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Walking around in Bern -- the capital of Switzerland if you didn't know...

Today we got up late and missed our complimentary breakfast which kind of sucked. I spent most of the afternoon finishing my expense papers and using the hotel’s free highspeed Internet. After that we went to the city center and did some cite seeing. Our first stop was to the famous Bern BEAR pits…but we didn’t see any bears! They must have been sleeping or something. So that was a disappointment. We then went to this famous park in Bern but the park was closed and it led us to a real shady part of the city. I was actually a little freaked out when walking through some of the not so well lit streets…but I guess it was ok cause Peter and I were walking together. We found our way back to the city center and then ate dinner. It was pretty relaxing and the atmosphere in Bern was quite relaxed. We then went back to the hotel and did some work and that pretty much was the day. Tomorrow should be more exciting though, as we are heading to Sion (this may not be so exciting) but we’re gonna stop off at Montreux on the way and visit the Chateau de Chillon (old castle) and view the beautiful scenery there by the lakeside.

Funny store display

Parliment Building1

Main Church

Bear Pit

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City View

Parliment Building

hotel room 2

hotel room 1

Driving to Bern

So today we drove to Bern, the capital city of Switzerland. As always the drive there provided great scenic views which were again phenomenal. Anyways much to my surprise the hotel we booked to stay at was VERY nice. According to Best Western’s website it’s a 3-star hotel and by Swiss standards it’s a real bargain even for 3-stars – but trust me this is no 3-star hotel! It has a real nice homey atmosphere with hardwood floors, nice comfy beds, and a nice patio. After hanging out at the hotel for a bit we headed over to the city center. I forgot my camera in the car – so sorry no pictures today. Bern is actually a pretty nice city with lots and lots of clock towers. There were a lot of McDonald’s here (almost as many as in Milan). The city itself is quite nice and has a lot of nice water monuments spread throughout it. We decided to refer to our Lonely Planet guide to find a restaurant to eat at but that led us to some not so great places so we just picked a restaurant and ate there and it turned out to be a good choice! After that we walked around and again referred to our guide book for places to go out at night. Unfortunately there’s not much to do in Bern on a Sunday night so we gave up and headed back to the hotel. I spent the rest of the day filling out my expense reports and using the highspeed internet in the hotel lobby to catch up with some of my friends. Overall it was a very relaxing day and we’ll be here for another night. Sorry I don’t have anything else “interesting’ to talk about hahahaha.

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my car pic -- stop off 

stop off 1 

The natural beauty of Switzerland

Today we drove to Interlaken which is a small tourist city at the heart of the Jungfrau mountain region. The drive there was spectacular and also a little scary cause we were driving pretty high up some times. Anyways I stopped this time to take a few nice pictures on the way cause I was once again driving – very nice scenery I must say. When we got to Interlaken I was actually kinda surprised that the city was completely surrounded by huge mountains on both sides (I didn’t think there would be that many!), but that made for some really nice scenery. Besides taking some really awesome pictures of the scenery I also entertained myself today by doing my laundry hahaha. Honestly though the scenery was indescribable and I wish I had more time to go on one of the train rides to the highest point on the mountains (which is actually the highest train stop in Europe) but alas once again I do not have time. Trains leave early in the morning and many of these trips can last upto 8 hours. Other than that the day was pretty good – it’s already 12 here so I might head to the Casino for a bit. Anyways I head for the capital of Switzerland – Bern tomorrow.

Originally uploaded by anandhello.

Originally uploaded by anandhello.

Originally uploaded by anandhello.

Originally uploaded by anandhello.

Originally uploaded by anandhello.

Originally uploaded by anandhello.

Originally uploaded by anandhello.

What a crazy day!

Today was a day full of surprises and much stress at times! First off, Windows 2000 on my laptop decided to die, which freaked me out cause our GPS software was on it…which we DESPERATELY need. Peter and I scrambled trying to figure out the problem and ended up spending a fair bit of money accessing the internet here at this VERY expensive hotel. We then had another problem – we needed to make boot disks for my computer. We went for a drive and of course got lost but eventually found a computer store and bought what we needed. It was interesting how we found this place though. We were driving on some street and I decided to stop the car and ask for directions. I went into like a little office and walked in on someone’s meeting (by accident!) and asked them where a computer store was. They told me across the street – so I was very excited! We walked across the street into a grocery store which confused me but after speaking to some people there was apparently a computer store in the basement so we were in luck. Anyways we were lucky enough to come across signs leading us back to the hotel so we got back fine and got my computer working.
One thing I don’t think I’ve mentioned so far is HOW NICE people here are. Everyone stops on the road to give other’s way, people are always smiling, and everyone seems to be always willing to help. Kind of unreal actually of how nice people here are!
Anyways after sorting out all the problems we were having (I also had to make some changes to our future hotel bookings which was a huge headache) we headed to downtown Zurich, with the aid of my beloved GPS of course! It was very nice walking through the streets of Zurich actually -- I’m surprised more tourists don’t visit here. The scenery was very nice and there were quite a few very nice buildings. We stopped off at the Odeon Café, which is supposedly pretty famous, for some desserts and they were very good! Just to give you an idea of how crazy the food prices here are though: we went in a McDonald’s and their BigMac combo was like 13 Swiss Francs – so I expect that we might go a little over budget on our eating here! Anyways we decided to go to a unique place for dinner and headed over to Pizza Hut hahahaha. It had actually an interesting menu which had quite a few differences in it from Canada. The pizza was also less greasy than the Pizza Hut in Canada, which to some people is a good thing. After that we headed back and did some work, which took a long time actually. Overall though I really liked Zurich and hopefully I’ll be able to visit back here one day again. Once again I didn’t find time to visit the city at night which is too bad!We’re heading to Interlaken tomorrow which is supposed to have phenomenal scenery of the Jungfrau mountain region, which is a good location for our work as well.

By the way --> I've uploaded my Milan pics (see below) and will upload Zurich ones soon!

Inside the hotel!

Sheraton Hotel