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.