Switzerland

Bern
Housing: Bern International Youth Hostel
Swiss cheese, swiss chocolate, swiss alps, swiss children.
Bern's the capital of Switzerland, but a very odd city indeed. There were almost no cars, and very few people walking around. There was one post office, and a few stores. That's about it.

Day 8: Albert Einstein Haus (Einstein's house), Bear Pit (Bern means Bear!), Spatzli mit Gemus @ Altes Tramdepot for dinner, Aare River, Colin Fink.
There's a pit in the center of the city with two bears in it! "Because Bern means Bear, apparently."
Rayna is a (Swiss) cheese head!
Pictures can hardly do the city justice. It's absolutely gorgeous. There's the Aare River flowing through.

Interlaken and the Grindelwald

The most amazing day of our lives....
Day 9: Train to the Grindelwald, Gondola up to Bort, Trottibike down the mountain, Jungfrou Peak (highest mountain peak in Europe - 11,300 ft), being Heidi, Edelweiss, Swiss cows, picnic on the swiss mountain, swiss army knives, dinner along the Brienz lake on our "private terrace."
We love when breakfast is included at the hostel. The cereal and the yogurt was delicious (I think this is due to the quality of the milk. Good milk comes from happy (swiss) cows afterall), but I don't know how you can eat Swiss cheese at 7 am everyday.
Switzerland - View from the train ride up to Grindelwald.
Our gondola ride up the swiss alps to Bort.
Our lunch picnic on top of the Swiss Alps included swiss bread, swiss paprika chips, swiss beer and wine too. Since we hadn't purchased our swiss army knives yet we had a little trouble opening our beer. Luckily, Rayna has extensive experience opening bottles on glass sliding doors and other strange objects. There just happened to be a random stake in the ground on the side of the mountain.....
Who gets to nap on the swiss alps?!
Me on a trottibike. The trottibike is sort of like a scooter with brakes. You just hop on and start zooming down the mountain at dangerously fast speeds. SO MUCH FUN.
Stopping for a shot with the cows. Cool Factoid #3: Swiss farmers are paid by the government to take their cows up to the alps each summer. Each one wears a bell worth over 1000 Swiss francs, so all you can hear when you're on the mountain is the sound of cow bells. Mm, flying down a mountain, the wind blowing through your hair, the sound of cow bells in the distance....sigh.
The translucent colors and the free engraving eventually won me over, but what am I going to do with a swiss army knife?