Bern and Interlaken

Breakfast at the hotel was mostly light fare, breads, cheeses, yoghurt, cereals, juice and a wonderful espresso machine. Loading the motor coach at 9:00, we are off to Interlaken by way of Switzerland's capital, Bern. With only about an hour en route we arrived at the Barengraben, bear pits located where the river Aar makes its hairpin turn forming the picturesque peninsula the makes Bern so recognizable. We were a bit early meeting our guide so took a few minutes to enjoy watching the bears, three huge, cute creatures emblematic of the city. We found out they were momma, papa and baby. While I dislike seeing wild animals in captivity I have to say these bears have it pretty good they have a large expansive area in which to wander and forage and access to a moat which is fed by the adjacent cold and rushing river.

Meeting our tour guide, Denise, we reboarded the coach for a short ride to the rose garden where we started our tour. From here you got a really nice overview of the old city, originally established in 1191 by the Duke of Zahringen the protect the river Aare. While Denise explained the history of the city we also took in the beauty of the rose garden which helped the city win this year's award for most beautiful city in Switzerland .

Note the John Deere tractor!

Group shot with our tour guide

After an informative city tour we all headed out to lunch in the old town. Found a sunny outdoor spot at a small restaurant which we took over. Of course we had to try the local beer as we enjoyed lunch and waited to see the mechanical man atop the clock tower strike the hour on a huge bell with his sledge hammer. Unfortunately the tour had ended a little past noon so the whole performance was a little anti climactic.

Part of the crew enjoying lunch and a beer in Bern

Back on the coach we headed off to Interlaken, the city between two lakes, Thun and Brienzer. It is more of a small town than a city but has a lot of activity going on. Arriving at the Hotel Carlton Europe we were greet with a welcome drink of sweet tea as the hotel manager, Pascal introduced us to the hotel and its amenities. It's basically two hotels side by side and some of us were assigned rooms in each of the buildings. Again, being a boutique hotel all the rooms were a bit different from one another but everyone seemed happy with their rooms and the hotel staff could not have been nicer.

Nice room but Evelyn was upset at the "cow rugs"

Room was spacious with jacuzzi

 Across from the hotel a short distance was the Harterbahn, a long funicular which took us up one of the adjacent mountains to an observation deck and restaurant about 3000 feet above the town where we had a spectacular view of the two lakes and the town nestled between them. A light rain had started as we arrived at the top but we still had a few minutes out on the observation deck to enjoy the view before retiring to the restaurant for a little refreshment.

View from Harter Kulm observation deck

Looking the other direction toward Lake Thun

With this crew someone is always "horsing around", er, with a cow?

It's five o'clock somewhere!

After returning to the hotel we had some much needed down time before dinner, which was served in a private room at the hotel. Salad, potato leek soup, a delicious pork dish with Roesti (Swiss potato specialty), Ratatouille and for dessert Apple cream with a sweet cookie. Later most of us congregated near reception for a night cap and just enjoyed each other's company.