LIVING THE LIFE IN BERN

We've had a few visitors coming to see us while in Bern - Jean-Come came for lunch from Lausanne where he is studying Engineering. We first met him as an 18 month old in Johannesburg and it's wonderful to see how he has developed into a self-assured, confident young man.

And then our friend Myrna, from Sydney, came to join us for a couple of nights from Lyon where she was visiting her daughter. We had such fun showing her some of our favourite haunts and then spent a glorious morning at the Paul Klee Museum. The Museum was designed by Renzo Piano and it's curved lines echo the hills in the background.

Myrna at the Paul Klee Museum

We've been up the Gurten - the hill overlooking Bern - by cable car, had a typical Swiss meal with Hendrik and Anna's good friends who live on the hillside and spent a day in Nyon, a lovely small town on the shore of Lake Geneva where a 12th C fairy tale castle dominates the town. We met up in Nyon with Jeany and her friend Georges who owns a dentist practice where he is in the process of installing state-of-the-art laser equipment - no more injections or dentist drills as I understand it. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake - a  marvellous meal of perch from the lake and then bought ice creams and wandered along the shore on a perfect afternoon.  

Conal, Jeany and Georges - plus ice creams

Sadly our days here are drawing to a close. Tomorrow Hendrik, Conal and Jan are going to watch the local soccer match - and Monday is the Swiss National day with great festivities including fire works.

Jan and his friend Lexie taking a dip in the Aare

MONTHEY IN THE VALAIS

Anna, Louisa and Jan left for London and on Monday we caught a train via Lusanne to Bex - a lovely journey where the train line dissects the vineyards on the hills above Lake Geneva and there is a lovely view across the lake framed by the Alps. Sadly it was yet another grey day. The purpose of the journey was to visit Jeany and her family. Coincidentally it was Jeany's father's birthday so we went directly to her apartment where the rest of the family gathered for the most delicious lunch - our first Mongolian fondue - prawns, strips of pork, beef and goose that were put into little tea strainer containers and cooked in a big pot of steaming bouillon set on the table. Delicious! We reminisced about the last birthday party we shared with the family - Raymond's 60th when he hired a boat and we had a gourmet meal while going past Evian, Montreaux and Lusanne. Happy mamories.

Raymond, Marie-Jean, Severine, Jeany, Conal

We saw most of the family - Severine is on holiday from Lusanne University, Nicole and her daughter Fabienne and later Yvan dropped in on his way home from the hospital in Martigny where he heads up the orthopedics department. It was marvelous to see them all. 

The next morning we set off via St Maurice where we went to see the school where Jeany teaches. We were impressed by the team of school children cleaning - painstakingly turning chairs over and wiping them, cleaning windows and scrubbing the entire place. We went into the church attached to the school where I lit a candle and said a prayer for Rob Irving and Rob Steyger who are both undergoing cancer treatment and for young Jacques Louis Pienaar who was born on Wednesday. After coffee at a local patisserie we resumed our journey to the Museum of Art at Martigny where they have a wonderful Monet exhibition. The gallery was built by the Gianna family in memory of of the founders' brother and the space doubles as a small theatre where concerts are held. The garden is delightful and is dotted with sculptures by well-known sculptors. Sadly I left my camera in Bern so no photos! 

Onwards up to Ovrannoz along switch-backs - the road eventually reduced to a gravel track until we were higher than some of the surrounding peaks. Jeany's family use the chalet that clings to the mountain side with stunning views across the Valais only during summer. Sadly the weather wasn't great and it was snowing higher up the mountains so we had to eat inside with a fire blazing in the hearth. Apparently this has been the coolest July in 50 years with temperatures about the same as those in Sydney and Cape Town!  All rather confusing. 


Raymond prepared a delicious racklette for us from cheese produced locally and specially chosen - yum. Jeany's dentist boyfriend George joined us with his young nephew and we had a fantastic party ending up with raspberry liqueurs to steel us for the return journey down the steep decline back to Bex to catch our train for Bern.

ROSENLAUI - HEART OF THE ALPS

Rosenlaui - smallest village in Switzerland

The journey to Rosenlaui is a treat - we set off from Jubilaumstrasse by bus, caught the train to Interlaken Oost where we changed traveling alongside the lake to Brienz and onwards to Meiringen hopping the little Post Bus to Rosenlaui. The bus crawls up the narrowest of  roads, announcing it's progress up the switchbacks with a paa-pa-paa to warn the odd motorist who is brave or foolhardy enough to attempt what is a hair raising journey. Higher and higher for about 40 minutes until the steep pass opens to reveal a flat plateau and Rosenlaui Hotel set in an arena of Toberone mountains crisscrossed by ribbons of waterfalls. The hotel is family run - one of those small, unpretentious precious places  with no internet connection, no TV - just peace and quiet with marvelous walks and delicious meals.

Nietszche and Goethe came here to write and Mendelsohn also spent holidays at the hotel. The weather forecast predicted rain and we arrived on a lightly overcast  hot afternoon and decided to visit the Gletchenschlught (glacier ravine) close to the hotel. What a contrast it was going from the heat into the narrow opening next to the rushing water occasionally so loud it set up an oscillation - quite confronting and frightening.  It was most impressive to see the power of the water - mostly from the melting glaciers brrr -so freezing.

Jan and Anna next to the glacier ravine

Anna on lawn in front of Rosenalui

The next day dawned crystal clear thankfully contrary to the weather forecast and we set off for our morning walk through forests with hobbit-like mossy undergrowth, alongside a stream through fields filled with masses of multi-coloured flowers the variety quite staggering one's gaze constantly being lifted to the magnificent peaks with only a vestige of snow remaining. It's here that we noticed the affect of global warming - the glacier used to come quite far down the mountain and now clings precariously to only the highest north-facing slopes.  

Walking to Grosse Scheideck

Eiger from Grosse Schiedeck

We were extraordinarily lucky with the weather because in the late afternoon the storm arrived with a flash of lightening, shards of water lashed down and trees were blown over delaying some of the dinner guests who had come from Meiringen for the soiree during dinner. Coincidentally one of Anna's friends came up to do some modern yodeling - you can imagine Conal's reaction. He managed to contain himself but to our amusement left before it was over. 

Blue skies to misty mountains

BERN DAYS

Bern, capital of Switzerland - small and accessible. We've been here so many times that we're comfortable getting around. There is an excellent transport system - bus and tram - and then of course because the city is small we walk. Anna's apartment is in Kirchenfeld - literally church in the fields - the long gardens of the apartments slip into the forest. We're continually dipping into the forest and love walking through the trees in the filtered sunlight down to the zoo and to the Aare River that snakes through the city.

Our days are spent ambling around - across the bridge to the old  city where the terraced buildings tumble down to the icy blue-green Aare. The city nestles in the bow of the river and has that festive atmosphere of summer with the restaurants spilling out onto the streets and we have watched with amusement what seems like most of the population floating down the fast-flowing Aare, some of the more adventurous jumping from one of the bridges. I'm longing to do the float but Conal says I'll die of a heart attack - the water temp is still at about 15 - 16C.

Floating down the fast flowing Aare

The people are kind, gentle and friendly with that up-and-down-the-Alps lilt of Swiss German. Walking through Bern with Anna is very much a stop-start affair as she introduces her friends to us. We've been to the flower shop where she'll be having an exhibition of her drawings in September and had coffee at the Einstein cafe a very smart new place that's opened right next to the house where Einstein lived and where 'relatively the best' is written on the saucers.

The city discourages cars and is therefore peaceful and the cobbled streets, ancient buildings with arched, covered walkways lined with all the usual trendy shops but also with tiny places making and selling unusual quality merchandise is fascinating. And the ever present chime of church bells and clocks marks the passing time.

We've been staying in the attic and our view from our window below the eaves is of the garden and the forest - today we start moving again, this time into the mountains for a few days.

View from the balcony of the apartment

BEAUTIFUL BERN

Anna and Louisa were at the station to meet us and we wandered up to their flat on a hot summer evening - these long evenings where it's still light at 10 pm mean that we get to bed a good deal later than normal. Our first week here has slipped by so quickly that it makes me quite anxious that time is passing too quickly. We've spent the days tapping into the children's lives - we've been to both Louisa and Jan's schools, we went to watch Jan play soccer and I went to Louisa's piano lesson with Peggy Pu and to Jan's tjembe lesson with Omri Hason a well-known percussionist. Both their teachers are such accomplished musicians and it's a joy to watch the two being taught by such competent teachers.

Anna and Conal in front of Louisa's school

Louisa and Peggy Pu

Jan and Omri Hason

It was Jan's birthday on Saturday so we took cake to the school on Friday and watched the lovely little ritual that they have at his school where the children sat in a circle and each of them gave Jan a special wish. 

Birthday boy Jan - & yummy cake

On Saturday Jan asked for a birthday cake from a special bakery in the city - we had it for his birthday tea and it's the best cake I've ever tasted - this followed by a barbie in the forest for dinner on a golden evening with the light filtering through the trees. The cousins Magriet and Stefanie arrived from Berlin for a few days so we've had fun hanging out and enjoying the most stunning weather.

Jan & Hendrik - birthday barbie

A BURST OF SUMMER

Summer arrived during our last few days in London. Saturday was the usual grey overcast weather that we've become used to - we took a boat from the Tate Gallery to the Tate Modern and I was once again amazed at the huge industrial spaces, contrasting with the classical architecture of the Tate. We walked across the Millenium bridge designed by Norman Foster the axis leading to St Paul's Cathedral and the   wing-like ribs of the bridge extending across the water reminding one of a boat - a simple but masterful design.

Millenium Bridge and St Pauls

London is a buzz of building and roadworks in anticipation of the Olympics. We drove past the Olympics Village and saw the giant stadiums and the tall accommodation blocks that have been built to house the contestants. Sadly the scale is alienating rather like that in the city where the high rise buildings  creates warren-like spaces where the wind whistles and not enough light penetrates. 

We had a wonderful last evening with Peter and most of the family - Christopher, Davina and the twins sadly couldn't join us.  It was a birthday celebration barbie for Katie who lives in the house on a perfect evening with lovely people, champagne and lots of lovely food. We left on a sweltering day - just in time it appears. Peter wrote:

today was quite a trial for poor Jess being 30 degrees or more and Christopher tells me that the twins bedroom is 28 degrees and not a breath of wind. I tried to bring a fan down this evening but lo and behold the water mains have burst in the heat, the trains have packed up and the route to their house has been closed due to fallen scaffolding, the bridge is closed, Cathy had to walk home as the buses were queuing up the King’s Road (shall I go on?).

And of course the tennis was amazing (what I got to see of it). C’est la vie a Londres!