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MTP Member Photos - Bern
MTP Member Posts - Bern
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2012 Dec by Leslie Rutledge |
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I visited Bern on a recent European car tour. The day I arrived was new years eve or as the locals call it Silvester Abend. I parked up in the old town, which is a WHS and had a good wander about. The old town of Bern is like going back 300 years in time, apart from the modern goods in the shop windows. In front of the confederation building they had set up an ice rink for the locals to show off their skills, many landing on their bums worse the wear for drink, which was quite amusing and quite erotic as a lot of the younger females were wearing mini skirts. This was by far the coldest night I had had in Switzerland but was determined to stay out until midnight at least. I defrosted the first time at McDonalds for an hour then for the first time in my life decided to go to a catholic mass at the Bern Munster to defrost a second time. The Munster was well warmed up but the service itself was a non event sitting there most of the time listening to the organist playing solo, for the most part with the lights switched off. I have no idea what that was supposed to symbolize. At midnight thousands packed the streets around the Munster and were setting off fireworks in all directions, never seen nothing like it and fireworks in the hands of mostly drunk people normally ends in tears but on this occasion it seems a good time was had by all and no one ended up with their heads blown off. Next morning the streets were covered with plastic champagne glasses, which it seems the local council had issued to the inhabitants to prevent the streets being covered with broken glass. Despite it being a public holiday trams and buses were running normal and council workers were out early to clean the mess up. | |
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2012 Oct by Michael Novins |
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September 2008 and October 2012 -- I visited the Old City of Bern, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including the Münster (Cathedral), Zytglogge (the landmark medieval clock tower) and 16th-century fountains. My favorite hotel is Bellevue Palace, originally opened in 1865 and which serves as the official guesthouse for visiting heads of state (http://www.bellevue-palace.ch/), and favorite restaurants are Della Casa, which opened in 1892 (http://www.della-casa.ch/), and Entrecôte Café Fédéral, located across from the Federal Palace of Switzerland (http://www.entrecote.ch/). | |
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2012 Oct by Peter Kuiper |
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Biel / Bienne
By the time I got out of the train station it poured. I had prepared myself with a Google-maps print-out and after a short walk I found my hotel easily. The Hotel Artus in the Neuengasse 6 turned out to be a very pleasant place. At the small reception my room key was already prepared. The room (for CHF80, including breakfast) was, except for the wallpaper, quite ok and the restaurant had reasonable prices. The very nice young lady “I came from Poland one month ago”, who ran the place took time to chat with the guests (and just sat down at every table with them). The cook took care of the French speaking clients and served the plates himself. The hotel had a very relaxed and informal atmosphere. They even provided me with an adapter as Swiss electrical outlets have thinner holes. I enjoyed my pork steak, fries and salad, and stayed on a bit to write this report.
The alarm clock rang at seven. It was still raining. I hurried up and rushed out to see the Old Town. After some asking around I found it a bit further up from the hotel. Daylight was just breaking, the lights of the city were reflected by the wet asphalt. Although the historical quarter of Biel is just small, it is really beautiful. It has been built on a small hill in the relatively flat valley floor. As always the church had been built on the highest point, encircled by narrow streets and lovely little squares. On one of them, market salesmen were setting up their stalls, illuminated by antique yellowish shining streetlights. The whole scene reminded me strongly of Prague again.
On my rush back to the hotel I got lost. Biel is quite a big town. It does have a real big city feel, most likely due to the lack of space. The streets consist of a narrow grid with four or five story buildings. The steep hillsides rise up immediately behind the city. A lot of traffic thunders through as there is no space for bypass roads. In general the people in Switzerland are quite reserved and it is not easy to come in contact with them. An exception is the extraordinary thoroughness the Swiss take in giving information in case you have a question. Because I couldn’t find my hotel again, I asked a passing lady. She immediately stopped, reflected a minute and then she gave me the most detailed information possible: First she showed me roughly the direction with her hand, than she explained the shortest way to go through the maze of streets and finally the easiest way to walk, not to get lost. In her funny Swiss accent the whole procedure took forever.
My Polish waitress had prepared a nice breakfast. She was quite amazed to hear that I had done my sightseeing already before breakfast. In fact I had the impression that she was quite amazed to hear that there was anything worth seeing at all in this town. Her favorite topic was taking about buying clothes and shoes. When I remarked that things were evidently a lot cheaper in Poland then here in Switzerland, she replied that she was living here in Switzerland and that she would also spend her money in Switzerland. “Why should I carry my money to Poland?” she said. Well, since the answer seemed quite obvious to me and also the fact that I don’t know anything about dresses or high-heeled shoes, her remark marked the end of our conversation.
Before leaving Biel, I wanted to see the “Lac de Bienne”. Finding the lake was not hard. Not far from the hotel, a little river was rushing down to it. After walking a couple of blocks along the Schüss, or French: La Suze, I passed under the railway tracks and not much further I came to the shores of the Bielersee. As at the other lakes, I could hardly make out the other side, as it hadn’t stopped raining. In the little marina next door, one or two dozen little yachts, most of them wrapped up in blue plastic, floated in the grey water. A modern, flat, boring looking building behind it was the yacht club. A little further away I saw some industrial buildings. A promenade led along the shore, but here there was nothing of the splendor and old world elegance I had experienced along the shores of the “Lac de Neuchatel” in Neuchatel. Most obviously the city had his origins inland around the earlier described hill and not on the shores of the lake.
The walk back to the Hauptbahnhof did not take more than ten minutes or so. Along the way there were some nondescript six or seven story apartment blocks, a few modern office buildings and one or two beautiful Swiss villas. But on the whole it was clear that Biel did not live up to its possibilities: a beautiful lake next door, but no one seemed to bother about it!
Now I bought my third and last train ticket. Here in Switzerland you can easily get through tickets with the most unlikely itineraries. The first day, the ticket had been quite straightforward: from Basel to Porrentruy. It had been up to me, where to make a stop on the through railway line. Yesterday I had made a detour via La Chaux de Fonds to get to Neuchatel. I had surfaced the shores of the lake and doubled the Ins – Murten stretch. Finally I had finished the trip in Biel. Today I bought a ticket with a little detour via Olten. Not to see this town, but to be able to get off in Solothurn and Liestal. The whole trip through Switzerland had cost me CHF110. | |
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2011 Sep by Ivan Davies |
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Bern is beautiful. The only intact Medieval city in Switzerland and well worth a daytrip or weekend. The city has a great nightlife and the oldtown buildings are a joy to walk around for the traveller. From here it was a short trip to Basle our next destination. | |
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2010 Oct by Frank J Britton |
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Swiss location 5. Twann is in Berne Canton our stop after Neuchatel.Beautiful town situated on Lake Biel. Mainly involved in growing grapes for wine making. The Canton of Bern is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. The canton is bilingual and has a population almost one million. The cantonal capital Berne is also the federal capital of Switzerland.The southern end of the canton includes some of the tallest and most famous peaks in Switzerland including the Jungfrau and the Eiger. As you can guess tourism is big business here. The area also has its own highly distinctive cheese- emmental, the one with the holes. | |
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2009 Nov by Ionela Besleaga |
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Because it does not have the sophistication of the european capitals, Bern is quite unique, yet a captivating place to visit. | |
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2007 Jul by Veikko Huhtala* |
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Oili and me have been many times in Canton of Bern. Last time we were driving by car through it, coming from Busingen and going to Geneve. Bern Canton is one of the largest cantons in Switzerland, about 6000 square kilometers. Capital Bern is capital of Switzerland as well. Other times we came by train, but do not know Bern very well. We always hurried to France or Italy, because our opinion was that other countries were cheaper than Switzerland. I,m not sure is this true on these days, and it is not so important for us anymore. Of course we are still saving our money, but if we like some place we can also stay there one or couple nights. We are retired now and we have more time when traveling. | |
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1972 Oct by Jorge Sanchez |
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When I left my job in Genève, washing cups in the restaurant La Réserve, I left to Paris but stopped in several Switzerland pretty cities, such as Lucerne, Interlaken, Berne, Basel... I arrived to Bern and walked for its lovely central square and suddenly a clock tower marked the hours and I could see, admired, how the statues, like dollies, moved around; it was like a giant musical toy and liked it as if I was a child. Furthermore, the city was surrounded by a river and its buildings were old, medieval, it was really a lovely place to live. I slept for free in a shelter for homeless people and the next day, after having breakfast with the vagabonds, I left Bern, and hitchhiked with destination Basel. | |
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