Exploring Bern and Zurich

Today we explored Bern and Zurich, and tried the Swiss food raclette for the first time.

We started our day with breakfast and coffee at our hotel, and then hit the road to Bern. At Bern we walked through the old town, marveling at the architecture and the painted murals. This was the prettiest city we visited in Switzerland, with water surrounding the old town, and countless hills built upon with medieval architecture. We tried roasted chestnuts by the massive clock tower in the center of town(they were delicious!) and then we walked behind their parliament building for panoramic views of the surrounding area. Bern is actually the capital of Switzerland despite being much smaller than Zurich! They had life size chess boards behind the parliament building, so Henry and Chris got a chess game in as well.

After enjoying the views, we checked out Bern’s beautiful cathedral, and then hiked up to the rose garden above the city for more panoramic views.

Next we headed to Zurich, which was a much larger city. We parked near the old town, then walked in to explore. Our first stop was an all you can eat raclette restaurant, where we were able to try so many types of raclette cheese. Raclette is a cheese renowned for its melting qualities, and the melted cheese is scraped onto potatoes or bread and served with pickles and onions. We enjoyed it, but having just cheese and potatoes for dinner was a bit of cheese overload!

After dinner we walked the streets of Zurich’s old town, and checked out their cathedral, town hall, and the massive clock face on St. Peter’s Church(which is the biggest in Europe).Read more