The chateau pictured (right) is called Gruyere Chateau and is one of Switzerlands most impressive historic sites.

It was from this Chateau that swiss nobility first greeted the Lutherens and as such can be claimed to be the birth place of christianity in Switzerland.

The Chateau itself is open to the public and has been restored to a certain extent although a lot of the mosaics and paintings are obviously beyond repair.

One of the other interesting facts about this location is that it is also the home of the Geiger museum. H.R.Geiger was of course the artist responsible for the aliens (from the films of the same name).

If you were to see nothing else in this entire region then the Geiger museum would be well worth the pause.

The two images (left) were taken in the museum.

One point that people outside of Switzerland do not seem to be aware of is the question of capital city.

What is the capital of Switzerland?

The actual capital of Switzerland is Bern

The financial capital of Switzerland is Zurich

The cultural capital of Switzerland is Geneva

One of Berns main claims to fame is that Einstein lived here for a couple of years.

The Einstein museum is open to the public but is rather small and there are much more interesting things to see in this lovely little city.

One of Berns other major tourist attractions are the bear pits. The bears are majestic creatures who are by far the laziest creatures I have ever seen. In the pictures below you can see that the bears are either sat down or have just strolled over to the shade (because they're tired of eating).

The bear pictured in the picture below to the right didn't actually move from this position for the 20 minutes that I was there and in fact bearly moved its head unless food came flying at its snout.

The countries parliment also resides in Bern.

One of the other areas of Switzerland that is well worth the visit is the Grindlwald area.

The area contains Switzerlands highest mountains and is a two and a half hour drive from Geneva.