June 13 Bern

We went to Bern and I just loved it.  It was kind of sprinkling on and off all day.  Bern is the capital Switzerland.  We arrived in the huge train station that is literally a giant mall.  Our leader gave us one hour to eat lunch, then meet back to visit our sites.  Konrad and I walked around and he saw a McDonalds.  Just when we were going to give in a buy a sandwich we noticed that they started at $12 each.  Not worth it.  So we walked a bit and found an Italian take away that actually had a place to sit.  We shared a pasta bolognese salad and drink for $12.50.  Way better.  It was pretty good.  We met the group and then went off walking through the old town.  Bern is really amazing with lots of beautiful architecture.  We stopped at the clock tower that apparently prompted Albert Einstein  to come up with the theory of relativity.  We jumped on a bus to go to the Paul Klee museum.  I had interest in this mostly because of the architect that designed the museum, Renzo Piano.  It was amazing, but the weather was terrible - think sideways, wreck your umbrella wind and rain.  The art of Paul Klee, the Swiss' favorite artist is fairly marginal to me.  I was quietly looking at it trying not to exclaim that I did virtually all of his drawings when I was in kindergarten.  Apparently everyone of his drawings and paintings can call over $1 million.  Now that is crazy.  We had time after that to explore the city.  We saw the bears by the river - Bern is for "bear"..
Konrad and I walked around downtown and then went to the fine arts museum.  Now that is art, Manet, Cezanne, Guagin, Momet, Picasso, Chagill and all the other artists I remember from playing masterpiece.  HAHA.   Then we went over to the shopping area, which is long boulevards with covered loggias.  Really nice for rain.  We went in a shoe store and a really cool book and paper store.  I bought some black paper for my sketching assignment.  Getting nervous about that.  We got on the train at 5:00 and were home for dinner at 7:30.  The train rides are long but I don't mind them because I get my homework done and have time to discuss the day with Konrad.  A good day.