My dad is visiting us during a couple of weeks, and for a long time we wanted to visit the Qin Terracotta Warriors exhibition in Bern. Finally, yesterday we thought this would be a good opportunity to do it together, so we booked a car and visited the Swiss capital to watch this interesting exhibition. When we ended our visit to Bern, after getting quite a few ice creams on such a hot summer day, we decided to also visit Thun, located only 30 km south of Bern. This city has a beautiful landscape where the River Aar flows out of Lake Thun. When we were walking towards the lake, we saw some charming old wooden bridges like the ones you can observe in this picture.

Every time I go to Berlin, I'm quickly reminded why this is my favorite European city. As I get close to Alexanderplatz, I feel excited to be visiting the German capital again. The first time I visited the city was 7 years ago, and it’s amazing how much the city has changed in that short time: The Palace of the Republic is gone, the Hauptbahnhof has been completed, and the area around the parliament is getting nicer and nicer. Each time I visit Berlin, I get the opportunity to see something new I haven’t seen before, and this time was no exception: While we were walking near Postdamer Platz, we saw a small flyer talking about a watchtower, and indeed we found, hidden by a tree, one of the last remaining surveillance symbols of the GDR.

Last weekend I was in Zurich enjoying the last day of the festival Zueri Faescht. I wasn't aware that my friend A. told me this festival only takes place every three years, so I'm glad I made it even if it was only for the last day. The city was absolutely packed and there was music and food all over and plenty of shows. One of the most impressive ones in my opinion was the tightrope walk between the towers of St. Peters Church and the Grossmunster cathedral, over the Limmat River by Alfons Bügler. It was really spooky to see this tightrope walker go from one church to the other without any protection. I took this photo when he was starting the walk in St. Peters.

In my fourth visit to Poland I had the chance to visit a very picturesque town at the banks of the Vistula River: Kazimierz Dolny. I had mentioned the town when we were in Switzerland, so I was very curious, and I was not disappointed at all. The city has very interesting architecture with former warehouses restored to their former glory. It's also possible to climb a small hill to get a beautiful view of the river and the city center that you can observe here in this picture taken earlier today.

Some weeks ago a Polish colleague recommended to us a small city near Colmar called Riquewihr, that he described as a gorgeous medieval city located in the mountains with an old walled center. Today we decided to head north into France to visit this place, and we were able to corroborate that this place is indeed one of the most beautiful towns in the Alsatian region. We were reading that during WWII this was one of the few places that were spared from destruction, since it was relatively hidden in a cul-de-sac, and so there are many houses from the 15th century really well preserved. One of the perks of visiting this place is the route to get there, since you pass through several vinicole plantations and some other nice towns as well. In one of the towers surviving the original wall built by the Duke of Horburg in the 13th century, you can visit a museum with the history of the city. It's called Dolder in Alsatian, meaning the highest point, where I took this picture.

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