Switzerland and beyond

I ran out of time on that last line of the last post so I'll pick it up from there (This will all get edited out in the book version :) )
So I was in Bern. I arrived there and found that for the first time the hostel was down the hill from the train station instead of the ususal upness I had experienced so far. Such a downhill journey it was, in fact, that there is a tram ride is involved if one is so (ahem) inclined. I took the stairs found the hostel and I forget what I did the rest of that day but it was not adventurous. I think that might have been where I last blogged before election day. So far, I have not identified many real grocery stores. Mostly I have been shopping at convenience stores. At least that's the closest thing I can equate them to. But in Bern, very near the trainstation is as place called Leob. It's three or four floors of department store and is split between two blocks. There's a grocer, bookstore, department store and clothing store and probably more. I found the internet cafe two floors down from the street level. This was very nice internet place. Some many of the ones I found in Germany were 'call shops'. I'll let you figure out what people did in the enclosed cubicles with just a computer. Anyway, back to Bern. Day two was a planned excursion to Interlaken. I hadn't ever really planned to stay in Bern but all of the hostels I tried south of Interlaken were closed for the season and I found out why. I woke up on day two to a blanket of snow, albeit a thin blanket. This was two days before Halloween! I actually wasn't very surprised. I figured I was more or less in the Alps. Well, I was the only one not surprised and it turns out I was less in the Alps than I thought. I asked few locals and they all said it was not unheard of to have snow this early but it was unusual. Lucky me, I guess. At first I was gonna skip the Interlaken trip but decided to go for it and took the tram up to the trainstation. Glad I went. While it was overcast and iffy durindg the hour or so train ride, the cloud cover broke open to a partly cloudy condition not long after I arrived. They had a bit more snow there than down in Bern but the streets and sidewalks were cleared and I had a nice couple of hours strolling the streets, a wildlife park and the Japanese Peace garden. I took only few snap shots of the Mts but I#ve never really been good at capturing a landscape to bring out the real feel of being there. I missed the peak identifier but I think I can pick out the Eiger. The Matterhorn is on the other side, I think. I'll get that one when I get to Italy.

Bye-bye Berny and on to Lausanne or Luasanne but not Lusane or Lucern. Gotta be careful to get the right one. Lausanne is OK but by now, I'm really outside the tourist season so there's not a lot available to me. The Olympic Museum is open all year so I did that. The Roman Ruins are in the park so there visitable anytime by anyone and really close to the hostel, too. As it happens, I was in Luasanne on the first Saturday of the month when all the museums are FREE. I like free. I went to the Archeology History Museum, The Geology Museum, the Zoology Museum and the Beaux Arts Museum (Steinlein is the featured artist). All of these museums, maybe more accurately called exhibits, are in the same building but each is an entire floor. Across the market square (and it was a Saturday Market day, too) was another art exhibit. Modern art and I need not say more because, well, I can't cuz I didn't get it. . .again.

After Luasanne, I picked a spot about 1/3 of the way to Bacharach. I had all ready made my reservations for there but I couldn't get in for two more days. I did a one night stay in Mannheim. I can't say much about the city because I really didn't explore it at all. However, I can tell you that there is a pretty nice riverside park(that'd be the Rhein River) less than a hundred yards from the hostel. Right on the edge of that park, on the banks of that river is a restaurant. I think that was my first official sit-down eat-out restaurant in Europe. Turns out they had a new menu and it wasn't available in English, yet. As I scanned the entrees, I picked out the 'ravioli' mixed in with all the German words. I have been having pretty good luck with Italian food in Germany so I asked my German waiter whose name was Jose about the ravioli. "It's very good this day." He didn't know the English word for the kind of ravioli but he came up with the best he could (still better than any of my Deutsch). "It is ravioli with Halloween inside". When I asked for a glass of water, Jose asked if I wanted it with gas or without. I had the salmon with roasted baby potatoes, salad and a coke. I did get the water. . .without gas. It was very nice! After that a sunset stroll along the river and I called it a night.

Up and at 'em the next morning and an early arrival in Mainz. Located the hostel, unloaded my gear and back into town for the self guided walking tour which I cut short to stroll through the shopping district which is a maze. I love the streets in these old towns! I did refer to the tour map now and again because most of it was in or near the shopping district anyway. One thing I tried to find was the Gutenberg statue. He is there homie and there has been a statue of him in one of the town squares since the 1800s. Or at least there has been a plinth there. Man, talk about the end of the tourist season. They even put the statues away!

Well, time is ticking away and there's not much to say about Bacharach because it is a closed up town. I thought I had a shot at a sort of boat cruise on the Rhein but it didn't work out so I've got a long travel day tomorrow. I'm headed to Paris.