Christmas tree(s)

Once the shops have closed

River Aare

Swiss Parliament at Christmas

Cold so cold

Altenberg façades

Altenberg is a charming little neighbourhood lining the River Aare in its valley below the town centre.

Lorraine

Restaurant Du Nord, gateway to the Lorraine,
Bern's northern neighbourhood

Lorrainestrasse, the main throroughfare

The Lorraine is a funky little neighbourhood mixing artistic and working-class values

Brasserie Lorraine, the neighbourhood's "alternative" bar, café, and concert venue

The Italian joint


The kiosk - love the plastic seats

Er, the Asian brothel

The Lorraine is a five-minute walk over the Lorrainebrücke (Lorraine Bridge) from the railway station. Most tourists would miss it as they gravitate naturally towards the medieval Old Town in the centre. But Lorraine is immediately beside the centre and for those with more than just a few hours in Bern is well worth a wander - especially for those who dig the alternative neighbourhood vibe.

Down by the river...

Everyone loves a good sunset

it's hot and it's sunny, so great sunsets abound. we love summer

More Dutch football fan madness at the Euro

Bern goes Euro

Euro2008 Football Championships

Switzerland and Austria are jointly hosting Euro 2008, the European Football Championship games. The Dutch team have three games in Bern over the next eight days, and their massive fan base - at 120,000 almost the same number of people as live in Bern - has arrived in style.

Tonight is the Netherland's first game, against Italia... should be magic.

Full article here.

Bern Walking Tour

In advance of the summer tourist season, and especially the Euro2008 football season (starting next week - more on that later), I have put together this short walking tour of Berne. Visitors might find this useful...!

Thanks to Bern City blog reader Jonathan Hughes, you can access the file as a PDF at this link. Thanks J!

Kirchenfeld Bridge and a Big Sky

"What were the skies like when you were young?

They went on forever, with little fluffy clouds..."

Anyone remember that song? :-)

The farmhouse at Gurten Hill

View down to Bern from Gurten Hill

The River Aare flows around the town. In summer the straight stretch approaching the Federal Parliament is full of river-swimmers (Bernese: "Aareschwummer") being whisked along by the smooth-flowing river's fast current. The credo seems to be: Do it once, then walk back up along the bank, do it again...repeat until hungry...

View from the top of Gurten

Spring's on the way!

View over Bern from Wabern

Up amongst the allotments between Wabern and Köniz there is a good view over to the city centre, where you can see the Federal Parliament, and the old town of Bern, easily identifiable by the medieval cathedral.

Le paysage fribourgeois

Fifteen minutes from Bern, just before the bilingual town of Fribourg, the villages give way to hilly green countryside, rolling from Fribourg past Gruyère down to Lake Geneva.

Snow on Gurten Hill

Winter over Kirchenfeld neighbourhood

Autumn in Berne

A view over the east-facing lower end of the town. You might also like to see this pic over the south face of Berne.

Related posts: This view, this view, this view and this view are shot from the same area, but in very different light and weather conditions.

Cool fountain

I'd never noticed this fountain in the city centre until the other day. It's in the Munsterpark. Very typically Bern. Compare this fountain.

Gstaad sunset

Sunset in the mountains at Gstaad, near Bern.

Gstaad is a great place to stop for one or two hours on the Golden Pass panoramic express train ride. The Golden Pass is an awesome train line running across the Alps and down to Lake Geneva. The best seats are at the front where the driver would usually be located. On the Golden Pass, the driver has a booth above and eight lucky passengers get the cockpit seats. It's a lot of fun.

Riverbank rooftops

Funky Swiss houses. There was no hassle from the building planning dept. about uniformity in the old days!

The River Aare

Summer by the Aare, lower old town. The river is very high at the moment.

Urban Bern / Die Reitschule

Here's the heavily graffitied Reitschule a.k.a. Reithalle (Riding School / Riding Hall), the somewhat dodgy but nonetheless best alternative venue in town. It was originally the Berne riding school. Nowadays it's a leftist hang-out, hosting underground and political publishing presses, a theatre/cinema and a number of smokey alternative bars and concert halls. Much of it is sponsored by the state, stemming from a deal whereby the former squat was saved from conversion into a multi-storey car-park by the clever anarchists claiming it (rightly, at least these days) to be a cultural centre. http://www.reitschule.ch/

The Little Friary Brewery

Early morning walk

Taken from the Kornhaus Bridge into the city.

Swiss National Day

1st August is Swiss National Day (Nationalfeiertag / Fête National). It's a celebration of the signing of the Helvetic Confederation on 1st August 1291. Full history here on Wikipedia.

In short, 1st August is about countryside brunches (provided on farms all over the country), a day of work (everything is closed), and lots and lots of fireworks. People don't seem to have much regard for safety and fireworks were screaming all over the place, particularly in crowded areas. Dangerous, surely, but also a lotta fun.

Celebrations on the Rütli meadow where the confederation was agreed and documented have been marred in recent years by Hitler-saluting nationalists who support the continuation of Swiss independence and resistance to calls to join the European Union (Switzerland is surrounded by EU countries). The reality of neutral Switzerland's position vis-à-vis the EU is complicated and by no means defined by neo-nazism, but this remains a disturbing trend. Most Swiss distance themselves from these extremists.

Lake Thun

A friend and I recently enjoyed a camping trip to Lake Thun, less than 20 minutes from Berne. This is the morning view from the campsite.

As can be seen, those mountains which look so close in the picture taken from city (below), are still a good way away (about an hour's drive) - testament to their awesome dimensions.

Click here and here for other views of Lake Thun.

Bern Old Town - spring view to the Alps

great, what a view. this is taken from the Kornhausbrucke, one of the bridges connecting the inner old town with the outside world! it's 30 degrees today so those snowcapped mountains won't be as white as that for much longer..!

Bern Grand Prix marathon

The annual city half-marathon loops around Bern and finishes in the old town. It's always very popular, and there are are various track lengths you can do depending on ability. They have a cool tagline: "The most beautiful 10 miles in the world". www.gpbern.ch

Why do people do this? :-)

Pic by Emeidi, thanks! Click on his name for more marathon pix.

Bern Skyline

Hazy spring view over Bern

The heatwave that chased away winter at Easter is still going strong! Summer is here (at least for now), the river is filling up fast as the glaciers melt, and the trees are greening again. Bars and cafes have opened their outside terraces and I even looked to see whether the outdoor swimming pools have opened yet (they haven't). Let's hope this lasts longer than the weathermen say it will.

Snowy roofs

The weather this month has been fluctuating between Lapland and a Scottish summer. Here are some snowy rooftops in Bern's old town.

Statue of town founder and a bear

The bear theme has been going on for a while here in Bern!

(Statue on Bärenplatz)

The bear pits of Bern

Well, I don't like them much... but here's one half of the bear pits in Bern, with a bear to be seen.

I wouldn't feel very good about having something like this in my home town, but visitors certainly do seem to love it.

As you can probably imagine, the bearpits are the focus of a lot of debate here. But I don't want to politicise on this blog, so enough already.

Take a look at this picture for another snippet of info on the Bern bear pits.

Bern win ice hockey - home game

Here is "SCB" beating Geneva Servettes 3-2 in the Bern "Eishalle" Stadium (...the "ice hall")

Bern City Hall (Rathaus)

I'd like to draw your attention to the mural on the wall inside the Bern Rathaus.

It depicts the men of Bern labouring to build their city stone by stone. A mother can be seen on the right hand side with two children, and the city's symbol, the bear, can be seen strolling like a giant teddy bear amongst the townspeople. Clearly this mural is supposed to inspire city councillers and to remind them of who they are serving and what they are working towards.

Rathaus translates as Council House.

Please excuse my dodgy panorama-stitch in the photo.

Here's a picture of the outside of the Rathaus.

Any which way

City centre milk urns

These milk containers are embedded in the concrete in front of the main station. I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean...

Bern blogger This said, in a comment to this post, that it's an art installation by Ueli Berger called "Hommage to Milk Lane". The canisters embedded in the asphalt mark the location of a small street called Milchgässli. Milk Lane was done away with when the railway station was upgraded. And according to a German-language newspaper article, it was the place where people were picked up and dropped off. Thanks, This, interesting explanation - I thought it was just random.

Winter in Bern

Better late than never...

Finally it has snowed! The ski resorts are delighted and there have been car crashes all over the place. Here is Marktgasse this afternoon.

Waiting for the tram

I spend a lot of time here..

La baguette fédérale

On Parliament Square

View from Grosse Schanze park

Crisp but not cold, these students (and an old man) take in the view of the Jungfrau massif from the Grosse Schanze park.

Climbing out of the river?

brrr...

Where's the snow?

It's cold and grey, but the snow still hasn't come... The newspapers today said it's been the most snow-less winter on record. Bad news in a country that depends so heavily on ski tourism.

PS new camera!

Short break

Dear visitors, I'm sorry to report that my camera is broken so there will be a break here until I get something worked out... Enjoy the rest of the site in the meantime.

Heavy lifting

Click on the image to see this properly!

I've posted this really as a pointer to a fantastic pic I saw on Flickr, which is a great shot in terms of technical aspects, image quality and photo content. Mine pales in comparison really. Please do take a look. Respect to Beegee.

Church of the Holy Spirit

This is the baroque ceiling of the catholic Heiliggeistkirche opposite the train station in Bern. This pic here shows it from the outside.

Cathedral interior

Bern has an impressive gothic cathedral, known as the Munster.



Here here and here are shots of the cathedral exterior and
this pic shows the cathedral on the Bernese skyline. Awesome.

A hazy view to Parliament

Tucked away

Like cheese?

Try the Bündner Alphüsli cheese stand on the marketplace -



A Bündner is a product or person from the eastern Swiss Canton of Graubünden, known in French and English as the Grison mountains. Amongst other things, the Grisons are famous for the Davos and St. Moritz ski resorts. Not to mention the cheese, of course. And the sausage. And the pear rolls, stacked up on the left! Alphüsli is a real Swiss word and means little alpine house - I guess refering to the chalet-esque (sort of) stall...

You might like this other shot of the back of the market square, just behind the Bünder Alphüsli

Brunngasse

This photo of Brunngasse (Fountain Street) reminds me of the 'middle-age fortress' feeling that Bern evokes. Inside the city walls, it's a quiet, safe place that time forgot. The rural surrounding countryside adds a buffer-zone to the fortress - it's at least an hour's drive north, east or west before you reach modern European civilization. And if you travel further south into the Alps, time slows down and eventually even starts to go backwards...

Clear view to the Alps at sunset

Last night was a good one. Cold air = good views

Bern sunset

Tonight's sunset from the Murihalden...the same place as this daytime panorama and this stop on Ted's tour

Pyrenées

According to this webpage, Café des Pyrénées, Kornhausplatz 17, is "jovial and unpretentious meeting place for artists, alcoholics and others with loud voices. Equal quantities of twenty- and forty-somethings crowd the place out nightly."

This pic is dedicated to the guilty parties who definitely know who they are.

How many bus drivers does it take to change a bulb?

Well, I can't think of a funny answer, but here's a guy from the local bus company, Bernmobil, doing just that.

Very cold day panorama!

A view of the 180-degree twist in the River Aare loop
(see this post for more info)

View from Kleine Schanze

That's the classic Alps view of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, taken in the Kleine Schanze park just beside the Swiss parliament.

Coincidentally I took an almost identical picture at the same place, same time, last year, click here to take a look.

180° panorama over Bern

This is the view over Bern and the River Aare from the Muristalden, or the "Muri hill", a steep road which in the old days was the main route to the village of Muri.

It has been mooted that the park will one day be transformed into a roaming area for the symbols of Bern, the bears. At present the bears are kept in an ugly and insufficient stone pit close by.

Autumn streets of Berne

Buskers Bern

Buskers Bern is a three-day long street music festival in Berne. The "buskers" are from round the globe and are mostly excellent.

Here's a snapshot of a Brazilian trio that reminded me of Manu Chao.

Last night was spoiled by rain but tonight looks ok. www.buskersbern.ch

Gurten Festival / T-Shirt

The Gurten is what the Swiss call Bern's "Haus-berg", meaning Bern's "home mountain".

It's a mound at the back side of the city and every summer for the last thirty years or so, the Gurten has hosted the Gurten Festival, an imaginatively named music festival. It's a mix of big acts and local heroes, and is small and friendly rather than huge and muddy, which many of the festivals back home seem to be. We had great weather this year and I saw Manu Chao and Mousse T headline the fourth and last night. Awesome. Reamonn are playing in the photo above, a German group with an Irish frontman (they sounded like U2). More on www.gurtenfestival.ch/

Bern from the air

I was lucky enough to be on a flight last week that flew over Bern at low altitude - the sky was clear and I was able to capture this view, showing Bern, the alpine foothills and the Bernese Oberland alps, as well as the snaking loop of river Aare in the bottom right hand corner. By following the river round to the loop, you can pick out the medieval part of Bern (compare with this post). The pic is looking due south.

It's a little blurry, i hardly ever get sharp ground pics from the air because of the high speed of flight and the relative tinyness of the subject, grateful for any tips..

Some shots from a cruise on Lake Thun

So I know this is the Bern City blog but sometimes you need to get out of the city!

Lake Thun at Spiez

It may have been Ted's last photo, but not mine...

Here's a picture of Lake Thun, very close to Berne. It's taken over the small town of Spiez, and there's a castle by the lakeside, visible if you click on the pic for the large version. Awesome place in summer, awesome place in winter :)

Ted On Tour 4

this is the last one. the high point of ted's tour.

Ted On Tour 3

Ted On Tour 2

Ted's pics form part of a set of photos that I took as part of my job (on lunchbreak...). Ted's pics were for his owner, a geography class at a school in the south of England, who follow his adventures round the world and get to see some interesting places he visits.

The very British teddy bear has a distinguished travel history, having been seen in Spain, New Zealand, South America and more!

Ted On Tour 1

Bundesplatz / Place de la Federation

270° panorama yesterday afternoon. Looks best blown up big (click on the picture).

The wet patch in the middle is not due to rain, it's because I took the photo while the fountain display, where jets shoot from nozzles in the stone (which is made of alpine gneis rock), was on one of its intermittent breaks.

Take a look at this post to see the fountain (almost) in action!

Chillin' on the Münsterplatform

coffees and beers, with a view to the Gurten Hill

many happy kids playing in the park

parklife

Saturday shoppers on Marktgasse

The busier end of Bern's main street this afernoon.

The main street changes names three times as it runs through the town centre: Marktgasse - Kramgasse - Gerechtigkeitsgasse = Market Street - Kram (?) Street - Justice Street.

Friday on Kramgasse

A typical Friday afternoon at the quieter end of Bern's main thoroughfare.

At some point in history someone famous (perhaps Goethe?) called this street the most beautiful in the world. Well, at that time the world was a much smaller place than it is today, but there's no denying that there's nowhere else quite like it, and it is very cool in its own medieval way. Walking under the arches is almost like being in a time machine. A very unique and atmospheric street.

Here's a favourite photo of the same stretch on a very cold and quiet day.

Who pulled the plug?

This is one of my favourite fountains in Berne. There are many others, and you can drink from all of them, the water is very clean. Most town fountains have columns in the middle of their basins, with statues atop the columns. There is a string of them in a relatively straight line connected by an age-old underground stream running down the middle of the main street through the town (can be seen here covered by a grille). This particular spouter is by the university library in the town centre, at the head Münstergasse. I've got this photo of it full, very classy.

Bern on Google Earth

Bern is a small place, and many people don't immediately know where it is - Geneva and Zurich steal the Swiss limelight. So I thought I would pull a few images off Google Earth to give you a better idea where I've been posting from.



On the European scale, Switzerland is the north-south east-west axis of what politicians call 'old' Europe, which goes a long way toward explaining the international role such a small country plays in Europe and the world. You can see that Bern is more or less in the centre of Switzerland - a compromise point between the French, German, Italian and Romansch speaking Swiss, who might all wish for their own regions' major and better-known towns to be the capital.



At the regional level, Bern is situated just north of the Alps on the Swiss plateau, which spans west to east across the northern two-thirds of the country. The remainder of the country is sparesly inhabited Alpine terrain - the majority of the populace lives on the plateau. Lush countryside surrounds the town and the Alps are within easy reach, past the clean blue waters of Lake Thun :-)



Zooming in, we see that Bern really is a very small town. The most prominent geographical features are the River Aare and the Gurten hill south of the town. The core of the Swiss capital is concentrated on the "half-island" (as it's called in German) made by the curve of the River Aare.

For more detail on Bern, take a look at this post where I made some notes on how the town was founded and on the city layout.

View over the River Aare from the Münsterplatform

note the accident nets! It's a long way down to the street below!

This photo is taken standing at almost the same place as this one of the Münsterplatform itself.

Take a look at this photo with almost exactly the same view, but in very different weather conditions!

River Aare in the centre of Bern

I haven't been posting much because it's been raining a lot. But as you can see, a lot of rain makes nature go GREEN!

More spring

Summer day on Parliament Square

On the left we have the guy about to make a run for it through the fountains; the father and child thinking about it (he did, in a minute); then there's the BMX rider up the back, who i hadn't noticed when i was taking the photo, bonus point; and on the right, that baby just did a run, got a soaking and came back to his father in tears..!

Spring buds

Spring's still trying to break through here in Switzerland, but a few days of April snowstorms have been holding it back. Here's to the Easter weekend!

Münsterpark panorama

We had temperatures of over 20°C this weekend!

When the weather permits, Bern loves to get out the house and stroll through the Old Town.

The Münsterpark is a platform overlooking the river and the lower Old Town and is a good place to break a walk. There are benches, play areas for kids, a café on the far right and the crowd is always eclectic - families, rockers, hiphop g-stylers, students, business people and elderly folk all mix, creating a very relaxed atmosphere. If you're in Bern and need to chill out in summer, this is one of the best places to do it.

I shot some views over the edge of the Münsterplatform last autumn. This and this are also related.

Have a good week!

Rathausgasse wall painting

Following yesterday's decorated vehicle, I'd like to pick up on another theme my friends at other City Blogs have been posting - here's a nice wall mural for you. It's on Rathausgasse (Town Hall Street), and portrays soldiers dancing with ladies at a party.

The greatest Swiss bus ever

Spotted in Bern!

The license plate shows FR - it's from the Canton of Fribourg, the Canton of Berne's easterly neighbour.

Child's play - Bern Altstadt

I love this photo! Hope you do too.

Bern and the afternoon sun through the fog

Spring checks in

Sunday was officially the first day of spring 2006. I can only say that I'm glad to see the back of the that cold and dreechit winter am am looking forward to the explosion of life over the next few weeks!

I've been experiencing some problems with Blogger this week, it wouldn't let me upload photos... Anyone else?

The end of winter

Winter's last gasp at Schwarzsee near Bern. By next week the ice on the lake will have melted.

Open-air chess match

Two players battle it out on the town's main square yesterday lunchtime

Late afternoon in downtown Bern

Fiesta La Candela

There are lots of Latinos in Bern so there's lots of latin music :)

At the weekend we went to the Fiesta La Candela, an awesome latin party

Swiss parliament

Today was another beautiful winter day in Bern. However, spring is just around the corner...

Der Käfigturm

The base of this tower can be seen below in the previous post.

The Käfigturm, or prison tower (lit.=cage tower) was the town prison in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Other Bernese towers: The main gate of the original city walls was the Zeitglockentürm (here and here). The main gate of the second city expansion was the Christofelturm, which is no longer standing, though its foundations can be seen in the underground thoroughfare of Bern railway station.

Lunchtime bustle on a snowy day

Today is a beautiful day, the first blue skies for a week. It has snowed heavily the last few days but as you can see, today the warmth of the sun has been melting it away... The town is busy as those who have stayed at home during the snowstorms stock up on supplies from the shops.

A chilled sunset

20 minutes ago...
Always a great way to end the afternoon!

Hanging out in the lift shaft

For anyone following this blog closely (...!), this is the lift shaft connecting the station (here and here) to the heights of the Grosse Schanze.

Market day in Bern

It's cold, it's sunny, and it's market day on Bern's main square!

Unitobler Hof

One of my favourite places in Bern, the Unitobler Hof is a little square hidden away from the main streets, featuring a smooth paved area with stone tables, cool sculptures and on the side, a small enclosed gravel park where old guys play boules in the summer.

Unitobler is the yellow brick building in the photos above, and is so-called because the University of Bern converted the former Toblerone factory building into its Arts & Social Sciences library. There's still a cool Toblerone exhibition in the basement of the library.

For another perspective, the uni has a rooftop webcam with views over the Hof.

Daybreak in Bern

Early this morning in Bern, the first golden rays of winter sun light up the dark and quiet streets.

The best beer in Bern

So after so many serious posts to this blog, it's definitely time to sit down and sup a pint. I can only recommend this place to any visitors to Bern - just out of the old town, over the bridge at the tip of the Aare peninsula. As the name suggests was formerly the town tram depot, and now has a great little microbrewery (find out about the beers on the website). The food is hearty Swiss kitchen, really matching a few good beers on the terrace overlooking the river Aare and the Münster at sunset... ;-) Make mine a Märzen!

Swiss bank accounts

It might sound like a cliché but banks are omnipresent here. One side of Parliament Square is lined by the parliament. Half a side is open space. The remaining two and a half sides are taken up by various heavyweight Swiss banks. Could we say that the ratio of 1:2.5 is the Swiss estimation of the value of politics against money?

Russian photoblog?

Hi to the photoblogging community! It's great to see that we're all linking up around the world. I would be interested to know if anyone knows of a Moscow, St Petersburg or other Russian city photoblog? Grateful for some pointers...

Between two main streets

Bärenplatz in the fog, 5:30pm

Theaterplatz / Zytglogge intersection

On my lunch break - from the left, the Kornhaus, the Stadttheater, and in the fog, the Kursaal Casino. The yellow and red flags are the Bernese banner.

Labor conquers all things

This is also on the state seal of Oaklahoma.

Background of labor omnia vincit

Link to a very short Swiss productivity bar chart

Food for thought

The fog thickens

it's like a pea soup oot there!

here i'm on the münsterplatform

Berner Hauptbahnhof

Rush hour below the platforms in the main railway station

Unitobler & the church on Freiestrasse

When I went to work this morning the whole town was swathed in freezing fog, with the few pastels of sunrise feebly dispersing and the streets unrolling from nowhere in front of me and rolling back up again right behind me... and suddenly this - the Unitobler faculty building, and die Pauluskirche.

Today felt like this

This is the only photo I took today. It's the view from my balcony across the sleeping neighbourhood where I live. I used to live in the old town but I moved out last year because I had enough of living the whole medieval thing, it was great but got claustrophobic. The smokestacks are from the town waste incinerator. The Swiss incinerate everything because they have no space for landfill.

I'm happy because I bought tickets to go see Arab Strap in Fribourg next month. So that's the kind of photo this is, melancholic suburban European happiness ;)

Washday at the Nydeggbrücke

This shot is taken from the Nydeggbrücke at the head of Bern.

Nydeggbrücke, literally the 'nether corner bridge', is the main thoroughfare in and out of the lower old town.

Barges used to tie up at the smaller, lower bridge pictured here, bringing cheese and milk from the Alps. The entrance to the Schifflände, literally 'ship-landing', has been preserved and can be seen behind the tree.

Today was obviously wash-day for the family in the Nydegg bridgehouse!

The Swiss Parliament

Taken last night from the Monbijoubrücke (Monbijou Bridge), you see the Bundeshaus at dusk with the River Aare running below.

There is some good detail in this photo that you can only see when you view it large, the small version above doesn't do it justice (click on the picture).

Kramgasse

It's Sunday and it's bitterly cold, so it's very quiet.

The Swiss Parliament

The north side of the parliament, facing onto the Bundesplatz, or Federal Square


The south side, the top of which is lined with the coat-of-arms of each Swiss canton.


The vaulted arcardes at the botton of the south face, directly underneath the facade with the coats of arms.


A small anti-World Economic Forum protest on Federal Square. The WEF will take place this month in Davos, eastern Switzerland.

The woman's placat translates as "It's not about giving more to the people in the Third World, it's about stealing less from them." (Jean Zeigler)

Zytglogge - Berne clock tower

The east face

Tourists gather to hear the clock strike the hour. They're inevitably disappointed - despite all the grandeur and detail, the king just waves his wand and a little chicken spins round on a wheel! Forewarned is forearmed!
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The west face

The neighbouring chemist (sign says Apotheke) is all lit up for Christmas
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underneath the Zytglogge

post box and phone booths on the right, roasted chestnut stand on the left, and Kramgasse panning off in a slow curve down the hill towards the river

Putting Berne in perspective

This post is to put in perspective some of the photos I've been shooting around the town. Berne is a quaint old Swiss town, founded in 1296, and although in the last 150 years Berne has outgrown it's little loop in the river and modern neighbourhoods have spread out (see computer graphic, below), the heart and soul of Berne remains the old town. You can see from some of the old maps I've fished off the web that the old town really hasn't changed at all, mostly thanks to a group known as the "Citizens of Berne", who have a vast fortune between them and finance all the upkeep and restoration.
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Berne - the lower old town
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A computer model of Berne from the air, looking north and showing clearly how the town has expanded outwith the Aare peninsula.
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A map of Berne from 1353 (i think - MCCCLIII), looking south. You can see by comparing with the two modern pictures above that the original style and layout of the town remains almost completely intact today.

One major change is that the roads became narrower. The width of the arcades is the width of the extensions from the original housing - many of the original buildings were extended four metres towards the centre of the street using stilts to prop up the new facades. Over time this arrangement became permanent, leading to the arcades...

Another major change is that the street level has risen by over two metres, so all around the town there are cellar flap-doors leading down to vaulted caverns which are in widespread used as shops, clubs, restaurants, storerooms, workshops, flats, churches, secret society meeting places...
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An English-language town plan from 1800, with a key to the main buildings
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Unexpected snow in January

trams and buses couldn't get into the town centre and had to let their passengers out to walk

snow on the rooftops of the lower old town

Even Kramgasse didn't look great

the trams and buses couldn't make it but this guy in his covered electric tricycle thought he could

the Swiss army looking glum

the Swiss parliament and the market on the Bundesplatz

Berne railway station

Swiss trains are awesome (you get what you pay for). www.rail.ch

The main thouroughfare
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This is known as "the wave of Berne".

Lorrainebrück (Lorraine Bridge) - Bern in winter

The Lorraine bridge spans the River Aare and connects Berne railway station with the east of Switzerland - out to Lucerne and Zurich. The green-domed building is the Swiss parliament.

Kramgasse in Winter

A typical Bernese fountain, and the No. 12 trolley bus

Münstergasse Christmas lights

Cathedral Street in late November

The Bernese Cathedral, from Münstergasse (Cathedral Street)

Berner Münster (Bern Cathedral)

The Berne Cathedral viewed from a corner of Cathedral Square. The impressive gothic church is undergoing restoration, the result of which can already be seen to great effect on the arches at the front entrance. Interesting is that just below the spire, where the white scaffold is, the "cathedral masters" (a married couple) have an apartment. They sell entrance tickets when you climb to the top levels and are on hand to tell visitors about the cathedral's history. The lady who lives and works up there told me that for the best thing about living in the Münster is waking up every morning, opening the curtain, looking out and realising where they are and what they are doing to earn a living.

Münsterplatz 180-degree panorama

Münsterplatz - Cathedral Square houses

Münsterpark autumn trumpeter

Views from the Münsterpark

This tryptych is a left-to-right panorama from the Münsterpark (cathedral park)


The house with the garden is where world political leaders will stay during state visits to the Swiss parliament.

Looking down the slopes, we see the Mattequartier, badly flooded in summer 2005 when the River Aare burst its banks.

And fully to the right, you see the River Aare basin and a cool lift that rises about 50m from the Matte-Quartier" to the Münsterpark. There is an atmospheric covered wooden staircase for those who prefer the climb!

Fountain by the Town and University Library

This beautiful "Brunnen", or fountain, can be found at the head of Münstergasse on the side wall of the "STUB", the "Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek"

Rathaus (City Hall)

Very solid looking building... I will have to try and get in there sometime...

The famous Café du Commerce, on Gerechtigkeitsgasse (Justice Street)

Under the arcades at the Kornhaus

This is just a taster - I'll get some photos inside this place sometime.

It is deep underground, cavernous and so atmospheric. There's a great bar, a swanky restaurant, an amazing restored painted ceiling and the biggest barrel I ever saw in my life (really, it's huge). So yeah, I'll get round to that sometime.

Hotelgasse 1

This house is right beside the Zytglogge






I don't know for sure but I have a suspicion that in medieval times this might have been the town garrison house. That would figure, because the Zytglogge was the original town gate, and this place is jsut across the road.

The Reitschule

This place is one of the less well-documented sides of Berne, certainly not on the official tourist website...


A billboard stating "The Reitschule also belongs to Berne - vote no!" . The digital edit of the old town of Berne, the Zytglogge (the symbol of Berne) and the Reitschule into the one picture says that the Reitschule is as important to Berne as the more traditional cultural elements.

Some background... The Reitschule is Berne's old riding school complex, now a left-wing/anarchist/art student/drop-outs hang-out... They have rock concerts, cheap food and good reggae, and the place benefits from a number of legal exceptions and loopholes. It's regarded by some, such as the designers of this advertisement, as "culture", and by others as an eyesore and a social problem. The political right want it razed to the ground to make space for a multi-storey car park, whereas the left see things very differently. I'm undecided, because the crazies around there are genuinely scarey and threatening, but at the same time I'm all for art student hangouts and the alternative scene.

A recent local vote on the Reitschule's legal status and rights was the reason for this leftist-originated advert appearing on hoardings all round town.
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Some travellers outside the Reitschule - these travelling folk rolled up and parked their caravans right in the middle of the main hall (you can see the entrance on the left). They exploited a legal loophole and stayed for weeks. Their occupation led to the cancellation of a couple of major events (concerts, I think) and caused an outrage amonst the Reitschule's political opponents.
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the bar

the restaurant, Sous Le Pont (the Reitschule is almost under the Lorrainebrücke railway bridge)

The upstairs dj bar

Heiliggeistkirche (Church of the Holy Spirit)

By the train/bus/tram station. The criss-cross of wires serves the multiple trolley-bus stops.

Bern University and the Grosse Schanze

This is the University of Berne's baroque main building, housing the law faculty and the university's executive administration and overlooking the Grosse Schanze park, a medieval look-out station and one of Berne's highest points. The bus and train stations are situated underneath this park, and are accessible by the concrete-box lift shaft, which can be seen in the photo below:


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Grosse Schanze affords excellent views across the rooftops of Berne to the Parliament and the Alps.


On the far side of the uni building, Grosse Schanze offers another excellent southern view across Berne's rooftops, this time to the Münster and again the Alps.

Einsteinterrasse: Apparently Einstein did the groundwork for his Theory of Relativity at the uni here, so the terrace on Grosse Schanze in front of the uni's Exact Sciences faculty building is named in his honour.

Autumn view from Berne to the Alps

from the Kleine Schanze park to the Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau massif of the Bernese Oberland

Kleine Schanze panorama

This view has the Swiss parliament in the left, and on the right in the distance, the Bernese Oberland massif.

The Bernese History Museum

The museum is situated on Helvetiaplatz, off the Bern "island" at the other end the Helvetiabrücke. I like the way the roof of the building is shaped to fit in with the distant mountains.

Modern-day Berne

While the character and core of Berne are definitely its medieval old town, I don't want to mislead you by only showing pics of the old town. The old town is now completely surrounded with fin-de-siècle and 20th century developments. Here a few representative snaps:



typical street in a "sleeping quarter" (where people live but don't work!)


typical apartment block


a school house


the swinging 60s