Einstein Museum; Bern state capitol building; Diana in front of fountain by Einstein Museum.

AUGUST 3, 2009 MONDAY

Today was P-day, but we had to get ready for family home evening tonight because it was going to be at our apartment again. We volunteered for the dessert and so Diana spent this morning making Ritz cracker pie. The pie recipe called for egg whites which left a lot of yolks to decide what to do with. However, the problem got solved when Elders Harris and Nilsson came over this morning about 10:30 to get their hair cut. They said they had already had breakfast, but we could see they weren’t telling the whole truth. Before I finished cutting their hair, Diana started cooking French toast and had everything ready by the time I finished. Both of them had their emails finished too, so we enjoyed a leisurely brunch of French toast. We had some left over maple syrup we made months ago, but kept in the fridge. It was all really really good and it was a treat to have something American (even though we call the toast French). Soon after they left to meet other missionaries at the stake center and we got ready and left for Bern.

We looked on the internet to discover what to go see, but we didn’t decide on what we would do once we got there. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Bern from our apartment front door. Once we got there we walked a block or two and then got on a tram and rode to the end. We passed one of the places we wanted to visit and saw another that looked interesting. The tram we were on took us in a loop at the end of the track and back to the Albert Einstein Museum where we wanted to get off. What a surprise. We took some photos of the statue/fountain in front as well as the two bears guarding the front entrance and then walked up to the front door. We were hoping it would be open, but as is the case in Switzerland, most good places to see are closed on Mondays. Disappointed we made the best of the situation and wandered around the outside and took photos of various things including a canon, a bell house, a platform with a rope hanging through a trap door where it appeared they really hung people, a battering ram with a ram’s head on it, a couple of water wheels and stacks of rocks threaded onto some sort of flexible rods.

We left there, got on the tram again and went a couple more stops and got off at another fountain. We took more photos and then walked on to an interesting building which had gold leaf (probably only gold paint) on the wrought iron gates. We took some more photos of it, but we don’t know if it had any historical significance. We got on the tram again and went back to the Einstein Museum stop and got off. We walked over the bridge spanning the Aar River and on the way over took some beautiful photos of the river with Bern in the background. We took photos of the back side of the state capitol building from approximately the same position where I took a photo some 45 years ago. Interesting. We continued over the bridge and took photos of another bear, Diana petting it and me riding it. By the way, Bern is named after bears and the founding person (can’t remember his name right now) killed a bear right where he started the town of Bern and that’s how it got it’s name. From there we walked back towards the train station and stopped at the famous Zeitglockenturm (Time Clock Tower) where a whole lot of people had congregated to see what happened when 4:00 came. We waited the eight minutes with the rest of them. A couple minutes before 4:00 a lot of little figures went around in a circle, coming out of a whole and going back in. Then at 4:00 the staff of the figure sitting down moved four times as the bell sounded four times. And that was it. For the full show we would have had to be there at noon.

We only had two hours to spend in Bern before we had to be on the train to return to Zurich. We had used up all our time and hurried back to the train station. We returned home, picked up a present for Dominic Weiss, who had a birthday today, got back on the tram and rode to near his home. We walked the rest of the way, but discovered Dominic wasn’t home. His brother was so we gave the present to him for Dominic. We got home a half hour before FHE started and we able to get a few things ready by 7:00.

Everyone that normally comes, except for the missionaries, were either sick, busy, stuck at work, had visitors at their own home, or were on vacation. Even Elders Pine & Richeson were late coming back from Stuttgard, so we started with just we two and Elders Harris and Nilsson. Elders Pine & Richeson joined us about a half hour after we started. Even though our group was small, we had a good family home evening and Diana’s Ritz cracker pie and ice cream was delicious. We tried to whip some real irradiated cream to put on it too, but it turned into butter instead of turning into whipped cream. Now we have sweet vanilla flavored butter!

With FHE over we were settling in to write our journal and slowly slide into bed when Rebecca skyped us. It’s always good to talk to the kids and see little Mack. Among other things Rebecca and Diana discussed homes and financing and such related to the sale of our house in Draper.