned"-- I had expected the capital of Switzerland to be bigger and more busy??

We strolled around for a bit looking for places to eat,  and as we had differing food-wishes this took a while. We finally settled on what you could call a Swiss "pub"-- we ate schnitzel and spoke German to the Swiss-German speaking waitress, were largely confused at what she was saying, and generally enjoyed our meal. We were done with dinner quite late, and after a long day it was nice to go straight to sleep.

In the morning we had breakfast (included in our hotel deal), and headed out to the national history museum. We had booked tickets to see the exhibition "Qin"-- with a group of real teracotta warriors from China that is touring and is in Bern this summer. The exhibition was actually really interesting, even for me who really has no concept of the ancient Chinese emperors. Coming out I felt like I had really learnt something at least about the life of the "first emperor", but I guess I'm still in doubt as to how 8000 stone warriors buried in the ground would help him in the afterlife... but what do I know? It really made me want to go see the site of the excavation in China in real life!

The rest of the day we spent exploring the old town- it's on a sort of peninsula defined by the river that runs past the city. Bern has a brown-BEAR park... as in real BEARS :D They were really cute, and their green area by the river was really nice so I wasn't too angry they were there. I was told I could not take one home, and that I really only wanted to hug it because it looked small from where we were standing. I chose to ignore this reasoning and still want a bear. It wasn't just in the park there were bears though, they are the symbol of the city, and various statues all around the city portray them. We saw the house where Einstein lived for two years, we saw the old clock-tower, we saw the cathedral. We had lunch outside (it was really nice weather!) at another Italian restaurant (one can't deny the influence of the Italian cuisine in Swiss food culture... it's everywhere!). We saw the rose garden (not really blooming but nice anyway). We left around 17 after feeling like we had seen the sights (at least the ones recommended to us via the iphone app for tourism in Bern...). I really loved Bern-- it was a cosy town and really quiet, and beautifully perched above the river. The only thing not to like is that this is where my june exams will be sent to be marked.

 

 

 

So that's Bern for you :) It's really worth a visit I think.
Next up is Schaffhausen, Zurich, and Lucerne! Enjoying my Swiss experience while I can!
xx Therese