A Day in Berne

I went to Berne this weekend with a couple other AFS students.  Walking through Berne, your first impression may be of a very pedestrian friendly city.  Crowds mill about equally on sidewalk and road, and cars are a rare sight.  You see street performers, vendors, and fountains stationed near the curb, or even in the middle of the street.  Then suddenly, you catch a glimpse the metal rails running down the sides of the street, the crowds instinctually part, and an insane train-bus hybrid comes blazing by.  Bus in the sense that it travels through the city streets with regular stops, train in the sense that crosswalks are useless and brakes non-existant.  I was almost flattened on three separate occasions.  Once acclimated to the perilous passages, we began to stroll through the city with no particular goal in mind.  To be honest, we didn't really do much.  We simply took whatever street struck our fancy and absorbed whatever interesting things we happened upon.  Admittedly, we missed out on "The Sites" of Berne, but I think we also gained a feeling for the city, and an opportunity to see it in a not strictly touristic sense (plus I think I get to return as a tourist later this year with my family, so I get the best of both worlds). 

And ultimately, we did manage to see most of the suggested landmarks of the city.  We stopped at the Münster Cathedral, and climbed all the way to the top.  It was undergoing restoration, so the fascade was covered with scaffolding and a thick fabric, but the view from the top was as good or better than that of the Cathédrale St-Nicolas.  It was a clear day, so we could see the whole city and beyond, all the way to the snow-covered Alps. Unfortunately, a wedding was taking place inside the church, so we couldn't enter the sanctuary.

We also stopped at a fascinating clock tower just outside the gare.  There were all sorts of moving gadgets and astronomical symbols, and beneath its arch, what seemed like samples of old meter and decimeter sticks.

 Afterwards, we spent about half an hour trying to find the Palais Fédéral.  We spotted a flag atop a hill, and we followed it over the gare and around a parking structure, only to discover that it was the university.  We consulted our map, and eventually made it to the central government of la Suisse.  Unfortunately, the tours were over (one of the disadvantages to an unplanned day), but we looked around the building, and checked out the Federal Bank, and the great view of the Alps from behind the Palais.  In the square in front of the Palais, there was a Sri Lankan protest, and we stopped for a few minutes to listen.

 We also crossed the bridge across the Aare, to try and find the Bärengraben on the other side.  Unfortunately, the exhibit only opened the next day, but the views of the river valley from the bridge were spectacular.

Overall, it was a fun day, and it was great to see the other AFS students again.  I hope I get the opportunity to go see more of Switzerland this last week of vacation.