Berne Switzerland

Hi Gents,

Landed a couple of hours ago and finally got settled into my room at the IBIS EXPO in Berne. Twenty-one hours of planes, trains and automobiles and I'm running on coffee and airline food with no sleep for 24 hours. Flight from Kingston was interesting first of all because the plane is small and I like to compare how it flys with how a twin engine plane of 1940 vintage might have performed, and secondly due to the weather. While not severe by any stretch, the cloud layers were increadibly complex with multiple layers upon layers with clear zones between with at least five different cloud types. I leaned into the cockpit on my way out at Pearson and said "thanks, great job" to the young pilot and he genuinely looked pleased that someone had taken notice of and appreciated his flying skills. The skies had the look of some Julies Verne epic under the sea rather than flying high in the air. The clouds mixed and mingled as they flashed by and often we punched right through a wall of thick billows then drop through a layer that looked as solid as the arctic tundra.

Caught sunset over Gaspe Bay and sunrise over Ireland. At one point when I was trying to catch a few Zzzzs between screaming babies and the guy sitting next to me who must have had terrets syndrome, I opened my eyes and spotted another jet liner only a few hundred meters away. What an incredible sight, mid-atlantic ocean and here these two planes are flying as if in a 401 squadron formation. I had spotted contrails running parallel to our own course an hour or so earlier but had no inkling that our aircraft were tracking so closely together.

Travelling in Europe is a breaze since practically everyone speaks English. The landing in Zurich went without a hitch and I managed to figure our their tram/rail system, akin to the Toronto subway say from Finch connecting at Union station with the via line, so I found my luggage, got on all the right shuttles, trams and trains and ended up in the Berne station. Hailed a cab and sure enough he was from Syria, flew cargo planes in and out of the West Bank and lived in Toronto for awhile. I was going to ask him if he knew of CoD but was afraid that if he did, he'd spend twenty-minutes talking about it.

Spring here has come early, it's lush and green but cool (22-24 daytime and -2 at night). Girls are pretty (what did you expect) and the buildings are all a century past their prime. Mega construction everywhere and like every city that I've been to in the world, that which lays along a railroad track is usually tired, run down and covered in graffitti. Can't judge a city or country by that standard, taken the Toronto to Montreal Via train lately? If that was your only view of Canada, it would be pretty bias for sure.

Well, it's 0628 by my clock, 1228 local time and I'm going to kip out awhile until I get hungry enough to get up and go find something. Got tomorrow to myself, so I'll play tourist all day and wander about, take some shots.

Stretched out for awhile in a chilly Ikea style room 8 x 12 foot at best and pulled my Army rain jacket over my shoulders to get a little sleep, without screwing up my attempts to adjust my internal clock. Got two maybe three hours then got up to shower and do a little research on the town. Finally tallied the Alps, shrouded in cloud when I first arrived, but now there they are, jutting upwared with their sharp jagged peaks in behind the lush foodhills to the foreground. Reminds me of the mountains along the Croatian coast between Bosnia and the Adriadic Sea. Berne Alps

Due to the fact that heavy rain was in the forecast and some threatening clouds were coming up from the South, I decided to stay put for dinner and enjoy simple fair at the hotel. Local beer (yum yum) and Swiss lasagna (also yum but too small and with no trimmings) filled the fill since my new clock settings said "Dinner Time" but my body clock said, "hey stupid, it's noon...duh!). Anyway, the clock won out so I enjoyed my local brew and the pretty lass behind the counter who switched seemlessly from German, Italian, English and excellent Frence without missing a beat. God, she's only 20years old! I can hardly speak the Queen's (Canadian eh!) English let alone three other languages. Oh and a few Koreans and others were splashed into the mason jar just for kicks.

OK. it's 1511 hrs Toronto time, and getting dark here at eleven past nine, but the skies are clearing my 401 brothers and I think I have the energy to hike downtown to check out the Saturday night action in Switzerland. With any luck I'll get totally lost and have to be rescued by some young fräulein. Actually I need to behave, representing Canada and all.

If all it took was getting lost to meet pretty young women, my years on Toronto would have been much different.
Take care, and good luck "getting lost".

StiC

Good walk downtown into the old medieval section of the city. Nightlife is happening but behaved, just good fun. Fortunatelly I found my way back.

I borrowed a shot from the internet but this looks the same as the photo I took.Berne at night
Gerectigheitsgasse

Rain and more rain. Downtown walk is about 4km but the rain has been persistent off and on all morning so sitting tight in my room with the view. Looking southward from where I am just on the northern edge of the city, I can see the weather system pile up against the Alps. It pushes in from the North West central Europe, hits the edge of the mountains then cascades North East dumping much of its moisture in the process.

Radar Sat image link Weather Radar

Sorry boys, not much to do with airplanes.