Revealing The Walls of Two Cities in Switzerland : Battered Suitcase

In 2017 we spent my spring break in Switzerland. Switzerland had never been at the top of our bucket list of places to visit, however the airfare was compelling. We found a bargain price to Zurich and decided to go for it. What we didn't realize at the time was Zurich is the most expensive city in Europe. Perhaps it was not as much of a bargain as we originally thought.

While we did spend time exploring Zurich, we went to a number of other locations as well using Switzerland's well known train system. In many ways the train system is great. The cars are comfortable and clean with great views. However, they are also not cheap. Everyone says they are the easiest and most convenient way to travel, but no one mentions the cost. There are various options for tourists which are actually quite confusing. I'm not sure at all if we chose the best one for us, but I did the best I could. From Zurich we took the train to three different locations. This post is about two of them, Berne and Stein am Rhein. Berne, of course, is the capitol city while Stein am Rhein is a small town on the Rhine River.

We arrived in Switzerland on Easter morning. The following day we traveled to Berne. Here's a hint for traveling in Europe. For many places the Monday after Easter is a holiday. We didn't realize that and arrived in Bern to discover a city that was mostly closed. Fortunately some of the restaurants remained open.

There were a few striking things about Berne. First is its location. There is almost a loop in the Aare River, and Berne's city center sits inside it. Building walls go right up to the river in places. There are various bridges that connect the city center to the areas on the other side of the river. The river is an important part of the city.

Secondly, it feels like there is a sameness to the city. Almost all the buildings are finished in very neutral colors. There is not much color in the city as you walk through it. However, if you look down on the city, most of the roofs are made with a red tile creating a uniformity throughout the city. As we walked down the main street, the sameness was striking. The buildings were all four stories butted next to each other. The bottom floor would be a business and above it were often three levels of apartments. You could distinguish one building from the next by such things as the decoration around the windows, but otherwise not much was different.

Down the center of the main street was a tram running on tracks and cables. There were also old fountains in the center of the streets here and there. Of course one of the main attractions is the clock tower. On the hour there is a bit of a show the clock creates along the line of cuckoo clocks. Most Swiss cities seem to have a clock tower like this.

One unusual feature was the underground stores. Unfortunately, since most of the stores were closed, we didn't get to experience this. It took a while for us to realize what they were. Walking down the street we saw what looked like boxes raised at a bit of an angle. It turns out these are doors that open to shops below street level. We peered into one that was open and wished we could have seen more. The doors are visible on the right in the picture below.

Berne has a number of churches, and since Switzerland was one of the significant places for the protestant reformation, not all of them are Catholic. They have some interesting architectural features, but muted colors.

While we were there, there was a demonstration that crossed the bridge into town near one of the large churches for a rally. We weren't quite sure what it was about, but it seemed to be about unity of people in some way, perhaps supporting gay rights.

Since it was my birthday, we did find a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. However, the waiter spoke little English. My wife wanted a glass of water to drink. When she tried to get that, she ended up with a bottle of water which we had to pay for. We thought maybe that's just the way it was until another group came and sat near us.The waiter served them water in glasses. Somehow the communication just wasn't working for us.