Bären in Bern!

Yes, my friends,  you are seeing right: Baby Bears (2) with their sleeping mother.  Oh, and some bear poo.  

Supposedly, the man who founded Bern (back in 1191) went and killed a bear in the woods just beforehand, and thought it a fitting name for his new ville.  A pit - the Bärengraben - was built just outside of town (now, it's quite central, directly across the river Aare from the old part with city hall, the big church, Einstein's house, etc) where bears were kept in situations not exactly sympathetic to the bears' personal needs.  As of a few years ago, this has been taken out of use, and a terraced piece of land on the bank of the river has been turned into the new Bear Park; it's not the biggest piece of land, but more than your average bear gets in a zoo.  There's also a passageway to the old bear pit, if they decide they'd like to amble back in.

At the beginning of this year, the bears had these babies, and the he-bear had to be separated from the rest to keep him from eating the cubs.  In his enclosure, practically every sapling tree has been broken in half, or uprooted; seems he's got some destructive urges, so it's probably for the best.  If I were to anthropomorphize, and, why not, I'd say he missed his mate; on the glass wall between the two areas, there are many dirty paw-marks.

Here's a nice view of Bern from somewhere above the city.  If you follow the higher of the two bridges in the foreground across the river from the center of town, then walk to your right and down to the river, you'd be looking at these bears.  The river, like the town, is very beautiful; it is turquoise, and quite clear, and it veritably sparkles as it rushes past.  It's almost too perfect to be real.

Photos (taken from the Bärengraben) not doing it justice.  Suffice it to say, beautiful, quaint, delightful.  My friend Eva and I decided that although we were glad we lived in Basel, we certainly wouldn't mind living in Bern.  

Wandering back across the smaller bridge, we made our way down cobblestone streets, between old houses and buildings, along the river, then up a path -

- to get back to the center of town, where we planned to tackle the longest covered shopping promenade in Europe, the Arcaden.  We both got a little hung up at a used book shop, books here are so different from the books I'm used to.  They seem to be simultaneously made with higher production values, and lower quality materials.  Or, the mass-produced books look like someone decided it was OK for them to be a little nicer than average.

Two examples.  And, of course I didn't take this next photo to discuss the crappy binding method used, but maybe you'll notice anyway.  Or, maybe you won't.

And why would you, really.

Before our exploration of the City of Bern, Eva and I had a nice little walk through the hills outside of Bern, although it was too rainy to catch a glimpse of the majestic mountains we had come with specific hopes of seeing.  At the top of the Wanderweg (hiking path), there was a lookout tower, and even though I'm afraid of heights (surprised?) I braved it for a chance at the view.  Mostly rainy.  But you could see that the weather was starting to break, and light hit upon some snow-covered peaks in the not-so-far distance.  My next pleasure trip should be into those peaks.  

And, I just tried to make this panorama shot in photoshop, but either a photo was missing, or the computer did it wrong.  Well, it's basically the same, and it's kind of funny to see this false landscape.  Enjoy.