A Well Kept Man

My cousin Joel and I are the same age (well, within a year anyway...but we grew up together and manage to cross paths a few times a year so we always try to make interesting stories), which makes for fun times as we are pretty much at the same place in life (except for the whole being married thing, otherwise, two peas in a pod). Our first day together was spent heading up to the village of Grandson to see a castle. Inside the castle were various period artifacts such as armor, weapons, furniture, stag's heads, tapestries, and other chateau stuff that seems to blur in my mind now as I've been in so many of them I've lost count. The castle did however have some unique treasures in the basement...classic cars (classic, old, same difference). The was an Austin Limousine belonging to Sir Winston Churchill, a 1906 Ford Type N, and even a car once owned by Greta Garbo (I guess she was some kind of a movie star or something according to Wikipedia). The castle wasn't the most exciting tourist attraction in the world, but that didn't prevent us from having a great time. After the castle we stopped for lunch to have the European equivalent of a burrito...Doner Kebab (truly one of the top food stuffs I've encountered on this adventure).

We followed this exciting day up with a trip to Berne, the capital of Switzerland. We spent some time looking for a Jack Wolfskin store as my cousin likes to have exclusive fashionable items that aren't sold in the US (something about striving for individuality...). Anyway, we explored Berne from the train station up to the hill overlooking the city. We stopped in the humongous Münster of Berne (the large Gothic church with a 100m tall tower) and climbed up to the top (254 steps) where we were treated to a sudden fear of falling, as well as the church bells (the largest bell in all of Switzerland is in the tower, thankfully when the noon o'clock bells went off, this one didn't as my ears would probably still be ringing. The bell weighed something like 20,000 pounds, but even the smaller bells were well into the 10,000 pound range and required us to cover our ears).

After the church, we decided to try a local beer (remember, I haven't found Swiss beer I enjoy yet) and surprisingly enough we found something drinkable at the Altes TramDepot (even though we didn't have seconds, I mean...how much beer are you supposed to drink before 1 pm anyway?). We checked out the lone, last resident of the bear pit (his name was Pedro, unfortunately Pedro is no longer a resident of the pit as he died about a week after we left...RIP Pedro), and made our way back to the apartment for Joel's last evening in Switzerland before he was off to his next adventure in France and Spain. It was nice to have Joel visit, although in the future if anyone desires to visit us wherever we may be living, please schedule your departing flights for later than 12 pm if possible as 7 am flights are no fun for the host...