Wangen an der Aare

A few days ago I did a blog about the jazz concert I attended on Sunday morning where my husband was playing. The concert took place in a small village near where I live, a few curves down our local river and about 10-15 minutes by car. Whilst the musicians were assembling their instruments and "getting in the mood" I left them too it and took a walk around the village.

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It had snowed the evening before and it was a cold frosty morning, but the landscape looked very pretty under those cold conditions. As said, Wangen lays on the River Aare. It is a small village and is in the Kanton (state/county) of Bern. The village itself has a lot of tradition which can be seen by this view of the main street.

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Most of the shops are found on the on the periphery of this center. The actual central part of the town is enclosed between two "gates" which formed part of the town defences in olden days - even the Swiss had their internal differences and fought out a few territorial arguments with each other. Here are the town "gates".

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The second photo shows the view through the arch of a bridge. This is one of the famous wooden bridges that still exist in Switzerland, the most famous being the one in Luzern which burnt down a few years ago, but was built again. This bridge is the main direct connection to the village. Although you can drive over in both directions, you can only enter the bridge when there is no approaching traffic. This needs a lot of understanding on the drivers behalf and everyone has to show their best manners. I do not like driving into this village and I avoid it when I can, or my husband is driving. There is of course a main road, but this is quite a long drive round. Here is a closer photo of the bridge.

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I walked back to the place where the band were performing (it was in an art gallery) and noticed it was situated in a very old quaint square where it seemed time had stood still. Just opposite the gallery there was an old house which was probably one of the farm houses in days gone bye.

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Even the original watering trough for the animals was still in operation in front of the house.

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The people living in the house have their wood cut and ready to burn through the Winter on their fire. Eventually it was time for the concert so I made my way back to listen to some jazz for a couple of hours. As I past by the river and few ducks came swimming along so of course I could not resist taking a photo.