Today, it was bye-bye to wonderful Lucerne and hello Interlaken! It was raining...drat it.... In our train, we met this jolly old man from Zurich who was on his 3-day trip around Switzerland. He spoke to us in his halting English and took several photographs of us with his cellphone...haha...
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Interlaken , according to several friends who've been there, is a very outdoorsy kinda place. The view in Interlaken is incomparable, gazing at the Jungfrau mastiff from a distance with its icy peaks and a running stream cut right through the town. We saw nothing of that sort during our 2-night stay there, much to our disappointment. It was raining all the way, temperature was about 5-8 deg C and it was much too foggy to see anything. It was sad, cos i was looking forward to the stunning views in Bernese Oberland =(
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We checked in to the Chalet Oberland, within walking distance from Interlaken West train station. Our plan to visit Mystery Park was ruined when our receptionist in the hotel informed us that the place has shut down. I was getting hyped up about those Mayan temples, Egyptian Pyramids etc. and it all came crashing down. Fret not, we had a back up plan, to take a furnicular up Heimwehfluh near our hotel. We walked there in the drizzle only to find the furnicular has been closed due to bad weather. Bahhh.....
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We were left with nothing to do... anyway, we went to have lunch... i had Goulash Soup which was very soothing in the cold. Wen Lee and I discussed and decided that we should head to Bern , about an hour's journey away. We were slated to visit and stay in Bern on our last day, but our schedule for that last day was rather tight, and so we thought it may be a good idea to get some of our itenirary out of the way first.
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Once we were in Bern, we wandered around it's fairy-tale cobbled streets of its Old Town. Switzerland's capital is so proud of its medieval town centre, and it has been declared by UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Heritage Site.
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We spotted the Bundeshaus (Swiss Houses of Parliament) from afar. No one would miss this building built in an impressive Florentine style complete with a stained glass dome. Just nearby is a market on Barenplatz selling food and garments. This place is also dotted with cafe terraces.
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With the aid of a map, we managed to find the two places we were looking for just a street away from each other : Munster and Einstain Haus. Towering above the roofs of the old town is the huge Munster, an enormous church which took 150 years to complete. I stared in awe at the main portal , with its sculpture of the Last Judgement made so meticulously and detailed.
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As for Einstein Haus, it is a small museum which was the humble apartment where a young Albert Einstein lived with his family while he was working for CERN. I have always thought that Einstein was German, but from here i discovered that he renounced his citizenship and adopted a dual Swiss-American citizenship....hehe...yeah, i know...my general knowledge is pretty limited!
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The cold was getting to my bones plus it was getting late and we returned to Interlaken. We dined in the restaurant on the ground floor of our hotel. We had a Fondue Chinois meal, which came with a large plate of beef, assorted pickles, various dipping sauces, fries and a pot with a soup base. We wiped everything off our plates and almost died from overeating. After dinner, we were treated to live performances of traditional Swiss music which included yodelling, the Alphorn and a string quartet..
We went back to the hotel to rest. Speaking of the hotel, i love the heated floor in the bathroom and the three peaks on our hotel bedframe which symbolises the 3 famous mountains in the area : Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.
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