Day 13 : Bern

On Sunday 17 July 2011 we were tired after a very late night with the wedding reception.  It was my dad’s birthday and we started the day by making a phone call to South Africa.

Sonja (My sister in law’s friend with who we were staying) was leaving for a camp.  She was busy packing and getting ready.  She was very nice to let us stay in her apartment while she went camping.  She left at about 10:30 and after she left we made coffee and breakfast. 

It was raining outside and we decided it was a good day to visit a few museums.  We put on our rain jackets and walked to the tram.  After the tram ride to the station we walked to the Bern History Museum.  We could take a tram to the museum but we like walking in the old town and seeing all the old buildings.  On the way we saw another view of the Bundeshaus.  It was still raining and we were wet when we got there. 
In front of the museum is the Welttelegrafen-Denkmal fountain.  This telegraph memorial was built in 1922.  In the middle is a female figure with the words “Human’s souls are concentrated here”
At the Bern History Museum we could enter for free with our Swiss pass (The entrance fee for the museum is CHF 13 and for Einstein museum CHF18).  We walked through different exhibitions showing Bern from the Middle ages to the 20th century.
We saw the mayoral throne and paintings of people from Switzerland and Bern’s Silver treasure.
We also saw the original sandstone sculptures from the Bern cathedral’s portals and some of the original fountains.  We saw the Last Judgement portal at the cathedral but I did not realize the size of these sculptures until we stood next to them.  I then understood how big the Last Judgement portal really is.

The Foolish Virgins

The Apostals
Christ
 Also part of the history museum is the Einstein museum.  We walked through the museum.  It is interesting but there is a lot of information to read.  We decided not to read everyting and walked through.
Justice Fountain
It was about 14:30 when we left and walked to the Natural History Museum of Bern. Once again entry was free with a Swiss pass (Fee CHF 8). It was very busy with people and children.  We walked around for about 30 minutes looking at exhibitions of different stuffed animals (deer, bears, birds, fossils, etc) and then decided to leave.  I think we would have enjoyed it more if we had more energy and with less people and children running around.

At about 15:00 we started walking back.  We stopped at Migros to buy food and went back to Sonja’s apartment.
Location: Berne, Switzerland

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