Switzerland and France: Bern and Paris

Monday morning, we got up to catch a 6:30 train to Milan (don't worry, I slept for most of it!) and from Milan on to Bern, Switzerland. We got to take a train through the Alps and saw a bunch of little Swiss towns. It was fantastic!

I'm pretty sure that Bern is my favorite city from that trip. It was quite compact and clean. I just loved it. Monday we didn't do much. We got to Bern around 2 or 3, checked into our hostel, got some Swiss francs, and went to a grocery store to grab dinner. We met an Australian woman in the hostel who is a teacher back home, and explained the Australian education system to us. That was pretty cool. Also, it was lovely to meet a math person who doesn't lord this fact over us poor humanities people. Because math is clearly SO much more practical. Anyway, we also met a group of guys from St. Thomas, traveling during their interim. We watched the Italian Job and Boiler Room with them and talked for a little. It was nice. They told us about how they had a big party when the new pope was named. At least St. Olaf isn't THAT weird!

The next day, we went to the Bern Munster, after taking a picture of the crazy statue outside our hostel. It had an ogre eating babies. Who makes a statue of that and sticks it in the middle of town? I mean, really. Anyway, the Munster was pretty amazing. It was quiet and sunny and someone was practicing the organ (which always makes a church visit much nicer). Above the main doors, however, there is a sculpture depicting heaven and hell. It's pretty hilarious, because it looks kind of like what we Americans see as that sort of Germanic folk-art sculpture, that's always cheery and whatnot (like in cuckoo clocks), except that the figures are being roasted alive. It's quite the disconnect.

After that, we swung by the bear pits. They were pretty much the cutest things ever. I really kind of wanted to cuddle with them, but then I thought about how they would probably eat my face if I tried. They're pretty lazy bears, too. They just sit around and wait for people to throw fruit at them. If they can't catch the fruit with minimal effort, they just let it fall and ignore it.

We spent the afternoon at the Swiss Alpine Museum. It was interesting, but they couldn't decide if they were glad they were out of the past (because life in the Alps was so hard) or not (because all these stupid tourists are ruining the environment). So they just held both opinions. I really wanted to tell them to just make up their minds already, because you can't have it both ways.

That night, we didn't do much. We hunted down the ticket counter of the train station to buy our tickets to Paris, and I wasn't feeling well, so we watched Sideways (which annoys me, in general. I don't like people like the characters in the film. There are better things to spend your time and money on than wine and food. Really.) and went to bed.

We had to get up relatively early again the next morning to go to Paris. We got in around 1 or 2 and checked in to our hostel, then went out to the Pantheon. I got to see murals about Saint Louis and Clovis and Charlemagne (which makes me a happy history student) and I got to see the tombs of Rousseau, Voltaire (who I love), Dumas, and Hugo. And Marie Curie. So that was pretty cool. Oh, and Foucault's Pendulum, which was also cool. After that, we went to Notre Dame and wandered around there for a bit, before stopping at a grocery store and heading back to the hostel.

The next day, Catie and I split up. She went to the Musee d'Orsay and I went to the Musee de Cluny, which had all sorts of religious art. It was pretty amazing. I got to see tons of tapastries, including La Dame et La Licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn, a series of 6 tapastries about the five senses) and some pretty cool miserichords. Miserichords are little ledges they put on the undersides of the seats of the quire (or choir) of a cathedral, so that you could lean against them and still look like you were standing during mass. They would carve neat little symbols into them. I like medieval art because, well, firstly, because I like medieval stuff, and because it's mostly decorative art and has a purpose. After that, we climbed up to the top of Notre Dame. The views were amazing! Then, we went to Sainte-Chapelle. This is the chapel Louis IX built to house the crown of Thorns, apparently. there was tons of beautiful stained glass, depicting stories from the Old Testament, mostly. There was a window for Judith (who's in the Apocrypha, and cuts off the head of Holophenes. It's a pretty amazing story) and Job. It was cool.

That night, we walked down to see the Eiffel Tower. It was lovely, but really far away and I refused to take the metro (I was running out of Euros and didn't want to take out more money. Anyway, what good are feet if you don't use them?). After that, we came back to the hostel, booked a train home, and ended up going out with some people we met from Los Angeles. So that was nice.

The next day, we got up and went to the Arc de Triomphe. Then, we went to the Opera Garnier, where the Phantom of the Opera was set. It's so ornate! It's really hard to believe until you see it. Then, we did some shopping, went to take pictures of Thomas Jefferson (though that was mostly me. But can you really pass up taking a picture of one of our Founding Fathers anywhere? No. If you can, they should take away your citizenship.) and got to the Louvre by 6:00. See, on Fridays after 6, if you are under 26, you get in for free. The problem was, this was literally the last thing we did on our trip. We were tired and didn't really care anymore. I, at least, just wanted to be back in Norwich, where I knew what's going on and had my own bed and shower and could be gloriously alone for an entire day if I wanted. So we didn't really appreciate the Louvre the way we felt we should have. I think it's too huge for anyone to really appreciate it the way they ought, though. Same with any giant art museum. There's just too much. Anyway, so I got to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, as well as a bunch of Egyptian stuff, some statues from Ancient Iran, and a really cool room on Coptic Egypt. When we were done, we went back to the hostel and I collapsed.

We got up early again the next morning to catch our train to London. It was weird, because the sun hadn't risen before we got into the Chunnel, so I couldn't tell we had even gone in until we got out of it. You have no idea how absolutely wonderful it felt to be back in England. Even looking back on it now, I love this country so much more for having been gone for so long. I don't stick out quite so much. Anyway, then we took a train to Ely and from there a train to Norwich (which was much cheaper, incidentally, than buying a day-of ticket from London to Norwich, AND I got to use my young-person's railpass. Yay!).

So now I'm home, settled into a new class schedule and back into eating pasta and eggs and potatoes every single day. I'm glad I am.