Bern Archives - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

It was an easy day in Bern and we woke up late just so that we could get more rest.

Preparations were usual and morning breakfast was included on the ground floor. The variety was almost similar to the previous day hotel, made me wonder if it was a common thing not to have too much during breakfast.

Our itinerary today was to visit Einstein house and also Einstein museum, to fulfill a little educational bit for the trip. Einstein house was situated 2mins walk from the Zytglogge stop and costed 10CHF for each adult. There was actually just one floor which was his residence while in Bern, the other floor was a history of his life – work and love life. Quite informative.

Our next stop was Einstein museum which was at Helvetiaplaz, just across the bridge. Before we visited the museum, tried feeding baby K at the Bistro Steinhalles but he was interested. Bought the tickets for the museum for 18 CHF per adult. Bags weren’t allowed and had to be stored in the boxes with locks provided.

View of Bern from the bridge en route to museum.

Here was just one floor dedicated to the man for discovered Theory of Relativity. We saw the same story from the Einstein house being retold here as well. On top of that, there were many other related stuff, such as about Jews, about WWII, about Theory of Relativity. It was much bigger here and would be better if time permitted but that was what we didn’t have. Left after an hour.

Picked up our luggage from the luggage room and milk from the fridge before bidding good bye to the accommodation and drive towards Lucern, our next stop. Instead taking the much shorter route, we tried taking the route that our Contiki tour bus took 10years ago as we wanted to take the photo with the same view we did last time. The only difference was that we were driving in the opposite direction and of course, the other obvious one was presence of baby K. The only problem was we weren’t sure where we took that picture.

The longer route took us to Interlaken, a picturesque town between two lakes. There we had not seen the scenery that we wanted and so I took a detour towards Lauterbrunnen. Halfway through and still we haven’t seen it so we took a Uturn and got back on the highway. As we were about to leave the 2 beautiful lakes, I took another detour to nice little town of Brienz to get some photos of the beautiful lake.

Interlaken lake en route towards Lucerne.

Snow capped mountains in the background.

Left disappointed that we didn’t get back the scenery, we hit the road again, climbing up the mountain through the wavy roads. After passing through and going downhill, the view of Lungern came into sight and that was when I knew we found it. Got off the car and reconfirmed it and had our camera trigger-happy moment. Some other tourists offered their help to get our family picture and it was taken pretty close to the one that we had 10years ago. Maybe we would return in another decade to this viewpoint on A8.

Another hour and we arrived in Lucern. Had to negotiate the madness of crowds and cars to locate the Pickwick hotel. It was only when we arrived that we know there wasn’t any private carpark. I had 2 options, park in the public garage and pay the charges or park in the public open carpark and get the 5CHF ticket that would allow me to leave it till the next 11am. I wasn’t confident of getting one but I managed luckily as I was about to head to the garages.

The hotel had a pub on the first floor and the reception was in fact in the pub itself. Had to make a few trips as the staff was pretty busy manning the pub which was getting busy. I was also getting worried as I had parked at the space behind the church which was never meant for parking. Once I got the accommodation settled and the wife and by then, cranky baby up to the room, I left to get to the parking.

Upon returning from the lucky finding of available parking at the public lot 2mins walk from the hotel, I found baby K to be in foul mood. Without waiting too much longer, I brought him out for a walk along the Lucern lake, where our room was facing and he immediately became better.

The clear weather and the setting sun provided the most beautiful of setting for the area. Walked around to snap a few photos, and enjoying the company of my baby.

After exploring the streets behind the hotel, where many Chinese tourists were seen, I knew it was to be the street of shops specializing in Swiss luxury watches. The rest of the other shops other than the restaurants were closed, exactly at 7pm.

Went back to the room, enjoyed a little bit of the balcony view of the Lucern lake and bridge before heading out with the wife to walk as she hadn’t gone out with us. Baby K fell asleep in the Ergobaby and we finally enjoyed the stroll without the stress of dealing with baby K crankiness.

After the stroll around including to the Zytglogge of Lucern, we went to the hotel pub for dinner, saving us some costs. Baby K was attracting some attention from both the staff and the customers for being the youngest and most adorable person in the pub. The staff also didn’t miss the opportunity of carrying our baby, giving me some time to munch on my fries. Dinner was finished eventually and back to the hotel room, baby activities started. Already getting used to this.

Tomorrow would be the final day of activity in Switzerland before we head back to hot Singapore. Enjoying it while it last.

I woke up as the alarm sounded at 7 but went back to sleep when the other 2 didn’t wake. Everyone was feeling the tiredness so we allowed ourselves more sleep.

Finally awaken about an hour later, prepared and went for breakfast. The breakfast variety was about the same as the previous one, nothing much. There wasn’t much guests eating either, supposed it was due to the renovation.

Before leaving the hotel, I feedback to the hotel staff (whom might be the owner) about not getting the room with the Matterhorn view although we paid for it and she returned to say that because there were 3 of us, and that the Swiss law dictated a larger room for that many people, and triple rooms had no Matterhorn view. Unfortunately, during booking we didn’t fill in the extra baby and I couldn’t argue further, lesson well learnt.

Going back was the same way as we came, via the shuttle train. By the time we reached Tasch, it was already 11am. Paid 15.50 CHF for 1 day parking and drove to Gruyere.

I took slightly more than 2 hours to get there. It was a difficult journey as baby K was extremely cranky and crying a lot. Wife was also tired and frustrated. By the time we arrived at the carpark, it was pure relief.

The little village was supposedly medieval and it still had that look. We went over to Le Chalet du Gruyères to have lunch. I ordered the cheese fondue as Gruyères was famous for its cheese. It was indeed really delicious, much better than the one we had in Geneva.

After lunch, we went to the Chateau de Gruyere and paid 10CHF each to enter. This was a much smaller one than the one at Montreux so we finished exploring much faster. It had better looking rooms though. There was audio guide available and it would probably be more interesting with the history information told thru the audio guide but we didn’t had time.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Huge carpet hanging above a bed.

It was another hour to Bern and it was a pretty easy drive. Entering the city was faster than the previous cities I had been to and arriving at Marthahaus, which was In a much smaller street, there weren’t any traffic to be aware of. Furthermore, having reserved a parking slot (10CHF) just across the street, luggage was easy to handle.

This hotel offered very simple room so I supposed what you pay was what you get. Nothing much to complain nor anything to brag about too.

After resting for a while, we went to Viktoriaplatz to take the tram no. 9 to Zytglogge, where there was a huge clock and the old town to explore.

It was just 2 stops away and 5mins journey. Once off, we could see the clock a few meters away. Continued to move east and we could see the Munster Cathedral. Same same but different, the intricate cravings on top of the doorway was really attractive.

Walked in the opposite direction, we could see the Parliament building. Although a tour was available though at earlier timings. The area behind the main building had a panorama of the other side of the city.

Early dinner was our next objective since all the shops had closed at 7pm. We had nothing else to do but to head to Luce, a pretty popular dinning option on Tripadvisor.

This Italian cuisine restaurant was crowded by the time we arrived. I ordered some chicken and wife got some better tasting pasta.

We didn’t take too long to finish the meal as it was nearing the dreadful 8pm where baby K will get very cranky as he wanted to sleep.

Baby activities and bathing was a challenge as the shower was much smaller than the one in Montreux. Thereafter, baby slept and it was bottle cleaning time and unpacking of haversack from the Zermatt trip. Lights off after.

Switzerland 2015 Day 13 – Einstein and Lucerne

Switzerland 2015 Day 12 – Gruyere and Bern