Friday, July 27, 2007
Sunday 22nd July
In order to go on the motorways in Switzerland you need to purchase a toll sticker, which admittedly lasts all year but costs a shocking €60. After Dizzy (the sat nav) takes us to the wrong Strandweg in the capital of Bern and we drive through a roundabout instead of around it, well in our defence it was a strange design and we were unknowingly following the tram lines that went straight through it, we end up at the campsite next to the raging river Aare.
After pitching up we walk along said river, Max carrying his football and yes you guessed it, in goes the ball. Just to give you an idea of how fast the river was flowing, we were running alongside the ball and it quickly rushed out of sight. Max put on a good show jumping and screaming hysterically “My ball! My ball!” So much so that one man took pity on him and risking life and limb jumped in and rescued the ball, even though he was fully clothed. This ball saviour delivered the prize to Max. If he was expecting enthusiastic rejoicing from our eldest he was sorely disappointed as Max merely whispered a quick “Danke”, after prompting, and gave a quick smile. I on the other hand thanked him profusely; the man took it on the chin and walked away.
The following day we walked into Bern along the river Aare, needless to say Max did not take his ball. We did however take his scooter and it proved to be a great success. It took the boys’ minds off walking and despite our natural worry about cars and using people as skittles there were no near misses and all went well. Bern is a lovely city and we were surprised how quiet it was for a capital city on a Monday. The traffic, car and people, was light and it felt so relaxed and airy. The boys had fun spotting all the bears and the interesting fountains, a favourite being the child-eating ogre. Bern has had live bears in their bear pit since 1450 and so it was a must that we gave these a quick visit, the boys were thrilled to see two full grown brown bears.
On the walk back from Bern Jon remembered that the HR Giger museum was supposed to be in Switzerland so after a quick internet search we find out it is a 50 minute drive away so plan to go there the next day. For all those, like me, who have no idea who Giger is, he designed and built the Alien, the Alien craft and face huggers, for which he received an Oscar, on show at the museum. Much of the museum is based on the Alien character and there are drawings and life size models of it. There is also a rather wicked table and chair set made out of Alien forms and many other ‘interesting’ pictures and sculptures. Just across the way is the bar with the most groovy feel to it with spinal columns encasing the ceiling and skeleton chairs and tables that give the place an unworldly look. We were lucky that our boys didn’t find it scary or disturbing but mostly funny and the vaguely pornographic images seemed to go unnoticed (the really pornographic images were hidden behind a flimsy curtain but despite an irresistible peek from all 3 they didn’t seem to register what they were seeing.). The Giger museum is situated in the town of Gruyere and according to Jon the whole place had an overwhelming cheesy aroma. Still suffering from my cold I could not smell a thing. The town of Gruyere is small and pleasant, if somewhat touristy.
Wednesday 25th July
We head off back to Germany with Jon now suffering from the cold and of course he is dying! We camp in the black forest in a child-orientated campsite. A good idea as we have just spent an entire afternoon without seeing the boys. Relax, what is normally a point of consternation, turned out to be a good monitoring system as we could hear them all afternoon, however, they were far enough away for us to keep an ear on them without giving us a headache! We are currently sorely disappointed in the lack of black forest gateau in evidence! But rest assured we will continue our search even though we have just found out it originated in Switzerland, Doh!
