First round of Bern pictures

A set of pictures from Bern, Switzerland. There's one more set to come.

A big clock in the middle of town. There are two clocks the big one on top and the smaller funky one below.
There are a lot of fountains spread through out town. Each fountain is topped by a fancy statue and there is water running beneath the streets between the fountains. This guy looks like an old timey diver.

Another fountain top statue. A lion tamer maybe? I'm not sure what they're going for here.

Here's a picture from a little further back. You can get a sense of how large these things are and the pools.

The fountain is a lot smaller and less impressive than the statue on top.

You can see the grates above the stream that runs down the middle of the street.

A picture from a bridge over the river that divides Bern. This is taken from the newer side (circa 1500's) to the older side (built around 1200).

This is Pedro the bear. He lives in the bear pits on the edge of town. There have been bears living in this pit since 1200 and bears living in a pit on the edge of town since around 1ooo. That's where the name Bern comes from.

A close up of Pedro relaxing.

Bern has a major Grand Prix. Marc has run it before and said it was a great race. His name isn't on the wall of champions, but I didn't point that out to him. Apparently one of his favorite running stores is in Bern, but I didn't know that before I left.

Looking back across the river from the bear pits to old Bern. You can see how far down it is to the river. This bridge is a pedestrian bridge across the river. The water is almost blue. It's all snow melt from the Alps apparently. I couldn't get close enought to feel it without falling in.

Yet another fountain top statue.

A picture of Einstien's house from across the street. He lived on the flat on the third floor. The upper floors seem to be resdential still.

A picture of the Switzerland parliment at night.

Einstein's suit taken through a window.

A brief description of Einstein's house. He was working as a patent clerk and apparently did a lot of the famous work when he lived here.

Close up of the front door. It probably didn't look like this in 1900.

The steeple of the Munster church. It's over 100m high and currently being renovated.

A picture from the top of my hotel. You can see all the street cafes with tables out in the street.

A picture from the roof of the hotel back across to the University of Bern.

A picture of the hills outside Bern from the hotel roof.

A picture down the street from the hotel. You can see all the buildings look about the same from the street. You can see a little bit of the hills in the background.