Monday 27th: The Capital, Bern

The 26 cantons that make up the Swiss Confederation each has its own parliament, constitution and courts, so there is a great deal of regional autonomy. Over the top of this is the Federal Council and Parliament that is based in Bern, making it the federal capital. Bern is less than an hour by train from Interlaken and has World Heritage status because its centre is so well preserved, so it seemed a natural for a day out on the rover tickets. Picture 1 below is one of these elegant old streets, all arcaded, in fact the most arcaded city in the world.

It also must also be the fast lunch capital of Switzerland. See the guy scoffing a roll, bottom right hand corner, well practically every part of the arcades in this street had a fast-food stall or shop. Hundreds of folks were buying lunch and eating it in the street either standing up or sat on the step-up from the road to the arcades.
At the end of the street is the Zytglogge or clock tower, with mechanical figures performing on the hour. The original clock tower was made in 1218, of wood, but burnt down in 1405 and was replaced with the present one in stone. The wooden version was also a prison for a time for prostitutes that made a living servicing the clergy.

Bern’s emblem is the bear, and the statue shows a knight with a small bear at his feet holding a gun. As interesting as it may be to speculate on what the bear is intending to shoot, it has to be admitted that one’s eyes are drawn to the knight- they don’t make cod-pieces like that these days!

They take their bears seriously, and have made a bear park next to the remains of the old bear-bating pits by the river. There’s even a section of the river for the bears to swim in, so the wealthy with riverside gardens must have to occasionally contend with a bear lumbering up the lawn. This is also a pretty part of the town as the photo shows, the bridge being one of the oldest in the country. It is now a des res area but was formerly a self-contained district of craftsmen and dockworkers with their own language incomprehensible to other Bernese.

The last, rather austere, photo is of the HQ of the Swiss National Bank. It stands next to the Parliament building and symbolises the wealth of the Swiss nation created by the diligence of its inhabitants. This is the somewhat smug official Swiss picture. But there is another story: vast sums were made during the last war. For example, the Bank was buying Nazi gold right up to the very end knowing full well that these transactions were prolonging the misery of the war and that the gold was stolen, some of it in the most unimaginably awful ways.