We parked at the Park & Ride outside of Bern which charged less than the parkades in town and gave us a free ride to and from the train station. We arrived at the huge train station, picked up a map of the area and set off on a walking tour. All the walking tours we do are self-guided which is a good thing because otherwise we would be chasing after the tour group all the time. Rick Steves has tons of tours in his book and many of the bigger towns have maps with routes that you can pick up at the TI. Bern has 16 very colourful fountains that were built in the 16^th century to brighten up the town. All of the buildings are built from gray-green stone that is quarried nearby. In the early days of Bern, a fire destroyed most of the city and ever since then, a law was passed that requires every building to be made from stone and not wood – very practical but not aesthetically appealing.

The Parliament Buildings were quite neat and in front of them are 26 squirt fountains, one for each canton. They spray at different times and different heights which makes it quite popular with the kids in the summer. We saw lots of adults leaping in between them for pictures, and as Anoop was about to suggest I do the same, all of the fountains shot up full size and full force; he was glad he hadn't suggested it after all! Unfortunately all of the tours of the parliament buildings were full for the day so we weren’t able to go inside.

We walked out on to a bridge which gave us a great view over the river. In the summer, the locals walk upstream and float down it to the riverside pools. Unfortunately it was a bit chilly the day we were there so we didn’t get to see anyone and Anoop decided it was too cold to give it a go himself (although he had brought his towel and swimsuit in to town).

The main street in Bern is lined with expensive shops selling all sorts of things, but mostly clothing. You can walk through the street or under the arcades which are huge covered walkways. If you walk in the street, you can see the cellars which used to be used for storing potatoes & coal, and later wine (the French invaded in 1798 and drank it all…). Nowadays they are used as shops which were quite neat to peer into even though most were closed up for the day.

We continued down to Nydegg Bridge where we got a great view over the rooftops on one side and the original Lindt chocolate factory on the other side. We crossed over to reach Bear Park. The bear is the symbol of Bern and for some reason, the city keeps some along the river side for locals and tourists to view. They used to be kept in big pits, but the B.L.M. (Bear Liberation Movement) finally forced the government to build them a proper space. In 2009 the last of the pit bears died and they acquired two new bears who later had cubs (featured on many a postcard). We wandered along and watched them play for a bit before heading back to the van to head out.

We camped in a little town called Sugiez, about ½ hour outside of Bern and once again in a French speaking area. It was quite nice to be able to register for camping and not have to ask if they spoke English!