Bern, Fribourg, and Zürich!!!

I am just wrapping up my time in Zürich with Jessica.  It will be very challenging to travel without her, as she has planned, facilitated, educated, listened, laughed and walked a lot with me.  I am so thankful for the Rüeggers:) Tomorrow I will continue to Munich alone and Friday I am off to Greece!

Yesterday we visited Bern, the capital of Switzerland.  We saw parliament and I got a free postcard of the current 7 "presidents" serving the country.  They alternate each year which person has to serve as the head, but otherwise they are equals and are elected by representatives, not the people directly.  We saw a huge tower--Zytglogge which has moveable parts (think giant cuckoo clock, only medieval figures instead of birds!) Switzerland was founded in 1291. We also climbed a huge cathedral, Münster, and had a vantage point of Bern.  Bern used to have bears in pits because bears are on the flag, but thankfully, animal activists finally won their battle and Jessica and I were please to not find bears in captivity:)

Next we continued to Fribourg, where Jessica's sister, Vanessa works and lives.  We had an AMAZING dinner with her and heard about her recent 5 month stay in Syria and I even got tea from Sudan:)  So generous!  

This morning Jessica and I covered Zürich by foot...with only some snow, lots of wind and FREEZING temperatures.  We walked along the river to Lake Zürich, the university she attended, saw the big 3 churchs: Fraumünster (Chagall windows), St. Peterskirche (biggest clock on church tower in all of Europe), Grossmünster (VERY old, cerca 1400s, jessica's med school graduation held here:)).  Next we had tea with an old friend of Jessica's--they spoke English, just for me:) We then went to a Hamam, or Turkish bath.  Just what we needed after the frigid weather.  It was extremely relaxing and evidently just like Syria.  Yes, I did accidentally see naked old men. hm. 

Now, I am extremely full after a dinner with Jessica, Rita, and my mom's cousin, Sandy.  She plays violin for a symphony in Zürich and has been here 23 years.  It was great to catch up.  I hadn't seen her since her wedding in CA, when I was 11. Now it's time to pack...i'd really like to return to Switzerland in summer, it's hard for me to imagine it not 0 degrees and snowing:)