Leaving Thun

Following so much anticipation leading up to the motorcycle ride and then having such a great time riding the Swiss mountains, it was a bit stange getting up with no where to ride.

The next few days were spent hanging out, looking around Thun, and traveling to Zürich where we fly home on Thursday night.

Monday we went for a cruise on the Lake of Thun (Thunersee) which takes a couple of hours to get from Thun to Interlaken where we jumped off, spent an hour wandering around and having lunch at a nice little cafe before jumping on the paddle steamer for the return trip to Thun.

Interlaken

And back on this beautifully restored paddle steamer

And on the way back we just cruised with the big paddles slapping the water, and the peaceful sounds of a stream engine. It was nice just to sit, play Jassen (a Swiss card game), and watch the world glide by.

And to farewell Thun we went out for dinner and sat by this beautiful river, chatted about our week in the mountains, laughed about langauge misunderstandings, and planned new adventures with our great friends from this beautiful country.

On Tuesday it was time to say goodbye to Thun. I’m going to miss having breakfast to this view!

But we couldn’t go before testing a Harley with Alain to see whether it would help my tough guy look.

I may need to work on that.

In Bern we checked out some of the older areas and the Federal parliament. What was surprising – while Switzerland may have started in the early 1200’s it wasn’t until the mid 1800’s that all 26 Cantons (States) were federated.

View out the back of the Federal Parliament.

I couldn’t imagine our parliament having a fruit market pitched out the front.

It was also interesting that next to parliament was a number of the major Swiss banks. I wonder if there is any symbolism in that.??

A couple of other photos around Bern.

This clock has looked like this since 1770 which incorporated the astronomical clock and musical mechanism from 1527-30

Where Toblerone started – the shape based on the Matterhorn mountain.

Downtown Bern with its very eclectic range of shops and goods for sale.

Then onto Zürich where it was great to catch up with Allan and Birthe (another couple from last years ride in the US) and we enjoyed a great night of stories and laughter over a traditional Swiss dinner of fondue chinoise – which is where you cook your own meat in a hot broth at the table and then use a range of condiments and other sides.