Switzerland III

One of the strange things one can find in Bern, the capital, is a 'bear pit', since, historically, the town was founded on some sort of bear hunt. The very sad part of it is that it is literally a pit, with a few rocks, and then a few bears that roam around pathetically, hoping tourists will drop snacks into the pit. Apparently, they have been talking a long while about making a 'bear park', where they might be able to have room to roam and actually live a bear-like life, but tradition dictates all, and since there has been a bear pit for hundreds of years, actually improving the lives of bears for the better takes a long time to change...
I also had supper with some Swiss folks last night, and they would like me to clarify: They don't eat cheese all the time; in fact, we had chicken curry for dinner. So there.
Some other observations I've made of the Swiss: They smoke relatively less than the average European. They are also strikingly less obese than North Americans are - I think some of this has to do with the European lifestyle generally contributing to healthier people, but I think also the mandatory conscription of all healthy males into the Swiss army also helps in keeping people fit. Furthermore, I do note what I think is a huge prevalence of polio (?I'm not sure - does anybody know?), as there are many many people here with what appears to be polio deformities and using crutches to walk. That is odd, so I wonder if there was some slip-up in their vaccination programs (sorry, that's obviously just job-related ponderings).
That being said, there is a lot of cheese here - we spent the day in the Gruyere region of the country, eating (duh) Gruyere, which is quite tasty, though I think, with the obscene amount of cheese that I'm eating, I would have to say that I'm a bit of a patriot, and still prefer cheddar. There, I said it - just don't tell the Swiss...