Day 19: Bern – Ballenburg/Brienz

Today we went to the Open Air Museum in Ballenburg. It was going to be almost a 2 hour trip to get there, so we started the day early and got up at 7am.

We were out the door by 8am, and quickly stopped by the Coop to pick up a couple pears to go with our lunch. We caught the 8:38 train to Interlaken. From there, we transferred onto a short train that went to Brienz. From Brienz, we caught a bus that would take us to the Ballenburg museum. We finally arrived at the museum entrance at ~10.45 (according to our tickets). Entrance was free, thanks to our Swiss Pass. A view of the lake from Brienz:

The Ballenburg Open Air Museum is a large area with walkways, fields, and buildings. (Think Canadian Heritage Site like Louisburg or Sault Saint Marie Among the Hurons, but without the actors and live demonstrations).The buildings are used to describe life in various parts of Switzerland in the past. Many of the buildings are authentic, and were built between 1700 and 1900. Some of the buildings were located in the area, and others were moved from other areas of Switzerland.

The buildings include:

-          store houses for cheese and grains

-          homes

-          farm houses

-          barns

Some houses:

Even bear decided to jump in a photo!

The museum also featured a number of farm animals that were in various fields. The chickens kinda ran around wherever they’d like, though. (We even saw an egg laid in a random corner just outside one of the houses in the dirt…). We saw:

-          Donkeys

-          Horses

-          Cows (lots of cows. With Bells)

-          Chickens (as above, running around wherever)

-          Goats (with babies!)

-          Pigs

-          Turkeys

-          Geese

We had a visitor when we were eating lunch. This guy was nearly as bad as pidgins! (And kept making Rooster noises).

This donkey decided to make donkey noises while we were watching it - it seemed as if it was hyperventilating... (and a moment later, it's young-un came jumping along for a drink of milk).

Lots of pigs:

We spent the day trying to cover as much of the museum as possible. The place was huge, and it would clearly be impossible to try to do the whole thing in one day. We hit the highlights, and enjoyed taking things at our own pace rather than following one of the self-guided tours. Overall, we spent about 4 hours there.

By 3, we were getting pretty exhausted, so we caught the next bus back into Brienz.

A few days ago, I was getting pretty frustrated with the cuckoo clock search, so I emailed the makers of the only genuine Swiss clock about where I could purchase their clocks. I received a response yesterday indicating that there was a store in Brienz that sold many of the clocks, so that was where we headed next.

The Loetscher clocks are hand carved in Brienz, and then shipped to Zurich to be assembled (supposedly some of the mechanisms are German?), so I felt it was appropriate to be buying it in the town it was carved in.

I got a really awesome clock, and I’d love to share a picture, but it’s all packed up in a box ready for transport, and Jeff didn’t take a picture in the shop (he’s been hogging the camera, so this is why I blame it on him). I could have paid almost 100fr to ship it, or I could take it myself. I decided that I could probably manage carrying it, so I saved myself the money. And the anxious waiting once I get back to Canada to find it hasn’t made it through customs yet :p.

After I purchased my cuckoo clock, we headed back to Bern. We arrived back to the Bern Bahnhof around 6 o’clock (feeling pretty exhausted), and went on a quest to find Bratwurst to go with dinner. Jeff ended up going back to the Coop while I took our stuff up to our room, and then got dinner started. This evening we had a very random supper:

-          Fanta to drink

-          Salad and leftover pasta

-          Bratwurst and mustard from a tube (think toothpaste...)

-          A Brau beer from Interlaken

-          Leftover apple pie from last night

After dinner, we relaxed for a bit (got started on the blog), and then went outside to catch the 9 o’clock “show” of the clock tower around the corner. It proved to be much less impressive than the tour book made it out to be, but it was still worth seeing.

The little figures to the right moved around a bit, and the king on his throne used a "wand" to cause the bell to ring.

On our way there, we happened upon a band playing music in the plaza outside the hostel. We stopped for a bit of music. I told Jeff to make sure to include the trombones, but he only got the corner of one of them. :( He also failed at getting the whole band name...

Tomorrow we head to Interlaken for a few nights. From Interlaken we’re hoping to go into the mountains – the Lauterbrunnen valley, and hopefully (crossing fingers!!!!) up the Jungfrau mountain. Supposedly we might go up the Shilthorn if the Jungfrau doesn’t work out. This is the mountain that was in a James Bond movie (according to Jeff).