Bern is Switzerland’s de facto capital. It’s the location for the country’s Federal Government – it is really the country’s Federal City. It is built around the River Aare. It is relatively small and extremely beautiful.
Bern’s famous Clock Tower provides an elaborate mechanical show every hour. Medieval figures and bears intricately dance and weave. This Tower provided the inspiration for the young Einstein to start his journey on the way to understanding time, space and light.
We visited Bern so many times. Strangely it never once rained. Coming from Yorkshire that is mind boggling. The city has a wonderful small Zoo and a Bear Park (thankfully now upgraded). With our son’s Aspergers we would precisely follow the same itinerary on each visit.
- Arrive by Train
- Zoo
- Bear Park
- Sausages and Fries over looking the river
- Clock Tower
- Ice cream
- Back on the Train
One memory sticks and it really sums up Switzerland. On our very first visit we arrived by train and had absolutely no idea how to get to the Zoo. Clearly lost we asked a random person if they had any idea where we would find the Tourist Information. The really friendly Swiss chap asked (in perfect English) was there anywhere in particular we were trying to get to. He went into his bag gave us a pristine timetable and then explained the precise timings. Five minutes later the chap had walked with us to the Bus Stop and waited with us until the Tierpark Bus had arrived. So utterly Swiss….
Excellent. I spent over 6 years total as an American in Germany. Far different culture. We should embody some of that care here. Is your place even a smidge better?
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U.K. was but not anymore. I like Germany it’s a great country to visit and I suspect to live. Just need to get through today’s school day.
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I love Switzerland.
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It is a wonderful place.
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LOL! If that’s a typical Swiss chap, I’ll have to go there someday!
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And think of the chocolate and all those imaginary portals.
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Yes indeed! Portals *MADE OF CHOCOLATE.* Best ever 🙂
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Don’t forget the cheese fondues And the legendary hot chocolates….
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Oooooo and I’m off Whole30! (frantic running on water)
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As long as you don’t do a Spongebob and Patrick sugar rush from the last movie.
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Oh true.
But tonight I have my creamy peanut butter at last! Oh Skippy, I have missed you…. 🙂
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Enjoy.
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Sounds a great place, never been though.
Did you just take day trips to Switzerland, or were you living/holidaying there and visited Bern a few times in your stay? 🙂
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With son’s Aspergers it repetition was key to an enjoyable holiday.
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Understood. 🙂
Which gets me thinking… your son’s abilities, (and some troubles) seem to centre about sequences, order, logical construction, which are indeed important in building up a sensible view of the world in which each one of us lives. Frequently though, we cannot rely upon these with 100% certainty and we need to find mechanisms to deal with those times in order to function in a sometimes emotional and illogical (disordered) society.
With the dyslexia, can you determine what letters/numbers are most likely to be confused and in what examples (are 2 letters altered so that they are in correct alphabetic sequence, for example?)
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Yes he works best when you get predictable sequences. The but we are trying to work on is both on trying to recognise the commonly used Words and trying to move away from trying to read by just analysing each letter but look for patterns.
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Our brains are very good at seeing patterns (well, most of ours are!) 🙂 Sometimes though, because the brain needs to take shortcuts in order to deal with massive amounts of data it receives every second, what we ‘see’ may not necessarily be what we think we saw. It helps our understanding (and stress levels) if we are aware of that possibility. There are some words i always type wrong because my brain has locked into an incorrect pattern, even though i know how to spell them correctly? (the brain uses different parts and connections for spelling and writing/typing and reading).
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Same here. In son’s case his brain splits words up into individual letters, even those he has seen 100s of times. Trying to move more to patterns to speed up. Have to say the bizarre English language rules do not sit well with his rational mind.
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Oh, I’m SO with him on that score! 😦
It’s a problem for all of us, that our brains can work much more quickly than we generally learn to read, and far quicker than we can physically write. unless we can teach our brain how to compensate for this those two tasks are always going to be somewhat inefficient/inaccurate. 😦
Wish i knew more on the topic and on dyslexia.
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Problem is that the knowledge seems to be very patchy. Son calls it a hidden disability that nobody cares about.
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Not many is probably true, sadly, and fewer round your way it seems??
Fortunately there is this thing called the Interwebs where he might find a few people just like he is? 🙂 Or you can find something of use to you both?
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Very true sir.
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Lovely! You could do tourist write-ups for Switzerland since you’re making us all want to visit there!
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It’s such a special place. Somehow still managing to keep its unique identity.
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