Abenteuer Vier: Murten

 Our first weekend excursion was a trip to Murten, a small medieval town near Neuchatel. Murten itself might have been founded in 1238, but the area has been occupied for around 6000 years. Having been built by the same family that developed Bern, Murten resembles a mini-Bern in a lot of ways. It's also pretty much bilingual, as it is situated right on the border between the French and German speaking areas.

Murten lies very near to the valley where the Swiss Eidgenossenschaft was signed.

So these three Sousaphones walk into a bar...

 Our day in Murten began with a tour, which started outside the old outer wall.  As I don't remember half of what was said on the tour (it was a pretty cold morning), you're mostly just going to get pictures.

 Remember how I said Murten resembles Bern? Well, this is the Murten Zytglogge. Fun fact: the clock face which doesn't face the town only has an hour hand, making it extremely difficult for frozen college students to tell the time.

 

Flower boxes. I liked the flower boxes on everything. 

  See that cannon ball up in the wall? It was lodged there by the armies of Charles the Bold. Charles the Bold was the last Valois Duke of Burgundy, and he conquered huge chunks of Europe during his reign. However, he couldn't take the Canton of Bern.

After a fourteen-day siege of Murten, Charles the Bold's army was defeated. Apparently there's an old saying that goes (something along the lines of) "at Grandson he lost his belongings, at Murten he lost his hope, and at Nancy he lost his life." Before attacking the canton that was then Bern, Charles the Bold's army was undefeated. 

Know how the U.S has civil war reenactments? Murten has siege reenactments every summer.

 First view of the lake of Murten. Apparently the area on the other side produces some of the finest wines in the world.

 The town fountain. Everyone has fountains over here.

 The original clockwork for the Murten Zytglogge.

 A huge tropical garden outside the town wall. Apparently, they get nice weather here in summer.

 Guess what that plant is? Well, you're wrong because it's a kiwi plant! Apparently they grow a ton of kiwis in Murten. Who'd've thought?

 

The hill upon which Charles the Bold camped. 

 

The view from up on the ramparts. 

 The view of Lake Murten from up on the tower. By this time, it was so cold none of us could feel our lips, fingers, or feet. Being in a huge stone structure at a high altitude didn't help.

 

Once back on the ground, we attended a short Apero, where we were fed (though not nearly enough!) and served some local wine (it was really good).  After that we were realeased to run around on our own for an hour or so. On my way down to the lake, I saw this--my first glimpse of a Carnival band (they were setting up to practice, I think). 

Seeing people in funny uniforms marching around with instruments reminded me of band competitions. I felt right at home :)

 This was the view from the lake--the water was ridiculously clean and blue. Some kids were trying to fish, but they weren't having much luck at it.

 Murten from the point.

There were these weird duck-ish birds swimming around everywhere. They had pointed beaks, like seagulls. I've never seen anything quite like it.

 Found this guy in the park near the marina. He made me happy.

 See those balls in that tree? Those are wild mistletoe plants. They grow pretty much everywhere over here.

And finally, this guy noticed me taking pictures and swam over to pose:

Abenteuer Drei: Ins Bundeshaus

 

A couple of weeks ago, my class toured the Bundeshaus, the main governmental building for the country of Switzerland. This is where the Nationalrat and the Ständerat (think the House and the Senate of the US government) meet to debate and make laws and stuff. Pretty nifty, huh?

To get into the Bundeshaus, one had to show identification (for me, my visa) and then go through a metal detector. Having been in Washington D.C a few summers ago, I expected the works--wands, pat-downs, baggage searches by unsmiling, underpaid security personnel, etc. As I went through the ID card line, I could feel myself tense. 

Having been wanded more than once in Washington and  hustled through more than one nasty airport body scanner, I think it's safe to say that security checks are one of my least favorite things in the world. 

The moment I got through the ID line, I rushed to the metal-detector line and began to speed strip. Purse. Coat. Bracelet. Necklace. Shoes. Glasses. 

The line was moving faster than I was, and by the time I reached the metal detector, I was still stripping. My belt got stuck in my belt loop. 

Crap. Crap crap crap.

I blushed as I tugged my belt. I could feel the security guard watching me. "Sorry--it's stuck." I explained. "Really, really sorry."

The security guard just laughed. 

"Relax," he said. "This isn't America, and you're not about to miss your flight."

Needless to say, the Swiss security people seem a lot friendlier than those in DC. 

Anyway, once our group had all gotten safely through the metal detectors, we began our tour. The first room we entered was (unsurprising)  the main entrance of the building. This is what we saw when we looked up:

Our guide explained that each of the segments of the window represent one of the cantons of Switzerland. The sign in the middle is, of course, the Swiss flag.

Another noteworthy feature of the room is these guys. They represent Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, which were the first three Swiss cantons to unite. The thing they're holding is the Eidgenossenschaft, which was an oath of brotherhood and mutual protection. In 1291, these three cantons signed the Eidgenossenschaft to unite against the Hapsburgs. However, this oath laid the foundation for the birth of Switzerland as a nation. 

  

On each of the four corners of the roof, before it blooms up into a dome, is a stained-glass mural representing one of the main industries of Switzerland (agriculture, textiles, etc.) and corresponding to the direction in which that industry is performed. On each of the four corners of the platform upon which we were standing stood a metal statue of a guard, each with different weaponry, facial features, and apparel. These guards represented the four languages of the Swiss republic: German, French, Italian, and Romansch. Together, they guard the republic and the Eidgenossenschaft (it's interesting to note that, although Switzerland has four official languages, only three are spoken in the government. Romansch doesn't get representation). 

After the main entrance, we visited the chamber of the Ständerat, which is the senate-like branch of the government. Each canton has two members therein. 

This huge chandelier was the first thing I noticed when we entered the room. Apparently it was donated to the government by the canton of Lucerne, which makes sense because Lucerne, like this huge freakin' chandelier, is really beautiful.

I thought these balconies were kind of interesting, too. If you want to observe a debate, you can walk right in and sit up there. Good luck following what's going on, though--apparently, each politician speaks in his or her native language and no simultaneous translation is available. You just have to understand.

 This huge mural decorates the back wall of the chamber. It shows a political meeting in the countryside (or at least, what one would have looked like a hundred+ years ago). Everyone behind the wall there would have been able to vote.

This mural decorates this chamber to remind the Ständerat of the people they're supposed to represent.


After the Ständerat, we visited the chamber of the Nationalrat. With two hundred members, it was quite a bit bigger.

 That spot up front is where the Bundespräsident sits.

Another beautiful balcony with cantonal crests on top. In this chamber, there's one special area of balcony designated for foreign officials. There's another for the family members of the politicians. Lucky for them, spontaneous translation is available in this area.

Don't know what the statues represent. They're kinda pretty though.

 

This huge mural fills the wall behind the president. It shows the valley where the Eidgenossenschaft was signed. In the clouds there's an angel holding an olive branch of peace. On the rocky cliff to the side, there's a fish for some reason. I was told that this is because the painter was French. 

Go figure. 

Finally, here's the lobby behind the Nationalrat's chamber. According to my guide, this is where all of the politics in Switzerland actually occur. 

Abenteuer Zwei: Das Münster

Ok, technically, this was Abenteuer Eins, I just forgot about it because

1. I don't have any good pictures
2. It was a long time ago 
3. It was a pretty short adventure. 

The Munster is a huge and very beautiful Gothic cathedral in old town. Construction started around 1276 and ended in 1893. Since that day, they've been doing restorations on it, because this is Europe and every historically important or interesting building is being restored LITERALLY all the time.  Because of the Muenster's size, the outside is very difficult to photograph. Because it's a church,
photography on the inside is highly discouraged. TL;DR, if you want to see good photos, I'm sure Google has plenty.

Anyway. 

It was a cold, blustery Sunday on my first weekend in Bern, and dad and I were wandering about the city, looking for something interesting to do. Pretty much everything in Bern outside of the Bahnhof is closed on Sunday, so finding an interesting thing to do was, understandably, difficult. Fortunately for us, our listless feet led us to the one thing in Bern that would be open (and FREE) on Sunday: THE CHURCH.

Here are some bits and pieces of the outside:

 

 

Beautiful, non?

Behind the church is a little garden full of ping-pong tables and an amazing view of the city. Unfortunately, this was the moment my camera chose to die, so you don't get to see any of that.

Anyway, having satisfactorily observed the outside of the church (and satisfactorily frozen our noses off), we decided to take a look inside. Admission to the church is free--unlike most everything else in Bern.

The inside of the church--well, to be honest, it looked like the inside of a church. Ornately decorated pews for the rich, plain benches for the poor, stained-glass windows portraying each guild of Bern and most every important historical event, a guilded pulpit, vaulted ceilings--the gothic-church-works, really. What impressed me most about the church was the one thing that wasn't supposed to be there--the graffiti.

If you go back through the church to the farthest wall and look closely at the stone, you start to see faint carvings--scratched messages from attendees in days-gone-by. Some are love notes or profanities, as with most graffiti, but the majority are just names and dates.

Intrigued, I started to pay the dates closer attention.

1999. 1976. 1876.

Wait, what?

1826. 1789. 1772.

1672. 1640.

The oldest I found had no name, simply a date--1546.

1546.

Punk kids have been sitting bored in church for a really, really long time.

When we finished looking around the interior of the ground level of the church, we decided to explore the church tower (five franc admission, but worth it).

The staircase up the tower is one of the most terrifying things I've experienced in a loooooong time.

The staircase is narrow--we're talking one American-sized butt (maybe two Swiss?) at a time. The staircase is also perpetually turning--no resting platforms, no stops. I didn't mind that part so much. What I did mind?

THE WINDOWS.

Yes, as soon as you reach roof-level of the church, there are open windows all along the staircase's height. And when I say open, I don't mean someone drew back the shudders. I mean no glass, no blinds, no panes, see-all-the-way-to-the-ground-and-fall-to-your-death open. ONE metal bar ran across the windows in each direction. ONE. And the windows were BIG.

I could have easily slipped through. Did I mention that I'm afraid of heights? Especially when they involve plummeting to your impalement atop a spiky old church? Or just plummeting to the ground? The tower is 100.6m high, so plummeting to the ground would take a long, long time.

Anyway, the second drawback of the windows being open, aside from their active testing of my terror of gravity, was the fact that it was snowing. Windy and snowing.

Icy-cold slippery wet stone stairs, anyone?

Oh, and fair warning: the higher you go up, the colder, windier, and snowier it gets.

Needless to say, by the time we actually reached the top of the Muenster, I had gained a new appreciation for what it means to be alive. And the view from the top of the church tower? Well, that made it all worthwhile.

All but the hike back down, that is.

Abenteuer Eins: die Schokoladenfabrik

My first Thursday in Bern was also the day of my first adventure--a trip to the Louis Cailler chocolate factory. The Louis Cailler factory was the first chocolate factory in Switzerland and it continues to produce world-famous chocolates even today. It lies in a beautiful little town in the mountains.

And when I say in the mountains, I mean in the mountains. This is what we saw when we got there:

Not bad for a small town, huh?

The main building of the chocolate factory is, in itself, fairly unassuming. Compared to the palace that is the Uni Bern Hauptgebäude, most people probably wouldn't give it a second look.

Then we went inside...

The Louis Cailler factory gift shop if a teenage girl's dream. Walls upon walls upon walls of chocolate bars. Big baskets and tins of chocolate. Fancy chocolate. Cheep chocolate. Fruity, nutty, healthy chocolate. Chocolate filled with liquer. Dark chocolate. Super dark chocolate. So-dark-they-use-it-as-a-background-motif-in-a-gothic-novel chocolate. Chocolate themed hats, postcards, and books. Hundreds of wrappers of all colours, sparkling like Christmas tree lights under the pale shop fluorescence.

Yeah. I like chocolate. Can you tell?

Anyway, as this trip was sponsored by my German class and thus supposedly educational, the first item on the day's agenda was a tour of the chocolate factory. As the only factory tour I'd ever attended before was a tour of a toilet-production centre, I really wasn't sure what to expect.

And nothing could have prepared me for what we actually got.

The tour of the chocolate factory reminded me a bit of a Disney World ride. Our class was carefully queued up in hallway filled with Cailler-related paraphernalia. Once everyone was accounted for, the hostess pressed a button on the wall and a mysterious door opened up into a small, dark room. We were all quickly herded inside. As the doors began to shut, I noticed the decorations on the walls: cave paintings, set into tiles designed to look like chocolate. As the doors shut, a recorded voice boomed out from a hidden speaker overhead.

As the voice was speaking German, I really don't remember much of what it had to say. All I do know is that it was related to the history of chocolate.

As the voice continued to speak, I became gradually aware of a sinking feeling--we were in a sort of large, very slow elevator. When the mysterious voice overhead had finished it's spiel, the movement stopped and the opposite side of the wall opened wide.

We were next ushered into a rainforest, complete with recorded bird noises and an Aztec shrine. The voice overhead then began to regale us with (still entirely German) tales of the god (or possibly completely regular bloke) Chocolatyl. As it spoke, the shrine lit up, at the fake birdsongs changed to fake chanting.

When the voice described the fall of Chocolatyl and the rise of the conquistadors, an animatronic suit of armor in the corner lit up, making vague hacking motions with its axe. When the voice described the transfer of chocolate into the Old World, a door in the wall opened and we were hurried into the belly of a Spanish trading ship. Somehow, from there we sailed straight into the bedchamber of Marie Antoinette. Our journey was, all the while, accompanied by cheesy sound effects, light effects, animations, and my friend the mysterious voice.

Eventually, with purchasing of the Cailler company by Nestle, the history portion of our tour ceased. We reached a large room filled with bags of cacao beans and nuts.

This is where the sampling portion of our tour began. We were free to taste whatever we wanted.

The hazelnuts were good. Eating raw cacao beans was...an interesting experience which I have never before had the privilege to obtain. It's also an experience which I am not likely to willingly subject myself to again.

Beyond the supply room lay a small conveyor belt. Through the glass panels in the wall, we could watch chocolate branches (a common form of chocolate candy over here--basically chocolate-coated softer chocolate) being produced. It reminded me a bit of the doughnut machine at Krispy Kreme.

Here we see the soft gooey nougat-y bits going through a chocolate waterfall:

 Here we see them baking on the line:

Here we see the robotic arm which pulls them lickedy-split off the conveyor belt (sorry for the bad shot, but no lie, the thing was moving fast):

At the end of the line, there's a bowl of the finished product, fresh off the line and still slightly melty. I think I had about three of these little guys:

Man, they were good.

But they weren't the best part.

From the mini-factory room, we were admitted into a bigger room where we could see a map of the factory and a view of (a corner) of the factory floor. Viewers could press buttons on the map and screens on the wall would light up, showing video of what occurred in each corresponding area. Not as exciting as a real factory tour, but hey, still pretty cool. But then

BUT THEN

We were released...into...THE TASTING ROOM!

The tasting room is chocoholic Narnia. In the tasting room, pretty much every chocolate produced in the factory, from the 3 franc kiddy chocolates to the fancy ambassador chocolates that cost more than a small island, is out on display and ready for the tasting.

More chocolate than you can imagine. More chocolate than you can eat. Hazelnut chocolates, coffee chocolates, caramels, and delicately-shaped little cremes, cups and squares and plain old bars, all out for grabs. All out for FREE.

I'm not sure I've ever eaten so much chocolate in my life. EVERYTHING I tried was amazing--and I only tried maybe half the things.

Our group had fifteen minutes in the tasting room before we had to catch the train. We wound up literally running to catch it.

And on the ride home, we all had very sore stomachs.