October Fun

Laura and Jeff's last day here.  We took it easy, walked around town, got gelato, and went to the park. 

 Ben is still learning the slide.  Every time he gets to the bottom, he looks back at the top, a little confused.

 This was at the beginning of the playoffs.  They had a really good run, but didn't go as far as we had hoped. Yay Cardinals!

 Trying to have a fall photo shoot at the park.  He loves bubbles!

 He also loves eating leaves.

 More fun in the leaves.

 In Italy, there is something called an Agriturismo.  It is a farm and restaurant, and sometimes also a Bed&Breakfast.  The idea is that they grow/raise/produce what they serve in the restaurant- meat, vegetables, cheese, wine, gelato, etc.  They all have animals, but some have more than others.  This one was called Oasi, and it had quite a variety of animals, even some that were not destined for the restaurant.  Since Ben is learning animal noises (he can tell you what a cow and a duck say), we thought this would be a good time to see the animals in person.  He had a blast!  In addition to the pictures below, they also had hawks, owls, sheep, llamas, pigs, cows (mucche), very noisy bulls, mini horses, and peacocks (pavoni).

Galline

 Asini

 The baby was so soft!

 Some mean-looking struzzi

 Bisonti

 Cammello

 Tigri.  On a nice sunny afternoon, of course they were just sleeping.

 Oche.  The geese nibbled at Ben's shoe when it got too close, and he thought it was funny.  For all the animals we saw after that, he stuck a foot out toward the cage.

 See the foot?

 Emu

 Caprette

 

 Zucche

They were also into flying at this agriturismo. They had several aircraft shells from the Italian Air Force like this helicopter, and they had some actual flying mini helicopter-looking things (I think it translates to gyroplane).  Not sure if those were meant for the public, but we only watched.

 The next day we went to a different agriturismo to eat.  They had a few animals, the kind raised for the restaurant.

 Ben really liked the pigs because they were making so much noise.  We made sure to keep his feet away from these guys.  You can't really tell from the pictures, but these were not the cute little ones in storybooks.  These were gigantic, but they still had cute little curly tails.

Bern, Switzerland

After Laura and Jeff spent a few days in Rome and Florence, they came back to our apartment Thursday evening.  Early the next morning, we caught a train to Bern, Switzerland.  We were able to find a train that went directly from the backyard of our apartment straight to the street corner our hotel was on.  Convenient.




Bern is the capital of Switzerland.  It is picture perfect through the center of old town, with geraniums in every window.  We spent the afternoon walking around town.




 



The fountains at the government building.  Both babies loved to watch, but sadly, we didn't let them out to play.

 
At night, the lights change color too.  Again, the babies loved it!


The clock tower.  On the hour, the figures circle around for a cute little show.  The amazing part is that the astronomical clock was designed and built almost 500 years ago, and still works.

 

The apartment where Einstein lived for two years while he discovered the Theory of Relativity.



The bears.  Bears are something of a mascot to this city, and they have four live bears on display in a giant play area.  One of them was huge, two of them were still pretty young, and the other one was just right.




The bears' play-yard.  They even have access to part of the river.





The river.  We could not believe how blue and clear the water was.  It winds through the city, with Old Town right in one of its nooks.

 




The Cathedral from the back.


 From the front.  It was way too big to get a decent picture.

  The Rose Garden.  We had to walk up a huge hill to get to the rose garden, but it was worth it.  The roses were gorgeous, the trees were showing fall colors, and the view of Bern was great.






They had a nice playground near the rose garden as well.  Ben could really make the see saw go.  We had to hold on to Cecilia.

The strangest restroom.  You had to pull down the seat because it was spring loaded. Then the faucet sprayed straight into the toilet.


That night we wanted to try the cheese fondue that is so famous in Switzerland.  They only serve it with bread and potatoes, so we ordered two fondue pots and two entrees (wiener schnitzel).  We were pretty disappointed in the fondue.  We didn't really care for the type of cheese they used, but it was our only option.  I hate to say it, but I like the Melting Pot much better.  Of course, we knew nein German, so maybe we ordered or did something wrong.  We were afraid to try it again somewhere else. 





The next day we took a tram up a little mountain called Gurten.  They had a couple playgrounds, a restaurant, and a walking path at the top, with gorgeous views of the city and the mountains. 

 There was a viewing tower.  The guys climbed, the girls waited with the babies.

When Ben saw Tim up on the tower, he went for it and started climbing.

On the tram.

After coming back down to Bern, we decided to go for a beer and a pretzel.