While walking back to our hotel after a long day at Luzern, I noticed the sun was casting some great shadows and was a beautiful colour. The combination prompted me to snap quite a few shots in this light.

Just a few minutes earlier I had been swilling a large beer from a can while walking down the street — perfectly normal. We also passed a large group of homeless beggars outside a church or town hall.

This was our last day in Bern and pretty much the last photo I took in the country (other than some documentary shots). I like the colours, lines and shapes and the way they all intersect with one another.

Bern’s old town is a charming place. This is just across the river from the Bear Pit, within the original town.

I’m really glad we decided against going to Zurich and instead opted for Bern when making our Swiss travel arrangements. Unfortunately we missed out on seeing the Alps up close (our train traveled near them, but not too near).

Starting in Vienna I really picked up on using foreground objects to try and block out undesirables. You can just see the car here, though I could probably block it out in some post-processing should I desire.

I think the flowers are actually a little too out-of-focus here, but because of the way the colours are layered you can still tell what you are looking at.

Watching a plane fly overheard while standing on a bridge over the river Aar, Bern.

This is one of those shots that you think “got it!” just as you press the shutter. While we were crossing a bridge over the Aar river, I heard the plane, looked up and managed to compose exactly the shot I wanted with just enough time for the plane to be pretty much where I wanted it. It’s great when a plan comes together.

I didn’t think I’d process this shot in this way, but I really like the effect. The lamp has an old style to it, and the bricks are a bit crusty; the colouring I think works nicely too. The plane could be (but isn’t) a DC-8 or plane from a similar time.

Yet another building I’m unable to locate or identify. It’s in Bern, somewhere.

Whenever I am unable to identify a building, I can usually look at the photos just before and after to jog my memory into telling where and when I took the shot.

With this shot, there was a long period of time where we were walking down a hill, to where we were almost back at our hotel. It might have been when we had a rest on a bus which went to a far off destination and back again, but I can’t even find where that was.

Quite frustrating really — and I wonder why I only took one shot, and why I took so few before or after.

A small bird sits atop a fountain opposite the Bern Münster, Bern.

I was able to get a few shots of this cute little bird before he flew away. This is probably my favourite even though it wasn’t the closest. I liked the rest of the scene as well, and it reminds me of the tranquility and small-town charm of this part of Bern.

View of Bern’s old town from a bridge over the river Aar.

Initially we had planned to visit Zurich for the few days we were to be in Switzerland, but after reading countless posts by past visitors exclaiming how boring Zurich was, we gave it a miss totally.

And lucky we did, because Bern is such a nice place. The water really is that colour, in fact I toned it down a little. Even though it’s quite a big city, the old town still feels small and quaint.

The old town (and most of Bern) is on the left of frame. To the right is a large, steep hill and at the top is a nice garden and fantastic view. Also on the right is the famous bear pit; it’s just over the bridge from which this photo was taken.

A lovely building in Berne, Switzerland.

I’d really like to pinpoint which building this is and where it is, but I really can’t tell. From the photos taken before and after I can see it’s near a funicular and the Christian church.

One of the gadgets I brought with me — the GPS recording unit — hasn’t really worked out too well. The initial plan had been to record where we went as a great chunk of data that could be leveraged at a later date.

The software, however, has to to parse all the data but freaks out when it sees the 130,000 points it needs to work through. This means I have no GPS data to link into my photos which is something I dearly wanted to do for our trip photos and also for any further shoots I do.

On topic: I don’t remember this shot at all, but when looking through the Berne shots this one popped out and begged to be uploaded. The angle is nice; I think it needs to be a tad straighter but the overall image is pleasant.