Wichtrach

What a lovely city. Situated on bluffs above the Aare river, Bern is Switzerland's capital. It's less than 200,000 people, but seems much larger because of tourists and the fact that most people use public transportation. We had 2 perfect weather days and booked a new, trendy hotel high up on a hill with great views of the city and Alpine peaks from the rooftop terrace. We walked around the city a lot and there was a family bike riding event going on. There were bike riding demos, stages, and blocked off streets kind of like Ride The Drive in Madison.

We opted to rent a car to see the village where Deanne's Funkhouser clan came from. It was my first electric car, and I loved it. The best part was not having to find a station and then pay for expensive gas ($8+ a gallon?) We had plenty of range to visit an Emmentaler cheese factory.

What we call Swiss cheese is Emmentaler, from the valley (Tal) of Emmen. At the adjacent restaurant, we went full Swiss and ordered fondue and raclette, which is cheese and bread and cheese and potatoes. Oh, they included some pickles with my raclette. Kidding aside, it was delicious but not something we can eat often since it was so rich. Outside our windows, we could see the cows grazing as the bells around their neck created a steady chime.

The Funkhousers came from nearby Strub and Fankhous. So, not only is Deanne a cheesehead, she's a Swiss cheesehead. Fankhous itself had about 9 houses and was along a stream that was bone dry when we visited. It's an absolutely gorgeous area though. From there we just drove around the area admiring the wonderful houses with blooming red flowers in the window boxes.

We meandered up to a ski village called Sorenberg. There were hikes from here, but we didn't have time. So we drove back to Bern to drop off the car and have some wine from our hotel rooftop. In Europe, breakfast is included in most hotels, and unlike American hotel breakfasts, these layouts are pretty impressive. Uusally, there are high-end cappuccino machines making a variety of coffee drinks at the press of a button. There's lots of fruit, muesli, yoghurts, cheeses, sliced meats, eggs, etc.

It was a short but sweet visit, but a couple days was probably enough, especially since the Bernese Oberland was waiting. We plan to spend 4 nights there to zip among alpine peaks on trains, cogwheel trains, buses, and cable cars, and to get some hiking in. The forecast calls for rain for 3 of the days, but we bring the sun.

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