After grabbing an extra set of gloves, Tom and I ventured off. Bern was our main destination today. But we had an important detour: Kambly's factory.
For those of you who don't know, Kambly's is a cookie factory. Tom likes this spot because they hand out samples like nobody's business. We got off the train outside the door of the factory. It was obvious to see this stop had been made for the cookies. Any other benefit is purely coincidental.
I was expecting a tour of a factory with some cookies at the end. Oh how wrong I was. Quite literally, it is rows and rows of cookies with buckets of open cookies for testing. It was a great lunch- I mean, snack. They also have videos on their processes from farm to factory. They have a presentation on the original creator of Kambly's. It was all very well done and well put together. But none of that compares to the heavenly cookies. Have no fear, my readers. There are distributors across the world.
We happily got on the next train to Bern. As the train whooshed past the valleys and rivers, the sun peaked out. Not enough to vanquish all the clouds. But enough for me to excitedly snap some pictures. And finally I saw the bridges into Bern.
Upon arriving in Bern, Tom and I took about ten steps before the realization of what we had to do. He went off to play Ingress and I went off to wander in the most aimless way. We set a meeting time and place and said farewell.
When I explore, I'm a big fan of just going. I've had people say that is the worst way because I may miss something. I say, what if I stumble upon something better?
So I looked up, saw a big church steeple, and headed that way. Sure enough it was open. I opened the big heavy door and found utter silence. I was a little worried I was breaking in somehow through an open door. I looked around and didn't see any signs or anything. So I continued on. I never saw another person in the church, but it didn't matter. This church was unlike any church I've seen on this trip thus far. It had high ceilings and open walls like other churches. But instead of a unifying color, it was like a tie-dye church. No, I'm not kidding. It was incredible. I sat and contemplated this church's coloring versus the more simplistic decorations of other churches. But I realized it wasn't less or more decorated. Just different. Other churches have silver and gold covering complex designs on alters. This had less objects and just more color. I was impressed with it. And the fact it was completely silent only added a factor of elegance in a way.
My wanderings left the church and found a park that overlooked the city. Old men played chess, a couple had a picnic despite the snow, and children made snow angels. A pond allowed little ducks to playfully splash around. It was quite picturesque but nothing compared to looking out over Bern.
I walked through the park for a while. Then I exited to head to the Parliment building. I walked around looking at the amazing architecture on every building. Gargoyles hung on every edge. Swirls and twirls lined the walls, showing nothing but beauty and elegance. My favorite building caught my attention. Sure it was something amazing, I headed towards it. "The Federal Finances Building." Well then. I didn't go in, but continued to strain my neck looking upwards at all the designs. For some reason, I only have a picture of the main Parliment building. I don't know what happened there. I guess I got a bit caught up in my staring at the buildings. But as ice skaters laughed in front of the Parliment building, I remembered to take a picture.
I crossed the bridge and stumbled across the main muesum of Bern. I looked at the sculptures in front, the beautiful building itself, and contemplated spending the money to go inside. As I was thinking about it, I glanced the opposite direction. Da da DAAAAA! The hidden gem that wandering will find had appeared. "The Alpine Museum." Reading this some of you will go "What is she saying right now....?" And some of you will go, "Meh, that's decent..." And finally, some of you, most likely climbers, will go, "Oh yeah! Score!" If you are one of the first two, feel free to look at pictures and move on. I'm not claiming to be a climber, (yet! Hopefully soon!) but I was really excited at this. A museum about Swiss and other mountaineers? Yeah!
The lady selling me the ticket informed me that normally the museum is about how the Swiss have influenced mountaineering. But their exhibit now is climbing in the Himalayas and how media has affected climbing. I was sure it'd be worth it. I was correct. Again, if you were one of the first two answers, not the muesum for you.
The exhibit started with a excursion up K2. Jules Jacot Guillarmod from Neuchâtel lead the trip along with Aleister Crowley. They captured the first ever panoramic picture of K2. Their journals, poetry, and pictures are combined into an entire museum exhibition. Then the exhibit talks about how films about mountaineering have progressed through time. They showed a 1935 film called "The Demon of the Himalayas." It was the first mountaineering movie filmed on an actual mountain. They only had funding for 2 professional actors. So climbers and sherpas had to act as well. The film was created around the time of the Himalayan Expeditions in 1934. Because of that, many of the actual Exhibition participants were in the film. It wasn't filmed in the Himalayas. Surprise, surprise. It was filmed in Switzerland! However, it was never shown outside of Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
The last part of the exhibit was interviews with Swiss mountaineers today. How media affects them personally. They discussed balancing needing to be sponsored and needing the tranquility you find when its just you and the mountain. It was very interesting. It was also a very good reminder that sometimes... Most of the time, the best memories are when its just your eyes. When you finally allow yourself to not feel the need to update the world. When you can allow yourself to just be in a moment. That's when you are passionate about your life. Cheers to finding your mountain face in life and being.
No comments:
Post a Comment