I had been to Bern, Switzerland once before with my parents, and even though the weather was pretty cold and dreary, we still enjoyed ourselves. So I knew I wanted to go back with Jeremy. As I’ve mentioned before, Switzerland is extremely expensive, so it’s been kind of a struggle doing everything we want to do, without feeling like we are breaking the bank. I didn’t realize when booking our trip just how pricey everything would be, including public transportation, so I figured we’d spend three nights in Zurich, then three nights in a smaller town to experience something else. We also got such a well-priced apartment in Zurich that I still didn’t realize, even after buying the plane tickets. Once we left Zurich and got to our Airbnb in Wunnewil, we kind of stayed put. We knew we wanted to go into Bern, but after being at the train stop and using the machines to buy tickets, we saw that it would $40 round trip for us to go into the city, and it was already the afternoon. We decided to stay back so Jeremy could rest his knee, and I went on a run. The next day, we made it out of the apartment slightly earlier (we have trouble getting out of our temporary residences early for some reason), and headed to Bern, the capital of Switzerland.
Beautiful Bern.
No visit to Bern is complete without visiting Zytglogge, the town’s main clock, at the hour to see the little show the moving figures put on.
The astronomical clock was built in 1530. The king on his throne waves his scepter in one hand and turns an hourglass for each hour in the other.
Bern has some really great fountains.
Where Einstein lived from 1903 to 1905. I took a tour of the apartment with my parents a few years back, but skipped it this time around.
Jeremy doing his best Einstein impression outside his house.
We hiked up to the Rosengarten to get a really nice view of the town below.
Those rooftops kill me. I love them.
View of the Alps from Rosengarten.
Another main attraction is the Barengraben, or Bear Pit. Bears are the symbol of Bern (and its literal translation), and bears have historically been placed in a concrete pit in the city center. Thankfully, the city opened up BarenPark in 2009, a much larger piece of land that includes some of the River Aar for the bears to play in. You can see the BarenPark in the left of this photo.
Even though they have more room to roam now, I still couldn’t help but feel bad that these huge, majestic creatures were in captivity. But I feel that way whenever I’m at a zoo, too.
I much preferred this statue of a bear I could ride.
How to disembark from a bear statue with perfect form.
Of course Jeremy and I had to have a picnic, so we picked this nice square near the Parliament building (these public squares that people sit on are so incredibly clean, it’s very impressive).
Picked up a can of Prosecco at the market… Jealous, Lis?
Blusecco advertisement.
Jeremy getting our picnic ready.
After our picnic, we walked around some more, stumbling across this square with the coolest church in it I’ve ever seen.
The crazy detail of the church. Too bad the sun was hiding half of it.
Jeremy admiring the church’s details. There was haunting organ music coming from inside…
This guy was on the ledge of the church when you looked up.
Another pretty church.
I really like seeing people play huge games of chess.
Self portrait.
The beautiful opera house and theater.
Historical Museum of Bern.
Everywhere you turn, there are nice views.
I would not mind if that was my backyard.
I would also not mind if someone bought me a huge slab of chocolate.
One last look at the clock tower.
This was actually in Zurich, but I forgot to include it. I looked at a vending machine to see if I could afford anything (I couldn’t), and saw that above the cannabis drink there was a pregnancy test (the MaybeBaby pocket), and this was outside the Zurich Zoo:
Lily Runs the World 
Reblogged this on hooksamui.
I don’t think I’d ever want to leave Bern. Every picture you posted here from there looks absolutely gorgeous 🙂 the fountains and churches and views just seem absolutely breath-taking, and that clock is awesome. The things you can buy from that vending machine are crazy haha…definitelt interesting to check those out in foreign countries 😉
I didn’t want to leave! It’s a beautiful place.
So gorgeous! I love the clock tower 🙂
Me too! We ended up seeing the clock chime on the hour three times, we couldn’t say away!
I love all of your photos! Could you guys be any cuter??? PS – I feel sad for the bears too. I miss your guts!
I miss you too!! I wish you guys would come and hang out!
Thanks for sharing more beautiful photos! I visited Bern in college many years ago and it’s nice to see it hasn’t changed that much.
I was glad to see it hadn’t changed either!
So beautiful! I loved Switzerland when I visited. I really want to make it back someday!
It’s such a beautiful country 🙂
Bern looks so pretty! I want to visit!
You should! It’s really nice.
Stunning city! I’m just about to move to Bern and your pics prove again that this is just a fantastic city! Hope you had fun there!
How exciting! I’m sure you will love living there, it’s such a beautiful city!