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