This morning we left the Lucerne area and drove through some more Switzerland landscape. The land again began to change. On both sides of the road, we passed small fields of wheat. Most of it had already been harvested. The corn were very tall, but still standing. Also, the southern slops were covered with vineyards.
Our first stop was at Stans which is the home of the Stanserhorn. The Stanserhorn reaches up 6,227 feet. We decided not to go up to the Stanserhorn because it cost extra, plus, we needed to go shopping for some necessities. Also, the group took a train ride up the mountain.
Once our shopping was done, we decided to go tour the Cappuccin Monastery. The Cappuccin’s came about when there was a split with the Franciscans. They felt that the Franciscans were to extravagant and so they build their own monastery. However, after seeing the inside, we decided that there was very little differences to Franciscan Monastery. When you look at the buildings from the outside, the Cappuccin Monastery looks simpler, but open the door and I believe, the opposite is true (personal opinion). What I loved about the Cappuccin Monastery was that instead of using only white marble, they had used black. The effect was stunning!
After leaving Stans, we drove for about another 2 hours until we reached Bern, the capital of Switzerland. Bern derived its name from Baern (bears). Apparently, at one time they had lots of bears. Well, today, they only have a small pit with a couple of bears in it. But, the day was blistering hot and so only one bear felt like coming out of the cave.
Here, one of our tour members took a nasty fall and had to be taken to the hospital. The Swiss ambulance was there in know time and picked here up. What happened was that she, Dianne, fell as she was walking towards the bear pit. Thankfully, she and her husband Paul were able to catch up with us later. The doctors thought she might have cracked a few ribs but felt she would be all right. We were all very thankful for that!
While Nancy and Paul went off to the hospital, the rest of us drove to the city center. Bern is a charming town full of arcaded shops, carved fountains, and towers. The bus dropped us off in towns main square right in front of the Bundes Platz (House of Parliament). The building was undergoing renovations and restoration and so we couldn’t get inside.
Just down the street from the Bundes Platz stands the tallest church in Europe, Munster Platz. I won’t bore you any further by reiterating all that I’ve said about the previous churches. All I will say is WOW. OK, I’ll add one little bit. This church had beautiful stain glass windows and a magnificent marble statue of Christ and Mary after Jesus was crucified.
Bern had many other beautiful sights to see. I think that one could just walk and walk for days and just look at this beautiful city. It’s amazing how well kept and neat everything was.
Another thing we noticed was that there were no police to be seen. Yet, people would park their bicycles beside the stores/road and wouldn’t bother to chain them up. Cars were left open, etc. But, who knows, maybe the famous Swiss Guards were watching!
