A Holiday On A Holiday!

On Monday we had our first family holiday with Gaby to the city of Bern (the capital of Switzerland), which is approximately an hour's train ride away. Well, basically you can think of it as going from Jurong to Tampines for a holiday ok? The qualifying factor which makes it a holiday is the hotel stay of course! (Staying in a hotel, no matter how fantastic or cheap, always makes a holiday a holiday)

Bern's the federal city of Switzerland and is mainly German speaking, with a pretty small population of a little over 100,000 people. I've concluded that apart from being the somewhat Canberra of Switzerland, Bern was also once a home to Einstein! We went to the Einstein Museum (more details about that next post) which was pretty insightful. (I think I now almost understand the Theory of Relativity fully).

Our first and only photo with everyone!

We went to this tourist spot which hosts several Brown Bears, the animal icon of Bern. (I don't know what the exact story is, but I'm sure you can read about it on Wiki or something.

And look! Ang moh huat kueh! (Those chinese prayer cakes) We didn't try any of that though, it was huge.

The train which we took to Bern was similar to this one, a double deckered train that runs from one end of Switzerland to the other. Tickets to Bern cost about 60Francs each. (But Liner, my sister and mum bought 50% discount cards which give them cheaper tickets). Expensive MRT hor?

Not only is transport expensive, (a daily tram ticket would cost about 8 Francs, and my monthly pass was 80 Francs), housing is pretty pricey, food is pricey (my sister and liner's meal for 2 at a restaurant was 70Francs, and it was Schnitzel of all things! I was appalled that they charged 30 bucks for fried breaded meat and veggies man...

But... there are some cheap things here in Switzerland. Alcohol, for one, as it is in almost all European countries, seems to be cheaper than water. Just look at the extensive range of wine, liquor and what not in their larger supermarket

That's just a third of the area my camera could capture

GIANT PLATE OF ICE KACHANG!!! I bet ice kachang would be dirt cheap if it were sold.

On a more serious note, cars ARE cheap here. Look at the price of the Porche!

And the price of the Jaguar! An old Jaguar is still a jaguar...But toys are expensive, this tiny pink lamb was 4 Francs (But it's cute and I'm reliving my childhood)

Speaking of toys... I can't believe christmas is coming! It feels sooooo distant because I feel so cut off from all teh festivities in church or at home. And since it's snowing all the time, it takes that 'christmasy' feel away. Even our fireplace doesn't look as christmasy as the movies make it out to be. Right now I'm just replaying Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You just so that I can get into that christmas mood.

Fireplace!

Well, Merry Christmas everyone!! I wish I could be spending it in Singapore with the hot weather and friends though, but I am thankful for the nice cold weather and potential fireplace. OK I shall put up stockings on the fireplace!