Lake District

We are staying in a lovely huge apartment in Bern with 5 generous flatmates but it does not seem cramped.

Away in the big black van for more adventures we went and drove to the border with France to see an engineering milling feat which was well received by my 3. From a warm sunny day outside the temp dropped to maybe 10 degrees: 30 metres into the belly of the earth. We learnt that the medieval Swiss ate 850gms of bread a day and not much else 😵

Then we peered over the edge of Swiss Grand Canyon - very deep Ruinaulta and marveled at the stone walls.

Friday night saw us boarding an impossibly cramped train full of Friborg ice hockey fanatics as we sardined to the big stadium for some violence on ice. The drums, dancing and chanting were loud but intoxicating and we joined in as best we could wishing we could transport such a crowd for the upcoming NRL final.

We begged respite for Sunday and lazily slept in. Then went to view the city of Bern, but didn't get far past an Irish Pub where we sessioned with 3 x Brisbanites and ruminated about where to watch the Broncos win on Sunday, sports bars all with afternoon opens. The publican was approached and said he would open early if we had 20 people. A very lame attempt was made to collar Swiss passes by with no success and we accepted our destiny of watching on Eric's ipad and made our unsteady way home up very steep hills 😅.

If we didn't think it possible to eat more cheese we were wrong with on our arrival home a 'Raclette' party was in swing. The last round was Schnapps-covered and very nice but I could only watch having pulled out of the serving way earlier and had to lay on the couch to stop the cheese and gherkins coming out my ears.

In a cheese fog we slept fitfully interrupted by stomach rumblings, visions of running Broncs and thoughts of packing for the long flight home.Read more