Today I finally got around to visiting Bern, the capital city of Switzerland, which is around 1 hour away from Basel by train. The weather couldn't have looked worse when I woke up this morning, it was absolutely a heavy drownpour as I left the apartment block. By the time I got onto the train to Bern though, after grabbing a coffee and pastry at the train station, the rain had stopped and at some points in the afternoon there was even quite warm sunshine.Arriving at the central train station in Bern, I headed to the Travel Information Centre, where I picked up a map, and followed the route given for a walking tour of Bern. It is a beautiful city, with old fashioned buildings, and full of beautiful fountains, depicting various figures, from Moses by the Cathedral, a Piper, a Mustekeer, and a Bear, the symbol of the city, whose flag is flown off most of the buildings. My walk took me down the main street, past the clock tower, Marktgasse and Kramgasse, and past the house where Einstein lived during his time in Bern. As a science geek, I naturally popped in. It was a small flat, but was decorated the way it was when Einstein and his family lived there in the 1900s. There was a huge amount of information about all of Einstein's life, and quotes which were really interesting. Bern was where Einstein began his academic career as a lecturer at Bern University, and developed his theory of relativity. After visiting Einstein's house, I headed past the Justice fountain, towards the Bear Pits. These are being updated and 2 new bears will be housed there, but they are in quarantine at the moment, so I didn't get to see them. I'm not sure how I feel about keeping the bears there, but there was a vote of the Bernese citizens, who approved the re-development. From here though, there is a great view out towards the River Aare, which seemed to have a pretty strong current. I then headed to the Cathedral, where the was a wedding party arriving, with cute pageboys and bridemaids fighting with the wind to keep the red carpet down for the bride to walk along. I climbed up the Cathedral tower, which was pretty steep and had a cool view over the city, and looking down could see the park by the Cathedral, where there were table tennis places and chess boards, very continental outdoor lifestyle in evidence. I next visited the Swiss Parliament, which had the Swiss National Bank opposite it. You could walk around the parliament, no black concrete blocks keeping the people away here, but unfortunately all the guided tours of the inside where booked up for the day, so had to content myself with seeing the outside of the building. There was a cheese festival going on in the square by the Parliament, which was sponsored by Emmental, with a model cow for children to practice milking. This seemed like typical Switzerland to me.
Then hopped back onto the train to Basel after buying a few postcards to remember my trip.
Have a good weekend, Love,
Swizzy x x x
