Federal Palace in Bern

Today I needed to go to the U.S. Embassy in Bern. I needed to get a replacement S.S. card for Parker. It was a bit nippy outside and the line into the embassy was long. Fortunately that long line was for non-U.S. citizens. My line was empty and I went right in. My business didn't take long and in short order Parker and I were free to walk around Bern.

We didn't do anything and or go see anything in particular - we just walked around. I took a few pictures here and there. The following pictures are of the Federal Palace in Bern. This is where Switzerland's Federal Assembly, well ah, assembles. It consists of two Chambers: the National Council and the Council of States with each being on a equal level. The first two pictures are from the north, while the third is from the south. The palace has been recently renovated and looks quite impressive. Click here to take a virtual tour of the place. In the upper right will be language choices - click on EN for English.
To get the picture from the south Parker and I had to walk down hill quite a ways. I would say way more than the palace is tall - all the way down to the river. On the way down something interesting caught my eye. Check out this cat walk.
Whatever cat(s) uses this thing is a very daring cat!

From down below the palace we walked east along the river. On our way we passed what I believe was a painter's shop. I thought their building was cool so I snapped a picture of it.
The river makes a big u-turn to run back west on the north side of the old city center. Somewhere in the middle of this turn we headed back uphill to the city. We walked out onto a bridge going north across the river and took one last picture. You can see just how high we were. This will give you an idea how far we walked down to the river and back up!