We went to bed thinking we might be taking the train to Bern and woke up to a somewhat brighter day and it wasn’t raining. Hooray! We were biking. Of course that is exactly how yesterday started out and we got drenched, but we felt optimistic and could always hop on a train in Fribourg if we needed to.
We did a quick spin around Bulle before we left and it is absolutely lovely. Yesterday’s weather wasn’t conducive to sight seeing, that is for sure. Bulle deserved more time than we able to give it.
Then we were off on a spectacular ride. The kind of riding we just love. Rolling hills, beautiful scenery, charming small villages, low traffic or no traffic and no rain. We kept commenting to each other how much we were loving it. Keith doesn’t typically use the route planner on Guru but their were so many choices of route today he let Guru do the choosing and it was outstanding. Lots of elevation in those rolling hills...we climbed 879 m today.
We stopped in Fribourg for our picnic, and then negotiated our way out of town. It was a much larger place than I had realized, but the CN led us right through. A long stretch was on a bus/bike lane. We love these. It works so well. We had one coming into Bern as well.
Then there was more amazing riding and more rolling terrain. It was a fantastic ride. There was always something to look at, the road surfaces were great.
On the left you can see a wee bit of mountain if you look carefully.
Bern is incredibly bike friendly and there were no issues getting into town, other than remembering to be aware of other bikes. There are so many. We did have one funny thing happen though. We are staying in an Ibis and there are two in Bern. Keith led us straight to the wrong one. Oops. A few km later, and having had the absolute pleasure of riding through the centre of Bern, we were there.
Bern is gorgeous and we are staying here for two nights so we can spend all day tomorrow exploring it. It really is a stunning place.
This is the monument of the Universal Postal Union. Here is Berna holding the city coat of arms.
Five figures, representing Africa, Asia, the Americas, Australia and Europe are handing mail to each other, symbolizing communication around the world. The sculpture was unveiled in 1909.
We are comfortable in the Ibis. Our room overlooks the National Equestrian Centre and I watched dressage practice and jumping practice. It is a huge complex. We will take some pictures in the morning.
