June 12 Zurich to Bern

Last updated on September 6th, 2023 at 03:32 pm

Photos from Bern
Video summary of the day

Our day started early as we were taking the train to Bern this morning. We need to be to our hotel in Bern by 10 a.m. to meet Graham, our tour guide. We left our hotel room in Zurich at 7:15 am. We had looked at the Swiss Train app and thought we knew which platform the train left from (there are over 40 platforms). We got to the train station in about 15 minutes. It always amazing to Joyce how much easier and quicker the walk seems when I’ve been there before and know where I’m going. 

We easily found the large board with all the trains, times and platforms. A non-stop train was going to Bern at 7:49 am and we easily made that train, getting us to Bern in just over an hour.

It was a good  thing we made that earlier train, as our adventure began leaving the train station and walking to our hotel with half our luggage. We had stored the other half at the Renaissance Zurich Tower Hotel, where our Viking cruise tour will begin.

Anyway, leaving the train station and finding which direction to go is always a little confusing. We were using Google maps and thought we were headed in the right direction. Turns out we were headed in the opposite direction! Google maps kept rerouting…and with the tall buildings around us, it was a little slow…so we walked about 15- 20 minutes in the wrong direction and then had to walk back.

Graham, our guide beat us to Hotel Baren am  Bundesplatz by a few minutes. We arrived tired and sweaty! Graham and the hotel staff were very gracious and helpful. We got our luggage stored, used the WC (water closet) and drank some water with fruit floating in it and rested a few minutes. 

Graham is a local tour guide through an agency called Lokafy. It seems to be sort of like the Airbnb of tour guides. He’s not a professional, but a local who loves his city.  He and his wife are not Swiss (He’s a New Zealander by way of Australia and many other places), but have lived in Bern for about 40 years.  It was great to have a native English speaker, and someone who also understood the perspective of us foreigners.  We had communicated with him several times before we even left the States.

Graham began with our walking tour. We walked to the Government buildings and around to the back to a stunning view overlooking the Aare River, several bridges, the buildings on the other side of the river and the hills beyond. We walked through the outdoor corridor of some of the government buildings and walked a little way on a bridge to get a better view of the river and  the craftsman/guild houses below, built in the 1800s, most of them with red tile roofs. 

Next we headed to the astronomical clock tower. It is considered to be the second largest behind the one in Prague.  We arrived about 5 minutes before 11, so we stayed to watch and listen to it strike the hour. We were joined by a large number of other people who were looking for the exact same thing. There were multiple parts to the clock, and it was entertaining to watch for where the next action was going to take place.

From there we headed toward the cathedral. On the way we stopped at Münstergasse Library, the University of Bern’s oldest library, which was formerly a granary. Graham wanted to show Alan where he might be able to do some genealogy research. It was fun to be with someone who knew what university life was like.  They looked at some of the indexed books of names that Graham thought might be of help, but they turned out to be mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries, so after the time our ancestors were here.  It was a good look at a European school library, though. It was interesting to note that when we were overlooking one of the reading rooms, with walls lined with all kinds of books, none of the students had any books at their seats. They were all looking at their devices – presumably at scholarly books electronically!

Joyce stopped to rest in what turned you to be a café within the library while Alan and Graham investigated. When a server came by to take an order, Joyce told her she was just resting. She did not appear to speak much English, but was able to let Joyce know nicely that if Joyce wanted to sit there, she needed to order a drink. Joyce left to sit in a window sill outside in a covered corridor, texting Alan so he would know where she was.

We continued on to the cathedral, Munster St. Vincenzo, begin in 1421, completed in 1893 when the spire was added. While built as a Catholic place of worship, it became a reformed Protestant church after the Reformation, like most of the other churches in this part of Switzerland.

We were treated to majestic organ music while inside as the organist appeared to be practicing. The ceiling is currently undergoing restoration so all we could see was the wooden floor of the scaffolding the workers were using. Graham took us around the side where there were pictures of the restoration in progress to give us an idea of what the ceiling looks like. Graham has been in Bern for 40 years and said the cathedral has been in constant restoration the entire time. 

We sat on Münsterplattform, a tree-lined plaza area outside the cathedral overlooking the river. Graham pointed out things we might want to visit on our own as his time with us was about finished. Joyce was pretty tired from the combination of adventure walking and the tour. Graham insisted on going to get his car parked near the hotel and driving us back to the hotel. We graciously accepted, very appreciative of his going above and beyond.  While he did that, he sent Alan off to see some of the other sights in the old town area and gave us a rendezvous point of the “Moses” fountain in the square in front of the Cathedral.

Graham did a great job of being responsive to our needs while giving us a great overview of the older portions of Bern. We will definitely consider using Lokafy guides on other trips!

Back at the hotel we sat on cushioned benches specifically for hotel guests, rested and talked about what we wanted to do in the afternoon, since our room wasn’t going to be available until a few hours later. Sonya had provided a URL to Bern museums which we looked through, finding since it was Monday, most we were interested in were closed. We had eaten cheese, danish and dried apple slices in our hotel in Zurich for breakfast, so we were hungry. 

Our hotel room wasn’t scheduled to be ready until 3 pm so we decided to eat lunch at Restrubistrobar, gut gelaunt, a short distance from the hotel. We noticed the waitress, who is originally from Ireland, seemed a little harried when we arrived telling us it would be a few minutes before she could get to us. We told her we were in no hurry. She was very appreciative and when we ordered and asked water to drink, she offered ice and lemon. She kept our water glasses full, often bring another glass of ice!

Joyce ordered a flammkuchen, a regional pizza with a thin cracker crust, cheese, red onions and bacon. Alan ordered a crispy chicken bowl with fried chicken strips, quinoa, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower and guacamole. We shared both, deciding we enjoyed the flammkuchen most.

By this time it was about 2:15 pm so we decided to check to see if our room was ready and is was!. We rested a couple hours, then set out for the bear park. As we walked by the plaza in front of the government buildings, the fountains of water were spurting from spigots in the floor of the plaza and children were running through the water. We stopped to watch their enjoyment.

As we walked on we passed another of the many public fountains with fresh mineral water. Yesterday we learned from Thomas that  the water is very clean and safe to drink. It tasted very good as well! We stopped frequently today to fill our water bottle from various fountains. It has been a treat not to need to buy bottled water and to stay hydrated with all the walking we are doing. 

We made it to the bear park, walked down a long flight of stairs to view the bears from a walkway close to the river. We were treated to cool breeze of the river, views of people swimming, and floating in the river, as well seeing the bears.  The 3 resident bears have a multi-leveled large habitat with trees, bushes, and an area of their own in the river in which to swim. We spent quite a while there, watching them more than they were watching us.

We made our way back to the hotel, up the stairs and hill, on different streets to see more of the city. We came back along a quiet street that was parallel to the main street we had taken down to see the bears; it had shops and small cafes. Alan even got up on one of the fountains to make a speech near the city buildings, much as one of his ancestors might have done in days gone by.

Joyce was very tired after walking approximately over 15,900 steps today (Alan registered nearly 20,000!). After a quick stop an the Coop grocery for breakfast items, we had our dinner of gelato, back at Restrubistrobar, Alan had a scoop of strawberry and a scoop of dark chocolate while Joyce had a scoop of mixed wild berry and a scoop of dark chocolate. Delicious!! Now back to the hotel for blogging, pictures and bed!