Bern

Today we went to Bern, I love that city, it is so alive it's just amazing. What is interesting is that the city has changed a lot over the years, but has not changed at all. How can I explain that. All the buildings are made out of sandstone, and they are old. the city was founded in 1191, so we are looking at a city that is now over 800 years old. The shell of the houses, are unchanged and have been the same for hundreds of years, but the inside of the houses and businesses have changed. They are up to date with the latest technology, just like any modern city. The same with the streets and the public transportation. The streets are made of cobblestone, and look agent, but the trolly's that use to be pulled by horses are now up to date with the most modern and luxurious transportation you can imagine. There are electronic signs on each bus or trolley stop that tell you exactly when the next bus will arrive. Traffic in the downtown area is severely regulated. Most of it is a access by foot traffic only, and it is busy. I forgot how busy that city is, see for yourself:

Access to the downtown area is best by public transport. In the outskirt of the city are park houses with efficient and very modern articulated buses to transport the public into the city. In addition to the buses, people use the bike. Every where you go there is a place to park a bike.

This is Bern, the main street of the City. There are fountains every few hundred feet, in the old days, that's where the water for every day use came from

And this is what makes Bern so different about any other city anywhere. The sidewalk are built in a way that they are part of the houses and are covered. The "Berner" calls them "Laube", it's very unique, and as far as I know there is no other city that has a similar architecture.

And it's busy... The city was completely filled with people, and this was just an ordinary weekday. This is the "Chafic Turm", or the prison tower. This area of the city we refer to as "D' Front". It's an area with outdoor cafes in the summer, temporary shops and fairs. In the old days, the farmers use to come here and sell their produce.

Another look at the main street of the city. You can see the arches that lead to the sidewalk or "D'Loube".

The facade of the houses are covered with ornaments, sandstone carvings. In the entire city of Bern there is not one house that does not have something unique, something special. Here is such an example:

This is a strange fountain... "Dr Chindli Frasser Brunne", the children eating fountain. There is a story with that fountain, but I forgot what it is.

I went to school in the third building down the street. It was a drafting class.

This is "Zytglogge", I am not sure how to translate this, a tower with the time on it or something like this.

On top of the tower is a mechanical man that swings a hammer against a bell on the hour.

This is the other side of the tower. The clock work in the tower is huge, when I was a kid my father took me inside the tower. I remember being in there, but just in bits and peaces.
This is the other side of the tower.

There is an interesting story about this tower and Albert Einstein, but this story is not part of this blog. If you are interested you will have to go to my Sky blog.
It is not easy to see, but in that channel flows the old brook that flowed from the top of the city down the center of the main street all the way down before emptying in to the River Aare that forms a loop in which the city of Bern was built.

There are a ton of those fountains, in all of Bern most likely several dozens, but each fountain has a special meaning, there is always a carving or a statute or something associated with each fountain.

I have no idea what this figure is all about...

This is another look how the city's sidewalks are built under the houses.

Mom and Dad talking to a watchmaker:

This is the City Council:

As you can see, the sides street are a bit quieter, not as much foot traffic as along the main street with all the shops.

This is the famous "Baren Graben", or less flattering, the bear pit. The story goes that in 1100 something some thing a noble man, I believe Von Zaringen, hunted in this area, and shot a bear, and he decided to built a town in this river loop and decided to call the city Bern in reference to the killed Bear. At lowest part of the city, the apex of the river loop is where the city always kept live bears.
This is the old Bear pit, which is an improvement over what it use to be

Fortunately, the city decided to upgrade the bear pit and built a better environment for them. I am not a supporter of keeping life bears locked up in a pit, but this at least is a bit of an improvement over the old pit.

This is the apex of the river Aare loop, looking up the way we just walked down. The tower in the distance is the main church in Bern, "Ts Munster".

This is the place my mother use to work, it use to be the income tax office.

This is a side street we are walking on, heading back up towards "Ts Munster".

An her is this famous Church. I remember coming here and looking at the main portal. Above the portal is a carving representing the final judgment day. On the left is heaven, and on the right is hell.

A close up of hell shows some disturbing representations, to me it looks like some of the torture technique that was used in those days. For a closer look and a history about this amazing church check out Wiki.

And here of course is heaven...

Bern is a very interesting City, because the city was built in the loop of the river Aare, the old city was separated from the growth of the rest of the city. In many ways, the old city Bern was able to maintain a charm that is very unique. This last picture gives a better impression of what the overall look of  the city is like.
By the way, the building on the right is the federal government building. When we got there it was too dark to take any pictures.

The Cows Next Door

My parents live in a very small village outside of Bern. This picture was taken two days ago when we had a winter wonderland outside. In the meantime, the temperature rose dramatically from the minus region to close to plus 10 degrees. The snow melted in a matter of a few hours. Most likely, we will not see anymore snow before Christmas.

Nothing dramatically accomplished today. We went to a Best Buy type of store looking for some photo studio accessories. I did not find what I was looking for, but I had an opportunity to play with an iPad. Not a bad little machine. I am still dealing with jet leg. Tomorrow I will build the studio and start inventoring the artwork.

Sunday

Lazy day in Detligen:
Breakfast...

Lunch in our dining room. This part of the farm use to be a pig pen.

Dublin to Zurich

The flight from Philly to Dublin was uneventful, I dozed most of the flight.
In Philly I was on the search for an electrical outlet to get my electronic gadgets uploaded. I. finally found one somewhere on the floor.
Good thing I did that, I forgot that the power outlet in Dublin is different; I was not able to charge my computer and iPod in Dublin.

The view from my charging station.
I was surprised to see snow on the airport, not much, but there was some snow. As I would learn later, there is a lot of snow in Europe.
Landing in Zurich was completely covered in snow.

Lunch at Bel Air

On Saturday we went for lunch at a restaurant called Bel Air. This restaurant has been in operation since 1900, specialty fish. We ordered a Pike for lunch. Wow, that was a great lunch.
The Restaurant is located at the edge of a little lake called "Murtensee". I remember we use to sail on this lake, if I am correct we even had some races on this lake. 

Mom and Dad having Lunch

On our way home we passed by a place that polishes stones for counter tops etc. They had a real neat display. A perfectly round polished ball, about 3 feet in diameter, was placed in a perfect half shell. Water came from an outlet in the bowl and kept the ball slightly floating so the ball could freely turn. Very unique.

Here is my Dad driving... He is no longer the aggressive driver he use to be. Too many speeding fines, and maybe he is mellowing out just a bit. It's about time.

Boarding and Flying

Flying is something special for me, I don't care if it is in a tiny hang glider or a 737. I wish I could go up to the cockpit and visit with the pilot during the flight. I remember there was a time we use to to this all the time, in fact I use to have to compete with the kids to get a turn to visit the cockpit.

The flight was uneventful, in this picture we just climbed through 10,000 feet on or way to 34,000 feet.

Trip to Switzerland

This portion of this blog is dedicated to my wife Audrey. It is a detailed accounting of my trip to Switzerland, Schweiz, or the original name, Confederation Helvetica. The first portion of the trip is a cross country flight from Seattle to Philadelphia.
Clearing security in Seattle was no big deal, lines were reasonable, don't even know if I had to go trough one of those full body scans.
Once past the security check, it was time to sip on a latte and wait.
At the SeaTac airport, in the main waiting area, just above the Starbuck's hut is one of my favorit art installation. It's called the "Landing", a real neat looking three dimensional sculpture. It's made off hundreds of little salmons sculpture that are suspended in the air. What is so neat, about this sculpture is the fact it shows the landing of the duck, plus the reflection the duck makes on the water.

Its a mixed media sculpture by Ralph Helmick & Stuart Schechter, called landing.