Gretchen and Bill Arrive

This is Bill and Gretchen writing in Brian and Pam's blog. We arrived here in Switzerland after a horrific flight from Boston. It probably wouldn't be fair to bore you with any of the details about our 3 hour delay in Boston until after midnight, or how we almost missed the flight entirely because they put us on a smaller plane, or how we finally ended up in the middle seats of the last row of the plane where the seat backs hardly reclined, or how a 300 pound behemoth of a man got the aisle seat next to me, or how the rows were so close together that the seat back in front almost hit you in the head when it came back, so I won't dwell on any of that. Suffice it to say, it was the worst flight experience we have ever had. No wonder we prostrated ourselves and kissed the ground when we finally got off the plane in Zurich. 

We groggily made our way to Brian and Pam's apartment and collapsed in a stupor on their beautiful balcony. The essence of life was slowly seeping back into our bodies, and life started to become really good again. Brian had thoughtfully scoured Bern to find some cheap American beer that he thought would please my plebian tastes (Miller Genuine Draft).  Thanks Brian...he doesn't realize that I can actually enjoy grownup beer. But then, Chef Brian redeemed himself by cooking up some awesome lamb chops with rosemary. The evening ended wonderfully, as Brian and I topped off the day with Cuban cigars (eat your hearts out!).  We then fell into bed awaiting the adventures of the next day.

Monday was Bern day. We started at Marzili Beach, across the street from Brian and Pam's apartment, where we dipped our feet into the swift currents of the Aare River. See video. We then rode up the funicular and took a walking tour of this beautiful city. It brought back some wonderful memories for Gretchen and me, as we had briefly stopped in Bern during our honeymoon. We recalled the first time we had seen the elaborate Zytglogge (clock tower) and the Bundesplatz overlooked by the Parliament building. Entering the majestic Munster, Bern's Gothic cathedral, we stood in awed silence as Gretchen and I recalled our first visit, when the music of Bach from the pipe organ reverberated throughout the sanctuary. That was one of our special memories from our honeymoon.  

The rest of our Bern visit was new to us. We took an interesting tour of the Einstein House, where Albert Einstein conceived his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905. We worked our way down to the Aare, where we saw one of Bern's brown bears in the Bear Pit. We then worked out way laboriously (speaking for Gretchen and me) up to the beautiful Rosengarten, overlooking the city, where we caught our breath and enjoyed a delicious lunch. After lunch, we took a leisurely walk back along the banks of the Aare. We ended the day relaxing again on Brian and Pam's balcony.  See slide show.