Long walks - Beautiful sites

 We woke up at our regular 5:30 am, despite the major time shift, and went out for a long walk by a little after 8 am.  The first walk involved going to different phone stores to research what kind of a plan we need for our phones so we can contact each other as well as other people if needed!  Switzerland still has pay phones, and it turns out they are larger than our kitchen!

Darrell finds the phone booth roomy and delightful!

Next stop took us to where Darrell's office will be.  I forgot to take a picture of the office (not too exciting from the outside) but right by it is the dominant grocery store "Migros" with all sorts of people outside putting their items into the recycling.

Recycling bins have foot-pedals to open the lids and the containers are underground.

We continued on across the River Aare to the north side of town where Darrell's upcoming meeting will be.  Then wandered back to the big bend in the river that surrounds the old part of Bern.  Bern was founded in 1191 with its strategic location on a peninsula.  The view below only shows the river on the right but it actually is flowing from the left of the picture to the front and then away on the right side.

The other picture is Darrell at the Rose Garden where the viewpoint is located.

Old Bern from Viewpoint at Rose Garden

Darrell at Rose Garden

We had been walking almost five hours by the time we got home so we ended up taking a nap...

By 5 pm we were ready to follow a trail we had found on the Bern City website.  http://www.bern.ch/weiche_en

Thank goodness most websites here have German, French, Italian and English translations!

We got nice views of the alps - far off to the south of us and impressively high and snow/glacier-covered, but I didn't get a good picture as they were still far away...  but here are some other nice Bern images to leave you with!

With croissants this size, we can hike all day and still gain weight!

We are lucky to have beautiful blooms all around.

Classic Swiss house with window boxes and lots of greenery.