Cows of the Hérens Breed

Feeling the Bern – Day 1 – Tour of Old Town Bern

At the Bern tourism office in the main train station, we met our city guide, Beatrice Gyger Lang. She is a charming lady with curly locks and sparkling eyes. We would discover a lot about Bern from our time with Beatrice, and more later from her interesting and informative blog: “Bern Inside.”

Beatrice led us through an expansive square that marks the entrance into the long, river-ringed finger of the Old Town of Bern, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The town began over 900 years ago; there was no prior Roman occupation on this finger of land, unlike so many Swiss cities. Its broad streets were planned even then,

with space for markets,

and running water. The fountains along the main street are capped with allegorical statues from the Reformation,

and the water remains potable to this day. Beatrice gave us cups to drink right from the fountains’ spouts as we strolled.

 It was hot and muggy, and the cool water was very welcome.

The turquoise river Aare was dotted with swimmers, riding the current downstream.

They catch the train upstream, pack their clothes in waterproof bags, and then float back to wherever they aim for along the riverbank. The current is very powerful, so it must surely take some strong swimming and vectoring skills to land at any specific spot!

We saw the impressive green limestone Parliament Building, with its gleaming cupolas.

We were utterly charmed by the chimneys in the Old Town: every single one is capped by a tiny miniature house.

The Bern Minster is a cathedral of the Swiss Reform Church. The tallest cathedral in Switzerland – at a height of 100.6 m (330 ft) – its construction started in 1421, but was only completed in 1893.

As we've mentioned in our earlier blog posts, having a registered city guide has special benefits. Every hour, the ancient Zytglogge (Clock Tower)

marks the time with a crowing rooster, a circle of bears, a zodiacal clock, a man striking a bell, and more. As the top of the hour neared, Beatrice unlocked a door and took us right inside!  

We climbed narrow stairs higher and higher to see the room-sized mechanism designed and built by Kaspar Brunner in 1530. 

A heavy stone pendulum powers an elaborate system of gears, fly-wheels, and even the bellows that facilitates the rooster’s crow! The ropes connecting all the different features of the clockworks through a series of pulleys are re-wound by hand every day.

Beatrice opened the tower's big wooden window shutters to give us a splendid view of the Old Town (and the crowd of curious onlookers below, who must have wondered how we were lucky enough to get into the clocktower itself). 

There is also a room for the guards who used to watch over the city, with a big porcelain stove to keep them warm. What a treat to experience this mechanical marvel from inside!

Back on our tour of the Old Town, Beatrice also showed us the heavy steel double-doors (which look a lot like prairie tornado-shelters) at each and every building, which once led to wine cellars and root cellars. These underground spaces now house shops below street-level. Suzanne ended up in one of these cellar-level shops at the craft store Heimatwerk Bern.

After thanking Beatrice for the wonderful tour and saying our good-byes, we strolled the lively, relaxed Old Town on our own. We saw the old granary, or Kornhaus,

now full of restaurants and offices.

We toured the Einstein-Haus museum (where Einstein lived when he worked at the patent office).

We spent an hour at the famous Bear Park.

One of the resident bears, the male Finn, could be seen snoozing peacefully on his back under the shady trees of the Bear Park, though the female, Björk, and her daughter Ursina were out of sight. You can watch a really sweet video of Björk shortly after her cubs were born.

Finally, we toured the city's lovely Rosengarten.

On such a hot day, the cobbled street from the Bear Park to the Rosengarten felt very steep.

It was well worth the hike, though, to see the vast beds of June roses in magnificent bloom, surrounded by lush lawns, and crowded with strolling couples and families. 

The Rosengarten's view over the city was spectacular in the warm glow of the setting sun.

We then made our way slowly back through the Old Town. Tired after a very long day, we stopped at a busy Coöp grocery in the train station to buy wine, cheese, and croissants for a light supper on the terasse back at our hotel to end a full day in Bern.