Bern is the political capital of Switzerland, but only the 4th largest city in the country, kind of like Canberra I guess. But that's where the similarities end. Where Canberra is situated on a man-made lake, Bern is nestled in the middle of a horseshoe bend in the Aare River. Where Canberra is a pretty dull place, Bern is just pretty.

We spent just 2 nights in Bern, and saw pretty much all of the sights. The highlight of the city was probably the bear pits, where there were 2 brown bears hanging out waiting for people to throw fruit down to them. Their habitat leaves a bit to be desired, and they looked pretty bored, but it was still pretty cool.

Throughout the city there are fountains with funny statues on top. The best of these was an ogre eating squirming little children. Now that's something Canberra could do with, but maybe an ogre eating squirming fat politicians would be more appropriate.

We visited a nice rose garden, and climbed to the top of the cathedral spire for a pretty nice view of the city. We also spent a bit of time looking at a sweet fountain outside the parlament house which had heaps of little holes in the ground spurting out at different heights, and in different orders. It was kind of hypnotic.

Oh, we also found a microbrewery next to the bear pits, so we had to sample their product.

It's a bit hard to know how to talk to people over here. They speak 4 different languages in Switzerland, mainly German and French. Luckily for us though, English is very common.