Day 33: Bern and off to Vienna

Miles logged: 19,412
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By yesterday morning, I was starting to feel a tad restless. Switzerland was absolutely beautiful, but not very exciting: I've decided the place is too expensive to be of much fun. When a McDonald's meal costs $13 (yes, I'm sorry that I know that, but the place happened to be the only convenient restaurant open after 8pm, and I had planned poorly), the nightlife is pretty sad and even the cafes close early. I had a craving for something more exciting than admiring Switzerland's lakes and mountains. At this point, I'd spent maybe a little too much time immersed in the view from train windows.

So I rented a bicycle for 4 hours yesterday morning. Trying to maneuver a bike through city traffic, around flying cars, and beside weaving scooters turned out to be more than exciting, it verged on occasionally terrifying. Sill, the rental allowed me do something a bit different and get out of the city. My first stop was to the Berne bears. The legend of the Berne bears goes something along the lines that the first animal killed on the site of the city's founding was a bear, so the city folk captured a few more to keep as mascots within the city, and hence forth the city's icon has been the bear. Until a few years ago, these bears were kept in something not much better than a large pit in the ground...and, of course, some animal rights activists had an issue with this. So now the bears have a very nice and large habitat along the canal on the edge of town, and their new home is most likely Bern's top sight (did I mention that Switzerland's cities weren't the most exciting?). I rode over to see the bears, who turned out to be very endearing. Two of the bears seemed to be acting up for the crowd, and were quite cute to watch playfighting.

I continued the bike ride onto the suburbs and outskirts of the city, where I finally got the picture I was craving: a cow with a real cowbell! A reoccurring theme of this trip seems to be about cows, but I don't mind because cows are freaking fun. A picture, and a video of cows with cowbells, are below:

After a good deal of biking, including a trip around the University-area of the city, I headed back to the center square, where I came across an open-air market. I snapped a few photos, my favorite of which is of a Swiss cheese stand. Before turning in the bike, I made a quick trip by the Einstein house, where the boy/man genius lived during the 1920s with his later estranged wife and developed his first inroads on the theory of relativity. I will say, Einstein had a pretty prime address during his time in Bern.

By early evening I had to pack up my day and head towards Zurich, where I had an overnight train to Vienna. Before this trip started, I felt like my European tour would not be complete without taking one overnight train. After my experiences last night, I am glad that the trip went as well as it did. I had booked a bed in a 6-bed female-only cochette, which turned out to be insanely tiny. Once the beds were assembled, it was uncomfortable to sit up high enough to take a sip from a bottle of water. Fortunately, the room was only half-full, and the other two Korean young women that were in the coach with me were very nice, and we were able to make the most of the situation.

I arrived in Vienna this morning, where it is incredibly hot today. The forecast was for 88 degrees. but it's already hit over 90. The hostel is great, but without AC...I may have to throw myself in one of these European fountains before the day is through. I hear it's hot on the East Coast, too. Mom may need to get here a little earlier so we can cool down in Helsinki and Tallinn!

Bern city view from the bike ride:

Busy Zurich Hautbanhof: