Second trip to Berne

The following day, I decided together with my American colleague Lee to have a second look at Berne. I was really hoping that the weather would co-operate but it turned out to be even worse than my first visit. Not only was it raining crazily but the wind was blowing north, south, east, west, up, and down that it seems like Berne is experiencing some kind of tropical cyclone.

This is the kind of scenery I had from the comfy and spacious Swiss trains 20 minutes upon our departure from Geneva.

Upon arrival in every station, there will be a train annoucement in Switzerland's official languages plus English. We passed by some very industrial regions of Switzerland into the Swiss capital's train station or bahnhof in German. Pay special attention to the SBB annoucement.

First thing I wanted to do in Berne was to take a much-needed washroom break as train washrooms in general aren't that sanitary. However, in this land of luxury watches, you need to let loose some change to use a public washroom. Berne lies in the German-speaking portion of Switzerland and signs are pretty much different. Below is the washroom sign for males which might explain the etimology for its English counterpart.

Berne is the capital city of Switzerland. About 1 1/2 hours by train from Geneva, the city lies almost at the midpoint between Geneva and Zuerich. Like Ottawa, Berne was chosen as a compromise candidate between the different linguistic groups of Switzerland. Initial impression is that Berne offers a higher quality of life as the city is much smaller than Geneva and commuting to work is not really a hassle. I personally like it more than Geneva.

One thing I noticed about German Switzerland is the prevalence of water fountains. Here is a sampling of them in Berne.

Here's one interesting fountain in the city. In one guidebook, it say that its a fountain but looks more like a shower to me. The guidebook also says that it should be frozen at this time of the year but because of the uncharacteristically mild winter they are experiencing, the water still keeps on flowing.

And here is a close-up of the fountain... I can hear some groaning in the audience :)

As a capital city, all major Swiss government building are in Berne. On one major square, you have both the national parliament (which unfortunately was on renovation) and the Swiss central bank.

The Swiss parliament under renovation

And the Swiss central bank

The weather was not really co-operating so we decided to have our brunch. In the restaurant, I ordered an Fr. 18 pasta which according to my French French language professor both there in Winnipeg and here in Geneva are 'poor Italian man's food' (any comments on this).

Berne's city centre has one interesting cathedral. It boasts a tower where you could have a magnificent view of the city. However, because of the inclement weather, we decided not to pay the fee to climb the tower. ON the facade of the cathedral are interesting art works whose intricacy and detailedness cannot be ignored.

Inside the cathedral are marvelous stain glass work. This picture could have been better if there was sunshine outside.

And here is an impressive sculpture inside the cathedral.

Looking over the cathedral's courtyard, here is a view of Berne and one of its landmark bridges.

And here are some additional impressions:

Berne is rich in history and chocolate making has imprinted a siginificant portion of the city's heritage. Here, you'll find the original Berne factory of Lindt chocolatier.

While in the city, we bought a day pass for CHF 19 which allows us to travel around using the highly-developed public transit and have a free entrance with some of the city's museum. Here are some exhibits from one of the museum.

In the afternoon, the weather was a little bit co-operative already. We took a stroll along Berne's cobbled streets.

And we climbed a hill somewhere on the outskirts of the city to have a good look of Berne. Sans the cars, I think nothing has really changed on the cityscape since 1700s.

The counterpart of Chinese restaurants in Switzerland are Italian. Other than Uncle Ronald these restaurant usually offer the cheapest deals available. For dinner, I got a pasta again for Fr. 22 (approx. CAD 21).

And I still could not feel the urge to have some more as I was still hungry after an entire day of walking in Berne. Besides my best effort to economize, I can't help but succum to the temptation of Uncle Ronald with his Fr. 4 Swiss-made french fries.

I would really like to have a place to go this weekend so as not to put it into waste. I would prefer to go to the Swiss mountains but unfortunately, there's an additional fee not covered by my present SBB train card. Any suggestions?

And here are some videos I took during my stay in the city: