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In the middle of September I have brought a new car. I was forced to make the change mainly because my old car was registered in Romania, and while now I am residing in Switzerland, I would had to register it here (which can be translated in a lot of taxes and a large decrease in its value - selling price). So, while in vacation in August in Romania, I have sold my old Opel Astra 1992 (still in a good condition) and started the process of buying a new Honda Civic on my return here. I have received the car on 13th of September, and I was so eager to take it for a ride, although with the purchasing, my bank balance was very close to zero. ...No, it is not the car in the right side image... but, you can find a very nice presentation of the model here.

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So, the first weekend day after the purchase, we went to Thun, a small city near Bern in central Switzerland, on the edge of Thunersee lake. We passed trough it on another occasion a few month ago, with a short stop at Oberhoften Castle at the outskirts of the city itself, to enjoy a morning coffee in beautiful surroundings.

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Thun city developed on the River Aare (just as Bern) as it flows out of the Thunersee lake. Both sides of the river and an island between them are inhabited and connected by several bridges - old and new. One of them in particular is build out of wood in traditional swiss architectural style for bridges, on the same design as the ones found in Bern, Fribourg, Lucerne and other cities across Switzerland. Like the one in Lucerne, it is build in several segments and covered. Also, the bridge is used as a dam to control the level of the water as it passes through the city, with several controlled floodgates, still of ancient and traditional design. The bridge, as usually, is decorated with bright red flowers, matching the wood's brown color.

© Bogdan (Help)

© Bogdan (Help)

The main landmark is the twelfth century castle dominating the its skyline and depicted in the right image. Besides the Oberhoften Castle, and the main Thun Castle, there is another famous one: Castle of Schadau, build in 18th century and now a Gastronomy Museum. Unfortunately, we have reached this last castle after sunset and before any illuminations (if any) were started, so I do not had any suitable for stock images to upload.

Since middle September, I have made a few more weekend excursion to visit some friends in Nancy, France and Milan, Italy and I will write about the impressions as soon as I can get the pictures approved and on-line.