Bern and Solothurn

Pictures from the Naef Toy Factory (Kristina, Ashton, and Rachel), the Paul Klee Museum, a park in Bern (Me in one, and Ashton, Daniel, and Kristina in the other) and a view in Bern.

Yesterday we started the day at the Naef Toy Factory; it is a famous Swiss company that hand makes wooden toys (most are wooden anyway). They are really beautiful pieces and are quite expensive because of the design, work, and precision that go into each of them. Our tour guide was asked how he was able to get a job at Naef and modestly told us that he is the grandson of the founder. We got to see how some of the toys are made and then go play with them in a show room of sorts. We all purchased something; I think it would be impossible not to after going there.
We then went over to the Paul Klee Museum, designed by Renzo Piano, to see both the artist's work and the building itself. It was a beautiful exhibit of all of his wide range of work, from study sketches of people to hanging pieces made of wood and string to more realistic still life works. There was also an exhibit called "The Lost Paradise" about humans and their existence in relation to tragedy; it had many photographs and videos depicting people, ideas and scenes from the Holocaust, as refugees, from the atomic bombings in Japan and so forth. It was incredibly powerful.
We were then about to head back to the main part of Bern and spend time wandering around for a while before dinner. After we went dancing at a Cuban/Latin style club. A full, but very nice day.







Pictures from Solothurn. The clock only has 11 numbers because that is a lucky and holy number for Solothurn.


Today we drove into Solothurn; we immediately dropped our stuff off at our hotel, then went on a walking tour with Lucy Ferrari. We were brought down to a main square in the market to wander a while on our own and grab lunch, then she led us around the city. She is from this region, so later in the afternoon she went to visit relatives.
After we went on our own in the afternoon we continued to look around and sketch. Then Ashton, Kristina, Daniel and I went to a cafe to get coffee and knit! That is something I should mention... after I taught Lindsey to knit, everyone has wanted to learn.. right now I've taught 9 people, so 10 of the 16 of us are knitting and more are going to soon! I think we all will be before its over. We are joking that I am starting a knitting revolution.

Tomorrow we leave Solothurn a little later than usual, so we may sleep in a bit, then we are off to Basel!