Switzerland Day 1 - Bern
We drove to Switzerland in late June. The first stop was Bern, the capital of the country. We arrived at Bern before noon. After we parked our car at the hotel, we walked towards the old town. The way was downhill. The view from the middle of the slope was lovely. We were convinced it must be the old town.
We stopped by at the famous Bear Pit near Nydeggbrücke (the Nydeck Bridge), the east end of the old town. Two bears were hanging around. Bears are a symbol of Bern. According to a legend, one day in the 12th century, Berchtold V, the Duke of Zähringen and founder of Bern went hunting and first caught a bear, which became the name of the city.
We crossed the Nydeck Bridge to the center of the old town. The medieval city was founded on a hill site surrounded by the Aare River. I was very surprised at the color of the water - incredibly beautiful turquoise.
Flags on the row of buildings were welcoming. The flags with a black bear are Bern's cantonal flag, of course.
Bern is also known as the City of Fountain. There are over 100 public fountains in the old town. Out of them, eleven were created during the 16th century. They are with historical colorful fountain figures. I tried to find them while we were exploring the old city. The first one we saw was Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen (Justice Fountain). Graceful and fair, Lady Justice with blindfolded eyes, holding up a sword and the golden scales of justice.
Lunch time! We tried a French/Swiss restaurant called Krone near the fountain.
We both ordered Cordon bleu. Deep-fried Swiss pork (Säuli) fillet filled with farmer's ham and "Gähwiler' mountain cheese along with fried potatoes was a kind of dish that I usually stay away. However, I was very hungry at that time because we missed a chance to have breakfast. The hearty golden cheesy Cordon blue sounded nice although we both didn't know the serving portion would be giant. It tasted fine but pretty heavy and meaty. What did I do?!
A quick ice cream break at Cuckoo Ice Cream. I had pistachio and yogurt. Pretty good. I remember J had cassis (black currant) and he said it was tart while I don't remember what the other was. Something white but surely not yogurt because he is not a big yogurt fan.
The third historical fountain we saw was Zähringen Fountain. A bear wearing a helmet on its head and carrying a banner in one paw and a shield in the other. The golden lion is the coat of arms of the House of Zähringen. Zytglogge (the Clock Tower) was down there.
Another there. Kindlifresserbrunnen (Ogre Fountain) with an ogre putting a baby in his mouth and the other in a bag and the rest of babies crawling around on the monster. It is said that the terrifying fountain was designed for an educational purpose to scare little children into behaving. Does it work? I hope so.
At the end of Marktgasse was The Käfigturm (Prison Tower), originally built in the 13th century as a defense tower and the city gate.
The fifth historical fountain we found was Pfeiferbrunnen (Bagpiper Fountain). The musician was meant to celebrate cheerfulness, life, music, games, dance and good food. A happy guy.
We found a large church and stopped by to see the interior. Heiliggeistkirche, or Holy Spirit Church is a 18th century baroque church and the first new building to be erected in the city of Bern after the Reformation. To be a typical Protestant church, the interior was simple but elegant with a large open sermon hall and a colonnade of 14 Corinthian columns.
This wasn't a historical fountain. By the way I heard that the water from the fountains in Bern is safely drinkable. The water looked very clear although I didn't try just in case.
Bundeshaus, or the Parliament Building reminded me of the fact that Bern is the capital of Switzerland. It was supposed to be one of the beautiful buildings in Bern but we couldn't see it well because some construction works were covering some parts of the huge building up.
On the left was Swiss National Bank. I liked the trees on the both side of it.
There was a sculpture near Casino. It looked like a Meitschibei, a finger-thick, horseshoe-shaped Bernese pastry filled with sweet hazelnut paste. The name means 'little girl’s legs.' It was one of the classic local pastries on my must-try list. Anyway, later I learned that the sculpture was created by artist Luciano Andreani and the title was 'Headless.' The City of Bern bought it in 1986. It looked somehow cute. Maybe it's because I can't stop associating the curious bronze art with the particular pastry.
Berner Münster, or the Cathedral of Bern (Bern Minster) was our next stop. The highest church spire in all of Switzerland was easy to follow.
Mosesbrunnen (Moses Fountain) was at the square in front of the Cathedral. So far we found six Renaissance fountains.
The Cathedral is the largest late medieval church in Switzerland. The construction began in 1421 and mostly completed in the mid-1500s. The upper part of the tower was finally done in the late 19th century. The Gothic style building was almost completely made out of Bernese sandstone. You can go up to the viewing deck, but we didn't feel climbing 334 steps on the dark grey sky day.
The main entrance is the most famous feature of the Cathedral. Almost 300 sandstone sculptures depict the Last Judgement. Many of them are the originals from the Medieval time, which miraculously survived from the Reformation clean-up.
The stained glass windows were beautiful, too.
There was a park called Münsterplattform right next to the Cathedral. It was a nice place with lovely views of the houses and the river.
We were back to the street with the clock tower. I found a fountain that looked old but doesn't have a figure, which means it was not a historical fountain.
The clock tower was built in the early 13th century as a fortified guard tower when Bern was still small. In 1530, when the city became bigger and the tower found itself siting in the center of the city, not on the edge, two features, the astronomical calendar clock and the musical mechanism were installed in 1530 and still work today. According to the official Bern guide, "Right before the clock strikes the hour a crowing rooster announces the start of an entertaining spectacle. Bears dance their hourly routine, a jester jokingly signals the hour too early, the quarter-hour chimes are heard from the tower, and Chronos, the god of time, turns his hourglass over. The golden figure of Hans von Thann finally strikes the hour in time with Chronos’ swinging scepter." I wanted to watch it but we kept missing the timing, but finally we were near the tower before 3pm. While the rain started, people were gathering around the tower. I managed to find a spot near the clock to see the show... Well, I heard the rooster crowed briefly. That was all. How didn't I see the dancing bears? What happened on the over 500 year ritual?? The rain was getting hard. Time to go to the hotel to rest.
To be continued...
