Of all the Swiss cities Bern is perhaps the most charming. Crammed onto a steep-sided peninsula in a crook of the fast-flowing River Aare, its quiet, cobbled lanes, lined with sandstone arcaded buildings straddling the pavement, have changed barely at all in over five hundred years but for the adornment of modern shop signs and the odd car or tram rattling past. The hills all around, and the steep banks of the river, are still liberally wooded. Views, both of the Old Town’s clustered roofs and of the majestic Alps on the horizon, are breathtaking.
The perfectly preserved medieval street plan, with its arcades, street fountains and doughty towers persuaded UNESCO to deem Bern a World Heritage Site, placing it in the company of such legendary sites as Florence, Petra and the Taj Mahal.
Places to See:
Some 100m west of the Munster is Casinoplatz – the actual Casino sees more concertgoers than gamblers – from where trams head south to the Helvetiaplatz museums. The Zytglogge is a few steps north, and just beyond it is the nightmarish Kindlifresserbrunnen, or Ogre Fountain, which shows a man devouring a struggling baby.
The Kunstmuseum:
Bern’s marvellous Kunstmuseum is barely five minutes’ walk northeast of the train station, in an impressively well-designed and newly renovated building at Hodlerstrass. Aside from often excellent shows, the main attraction is the Paul Klee collection, the largest in the world with over two thousand works, most of them drawings and, unfortunately, the greater part in storage in the vaults. Nonetheless, the permanent collection, comprising large numbers of works by Klee and Kandinsky, along with plenty by Picasso, Modigliani, Giacometti, Cezanne, Matisse, Rothko, Miro, Pollock and more, makes this a magical experience.
Most of Bern’s museums are clustered together around Helvetiaplatz, on the south side of the Kirchenfeldbrücke. Some, like the Bernisches Historisches Museum, shouldn’t really be missed.
The impressively wide main cobbled thoroughfare of the old town stretches away on both sides of the Zytglogge – Marktgasse (the heart of Bern’s shopping district) is to the west, while elegant Kramgasse runs east, also with its fair share of commerce, and featuring many Baroque facades stuck on to the medieval arcaded buildings early in the eighteenth century. At no. 49 is the Einstein House, the apartment and workplace of the famous scientist, who developed his Theory of Relativity in 1905 while working in the Bern Patent Office, having graduated fom the Zurich Institute of Technology a few years before. It’s also on Kramgasse that you’ll come across the first of Bern’s many ornamented fountains, an armoured bear holding the standard of the city’s founder, Berchtold von Zähringen (dating from 1535). Halfway along the street is another, with a copy of a 1545 statue of Samson, and just before the Kreuzgasse junction is a statue-less fountain dating from 1779.
Eating Out:
Bern’s compact Old Town abounds with eating and drinking opportunities, and you’ll have no trouble finding something to suit your palate and your budget. The broad Bärenplatz, always busy with people, performers and market stalls, is shoulder to shoulder with cafés and is top choice for cappuccinos in the sunshine, but there’s a host of places all through the cobbled lanes offering al fresco consumption during the summer and firelit warmth in winter.
Nightlife:
Bern’s nightlife is surprisingly vibrant, with live music (contemporary and classical), dance nights, theatre, opera and film. Posters all over town advertise events, or otherwise you can find complete city nightlife listings in Agenda, the Thursday supplement of Berner Zeitung newspaper, available free from many cinemas.
Getting Here...
By Air:
Bern-Belp airport is just 20 minutes (9 km) from the city center.
The city of Bern is close to the intercontinental airport of Zurich (trains every half-hour; journey time 74 minutes and up) and Geneva (trains every hour; journey time 100 minutes. To get the most out of rail travel, take advantage of the "Swiss Travel System", a special product offered by the railway. It’s the nicest and most comfortable way to discover Switzerland (with Bern as a starting point).
By Bus:
Regular bus connections between the airport. Bern main railway station and Belp railway station offer the traveller an efficent journey.
By Car:
Bern motorway intersection is connected directly to the E4, the European long-distance highway.
