Bern!

On Sunday, Scott and I had a whole day to explore the Swiss capital, Bern.  It is quite a beautiful city. Most of the center of Bern is located on a peninsula that juts out into a bend in the Aare River.  

Part of exploration of Bern involved going to the Bern Historical Museum.  Here, we learned the history of Bern throughout the ages.  According to local legend, the city's name is derived from the German word for bear (bar) because when people first came to settle this area, they hunted and captured a bear.  Therefore the land was deemed suitable for habitation.  The city still uses a bear as sort of a mascot, even having a live bear located in a park near the river. Today, there are no remaining wild bears in Switzerland.  Because of my bearphobia, I was pretty grateful for this while hiking.  Although, it's a little sad for nature in general.

The Old City of Bern was built during medieval times and is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We really enjoyed walking up and down the old cobblestone streets and enjoying the architecture.

The highlight of Old Town is the Zytglogge, a clock tower that has existed since the 13th Century.  On the hour, the little men on it move and the bells mark the hour.

Overall, we had a great day learning about history in the capital of Switzerland!