TO BERN, SWITZERLAND

6/5

drizzle again but parental run together along the foot/bike paths to centreville, then 10BX by the van joined by the kids - what a sight for the curious Euro retirees - this Aussie family leaping and squatting and push/sit-upping and burpeeing on their floor mat!  

A day to leave Strasbourg and head towards Switzerland, with heavy hearts leaving Strasbourg and France.

Took the scenic drive along the Route des Vines Alsace, an incredibly quaint wander south through a dozen or so villages between which are endless vineyards, hills topped with castles, many of the villages hosting markets.  

The pride in these towns is incredible, everything painted fresh, the gardens all trim and bulging with flowers, the streets clean, even all the people are well dressed - we dare not get out and spoil the view!  Stopped at a jam store on the main road, little man with his stall of 50+ jams, all the produce coming from the garden out the back, bought 2 bottles, passed through Kayserberg (favourite of Glen and Steve’s who sold us Eddie) but didn’t stop because the aire was full and by now we were keen to cross the border and check out Switzerland.

In Colmar we drove about looking for Lady LIberty (1/4 size replica of the Statue of Liberty, this is where the famous one’s sculptor was from) but couldn’t find her and the TomTom has just spat the dummy.

On to the border post where we were met by a German-Swiss guard, highly efficient, purchased motorway pass for Sfr 40 for 12/12, and rolled on through onto the magnificent roads, tunnels everywhere and found a roadside stop along the highway, traffic mostly trucks streaming through and stopping, toileting, the amazing thing was how clean the all stainless steel facilities were despite the high traffic - a sign of things to come in Switzerland.

Wil and Jen bike ride along concreted paths through surrounding canola fields while Jeff and Kel tell fairy stories and colour in together and then after a light dinner we settle in to try to sleep in the endless traffic noise - bad move stopping here. 

7/5

Away early to escape the traffic noise and headed into Bern via a servo where filled and bought a map to cover the loss of TomTom.  The servo was like a plush lounge room, the prices to match!

Managed to find our way quite well a la map into a nice carpark in the centre of this gorgeous city - capital of Switzerland.  

From there we wandered through the old UNESCO listed town centre, just missed the Zydeglogge (old clock) performance by 1 minute (souped up cuckoo clock in the old prison tower at 4 min to the hour all sorts of figurines prance about) and then meandered down the main, street mostly covered, arcade like, very plush shopping in a medieval cobbled setting, something like watch shop, knife shop, dress shop, tourist crap shop, another watch shop, more knives, some dresses, fancy camping store (designer camping apparel only), look more knives, Rolex, Tag...........

Passed the house in the main street where Einstein lived and hatched most of his Theory of Relativity but it was closed due to water damage, then down over the bridge spanning the glorious River Aarle, and torrent of aqua coloured snow melt/glacial milk apparently fit to drink, over to the bear pits which since Jeff’s last visit with Bug and Grumps in 1990 have been significantly improved so that now the bears enjoy a large hillside by the river with their own swimming pool and a spanking view of the city (not just the walls and goggling tourists peering over).

bear pit

River Aarle

Failed effort to remedy the Tom Tom, emails at McDonalds, then drove out to a campsite on the map, Aarle riverside, close to the centre, unbelievably well maintained with toilets/showers all gleaming stainless steel, not a sign of the business for which the building was made - how do they do it?!  They must be cleaning around the clock, which would explain the cost - Switzerland aint cheap.

After lunch and some maths we hit the bikes at the riverside track into town, clear sunny day now, rode through the public pool by the river where the Swiss were sunning themselves, 1 chap enjoying a glorious outdoor shower starkers for all to see, utterly uninhibited.  Into the town with it’s glorious palace and casino on the hill, a bronze sculpture in a garden of a young man sitting on the ground, naked, with an oversized appendage, as opposed to almost every other male sculpture we’ve seen in Europe.  Funnily enough the appendage was quite shiny!  

Amused we pedaled on past the gushing weir thing, over a bridge, past the bears again and back home on the other side.

Kids rode and skated endlessly, curried sausage stir-fry for dinner, met our neighbours, lovely couple Jaques and Simone from Quebec, shared notes and hit the sack for an extended reading session. 

  

8/5

Sunny day, again!  Olds had a beautiful run along river Aarle, punched out a 10BX (no kids this time), did school and then rode the bikes into town to visit the Einstein museum.

Fantastic display depicting his whole life from birth to non practicing Jews in Germany, his early childhood (spoke late, didn’t mix well with other kids, on the Spectrum?), primary school where he was bored and started reading advanced physics, young adulthood and his loves and inability to stay faithful, his 1st marriage which ended after his seemingly highly chauvinistic set of conditions/demands were not met, his courageous opposition to war, his Swiss life and development of the Theory of Relativity, (which was depicted for dummies in a series of cartoons, which left us oldies dummies as before), his refugee move to the US, then his alleged urging of the US Govt to develop an atom bomb as he believed the Germans were doing it, then after Hiroshima/Nagasaki he was blamed by many who said his E=MC2 produced the bomb, which he said he had nothing to do with, and in fact the US had not involved him at all in the “Manhattan Project” as he was considered politically risky - the CIA kept a close watch on him, and then he died of a AAA which he had refused treatment for.   What a man, what a life, Time’s Man of the 20th Century.

Pedaled home via a riverside zoo where in the free section we saw lynx, pelicans, Ibex, nice ice cream, flamingoes!!

Light dinner, the kids shared a movie, adults a wine with Jacques and Simone and lots of information, and more reading!