This weekend began with me asking Eva if she had a bike. She said she used to but it’s gone now, she thinks the people who keep horses in her pasture opposite might have it. I eagerly waited for them to arrive that morning to check on the horses and I trotted up to ask about the bike. The dad, Vernard, said he did have a bike I could use! He said to come and get it after lunch, from their house which is the red one. So, following the instructions, after lunch I walked to the little village down the road and looked out for the red house. I found it and, to my absolute joy, Vernard said I could use the electric bike. The journey to literally anywhere from Eva’s is completely downhill so I was very relieved I wouldn’t have to push myself to almost death on the cycle home from wherever. I really wanted to go and see Bern, but as I was a bit tight for time (it was already 1:30pm) I decided I’d only cycle to the train station and catch the train to the city. I also didn’t really fancy cycling on main roads whilst trying to figure out which way to go.
Bern
And so that takes us to Bern. I’ll preface this by saying that the weather was absolutely glorious for my visit, and that might have affected my view.
I LOVED Bern. It’s very small, with the old town being the only interesting bit I gather, but it really follows quality over quantity. Every building is beautiful, often in a pastel olive green colour. There are decadent water fountains on literally every corner, with chilled drinking water flowing from them. I saw people sat in these fountains with boards holding wine. The main street features a covered arcade on both sides (the longest covered shopping street in Europe). It also features cellar openings with further lovely boutique stores or bars down the dark stairs. The central clock tower is gorgeous. The entire old town is surrounded by the river Aare, with it’s almost aggressive turquoise colour visible at every turn. The bridges are even pretty. And that’s just the bricks and mortar of the city, then came the surprises.
The first was a fashion show. Just on the street, in front of the parliament building. The second was the bears that live in a big enclosure between the road and the river, that you can peer into from the road and see them sleeping and playing. The third is that, and this was definitely my favourite and most probably the reason I love Bern so much, people float down the river Aare. You’ll be walking along the river, in the middle of the capital city of Switzerland, and a person will just float on by you. Often clutching a dry bag filled with their belongings. Apparently it’s quite common for this to be your daily commute in the summer. Business people remove their business suit and pop it in their dry bag, donning their bathing suit instead as they plop into the river and float back home. It’s so popular and integral to Bern it’s actually a UNESCO protected activity (I didn’t even know they protected activities). Can you imagine how lovely that would be? Floating home from work? I genuinely can’t think of anything more wonderful. Is it too early in this trip to decide that Bern is my favourite city ever? Perhaps, but for now it’s number one. (I also had the best ice cream ever here, homemade gelato from Gelateria di Berna, one scoop peanut butter and one scoop rhubarb). Oh, and it’s the city where Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity.
And a bike ride
Something that easily could’ve been eclipsed by wonderful Bern was the cycle ride back from the train station, but it wasn’t. The sun was setting, I had an electric bike, what more could you want when zooming up huge hills? I enjoyed it so much that I decided the following day would be spent cycling. I’d already visited Thun, albeit very briefly, but it seemed the ideal destination. It would mean cycling along cycle trails through the valley all the way to the lake and the mountains. And there was a lido I wanted to try out by the lake. So I packed a sandwich and off I went. It’s around 30km to Thun, so a fair distance but very manageable with an electric bike. It took me about 2.5 hours to get there, I didn’t use the electric bit much as it’s literally all down hill or flat, and I was very worried about the bike running out of charge for the way back. And I kept getting lost (oops). But it really was a lovely way to spend a day. Beautiful scenery, as is a given in Switzerland it seems, more beautiful weather and no great physical exertion needed. The lido was also lovely, although not my favourite spot, there were a lot of families and children and there was a water polo match going on in one of the pools which was a bit odd. After I’d eaten my sandwich, swam and read my book I’d had my fill and started to cycle back. A thunderstorm was forecasted for the late afternoon so I was very aware of that. One thing about the wonderful electric bike I should mention, it did not have one of those nice cushiony seats. It had a rock hard little thing. And my bum was killing me. How people ride bikes for days or weeks is beyond me, it hurts so much! Perhaps this is the reason that when I cycled past a bit of the Aare river which had a little sunbathing area next to it with people swimming I was very keen to stop and take a look. Or perhaps because I hadn’t taken my bikini to Bern and felt like I’d really missed out on floating down the river (next time…). But either way, I got back into my damp bikini, walked up the river a bit and plopped in, floating down to the steps by the grassy sunbathing area. The water was cold and so blue, and the flow was just fast enough to be a bit exciting. After I’d dried off a second time it really was time to cycle the 30km back. The rain didn’t come, and the bike didn’t run out of charge. It was all just wonderful.
