Day 65, Bern, Switzerland

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We had a really easy journey here, but once we had arrived last night we struggled to work out the buses, there were several, across many roads so it was hard to work out where our stop was but we finally worked it out. We arrived at our hosts house and it was wonderful, it was situated along the river, with a lovely outside seating area to relax in, the house was very spacious and our hosts were a lovely young couple, who just like us loved to travel.

Today, we couldn't wait to get up and go out exploring the town so we went out very early. We caught the bus back to the train station as that was the central area to everything we wanted to see, and we wandered down the main street. We stumbled across the Bern Minster, the cathedral of Bern, and the clock tower, Zytglogge.

We were beyond excited to find the signs towards the Bern Bear Pit!! As we approached the area, we were so shocked by where they are, it was situated on a hill, alongside a river, but the enclosure we thought was pretty small for three full sized bears! The history behind it is nice though, that they are still here, because the bear is a symbol of Bern, which is why the city was called Bern. This bear pit opened in 1857, and also has a young bear enclosure for the young bears t grow up in before being released into the main section. We had never seen a bear before, our zoos in England don't have any, well none that we have been too anyway so we were so excited to come and see them!

We were so close to the bears, with just a small strip of water at one point dividing us (with a fence too of course), but the bear even came down for a swim in the water, they looked very happy here indeed! We sat alongside the bank of the river, as the water flown by SO quickly, but it was a really nice day to be outside admiring the views of the city on the other side of the river.

You must come and see the bears here if you visit Bern!!