Bern is the capital of Switzerland. We went there for a day in a last-minute change of plan, going from Lucerne to Bern to Zurich rather than taking the direct route. We had the time, and thought it would be interesting to see, and of course the trains are free!
Bern has a thing about bears. There is a bear on its flag; its name is almost "bear"; there are bear statues; and there are actual bears in a park at the end of the main street. The bears have been around since about 1500. The old town is on a loop in the river, rather like a big version of Czesky Krumlov, and the parliament buildings are there. They and many other buildings were built using the local sandstone, which is a rather dull grey/green colour. The city is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe.
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| The parliament building in Federation Square.. |
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| The old town has these sheltered sidewalks. |
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| On a fountain outside the cathedral. |
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| Fine ironwork adorning a shop. |
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| Entrance to a hairdresser in a cellar. |
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| The town is quite high above the river, looking down on houses nearer the water. |
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| A bear in the bear park. |
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| Bears are everywhere. |
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| The river was filled with silt - melt water from the mountains? |
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| Houses with their feet in the river. |
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| Not sure what this bear is up to! Helping out, I presume. |
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| A street sloping down to the river. |
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| Lunch time, siesta time! |
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| Another bear? The "Zahringerbrunnen". |
The Zahringerbrunnen is a statue of a bear in armour built in 1535, a memorial to the bear shot here by the founder of Bern.
A few metres away is the famous astrological clock (c1405), complete with little mechanical figures which perform when the clock chimes. We waited with a small crowd of tourists glued to the clock as the time approached one o'clock. It was an anticlimax - nothing (much) happened!
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| Waiting for the Zytglogge to chime. |
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| Sue was very happy to discover another Gerry Weber shop! |
The day improved greatly as the sun came out and blue sky open up. We stayed until about 2pm before returning to the station to retrieve our bags and reboard the train for Zurich.
