Wednesday, Dec. 6 th
Sally and I took the train from Geneva to Zurich with a ½ day stop in Bern, the capitol of Switzerland . In Bern we first went to the Bunderhaus, where they just had an election of one of the 7 councilmen (they jointly run the country with one being a little more equal than the others and thus president). In front of the Bunderhaus the victorious party was giving out wine to the assembled people. There were some people in the tradition dress of the victor's town. After this we went to the fanciest hotel in the area, and by coincidence that was where the victory party was. We were greeted with a smile and told where to hang up our coats – even though were obviously not dressed for the occasion and thus not one of them! Compare this to the security that would be present at a reception for a state governor.

We climbed the steeple of the Munster (cathedral) which is the tallest steeple in Switzerland. This church was started in 1421 and reminded me of the Cathedral in Lausanne for its feeling of antiquity. The spiral staircase goes up 100 meters via 253 steps. It is a very tight spiral with slight views available via slots in the walls. In stretched the limits of my ability to deal with heights, but it was certainly worth it. At the top of the staircase there is a viewing platform that wraps around the entire tower. We talked with the caretaker who lives in an apartment up there with his wife!

We then window shopped in Bern . The shops were unique in that they had covered walk ways (Sally called them arcades) that let people walk in front of the stores without getting wet in the rain. At one of the stores which had an offbeat look, Sally had them show me the marijuana that was discretely for sale. When Sally said we didn't have such places in my country, they thought what she found special was that their product was grown outside, not in greenhouses. They gave me a year 2000 Cannabis calendar.