Photos and Stories behind them - The Secret Places in Bern, capital city of Switzerland

They used to have a bear pit in Bern. They still have a Bear Pit in Bern, but it is no longer a pit but a Bear Park on the banks of the River Aar. The bears complained that it was no longer the thing to do to put them in a pit. The bear is the symbol of Bern, and they felt they deserved something better. I have not visited the bear park, but when I do I promise there will be some photos. 

However, I visited the old bear pit, which no longer has bears. It is empty, but not useless. A brewery has now replaced the bears. The brewing machines are all behind glass for everyone to see.

I then moved on, feeling a natural desire after seeing so much beer being produced and visited the ladies toilet. It was very clean and modern and I found an interesting poster on the wall, of which I took a photo.

In the middle it says “On Sunday a toilet is more than simply a toilet”. Top left it tells us that the saying “money does not stink” originates from the Roman Emperor Vespasian who introduced the first toilet taxes. It then tells us that Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho was almost censored completely, not because of the murders, but because of the scene with a toilet.

It goes on to tell us that in Japan toilet seats are usually heated and a human spends on average three years of his life on a toilet (perhaps more if we take the iPad or a book with us). On the New York marathon it seems that if you have a human need, you might set up a record on distance “pissing”. Sorry for the expression, but I cannot translate everything. Pope Julius is the patron saint of toilet cleaners and Barbara Streisland was a toilet cleaner before she became famous. Last of all it seems that the amount of bacteria on an office desk is 400 times more than that on a toilet seat.

Yes the things those Bernese investigate.

July 23, 2007 - still 5 weekdays to go

This photo shows the main station in Bern. We have a local train which runs from our town of Solothurn to Bern once an hour. It is quite a good connection, the train going through the small Bernese villages until it eventually goes into a tunnel for a few minutes, something like the London underground and arrives in the station at Bern. Bern is about 40 kilometers South of Solothurn – about 50 minutes taking into account the stops at the station. By road on the motorway it takes around 30 minutes.

Bern is the ideal town for shopping when it is raining. The main road has no open pavement as there is a system of arches down to the bottom, so no-one gets wet. Even the cellars are used as shops meaning you have to go down the stairs to get into the premises. The main street of Bern is closed to traffic and only available for trams and busses.




The buildings are very picturesque and are not allowed to be altered. Apart from the usual stores, Bern has a lot of smaller shops dealing in antiques, art, books etc. and of course the cafés with their selection of cakes which resemble more works of art.

The river Aare flows through Bern where it makes a “U” turn, so it is to be found right and left of the main road. Bern is also the capital city of Switzerland and the Bundeshaus (houses of parliament) is one of the attractions. I found at the moment that it resembles an art work from Christo as it is packed in cloth over the scaffolding. At the moment it is being renovated. I think it is one of the few parliament buildings that attracts children in Summer. In front of the parliament building water spouts have been fitted into the pavement and when I arrived I was surprised to see children of all ages in their bathing clothes enjoying the water.

If you look up on most of the buildings there are ornaments which belong to the various guilds of Bern as in the following photos.

The streets in Summer are full of tourists from all over the world. It is one of my favourite towns to visit. It does not seem to have the stress of most big cities and everything is so well planned. Before leaving Bern I made my usual visit to the book shop, one of the best I have ever found. Besides having a good collection of English books (at the moment Harry Potter seems to be the star) they also have a cafeteria in the shop where you can relax with a cup of coffee.

Eventually I made my way to the "underground" station to catch the train back to Solothurn. Of course Bern has a large station for trains all over Europe, but we Solothurner are satisfied with our "Bern Bähnli"

July 23, 2007 - still 5 weekdays to go

If you live in Switzerland and have a visit from London, then a visit to the capital city of Bern is always welcome. My schoolfriend has been in Switzerland a few times and her wish was to again visit the bear pit in Bern. Apart from having banks, gold bars and Heidi we also have real live bears which have been kept in Bern for many years in a bear pit. As you can see above the Bern coat of arms shows a bear and the bears are found in all corners of the town, in chocolate, china, metal, Bern = bear. Probably the animal friends are already crying out in protest. The bears are very well cared for and according to the birth rate there can be as many as 4-5 bears. However today there are only two brown bears kept permanently in the pit. In Spring it is particularly attractive as if there have been any births the baby bears are then introduced to the spectators.

A bit of history – the bear pit today has been since 1857 in the same place. If you arrive at the main station, you can take a nice walk through the main road (a blog follows next time) and eventually you cross the River Aare over the Nydegg bridge and the bear pit is just after the bridge. In 1995/96 the bear pit was renovated to enable the bears to live their bear life to the full. Food can be bought to feed the bears and they always seem to be very hungry. I am not sure as I could find not record on Internet, but I believe there have been accidents with people leaning over the wall and falling in. Although my photos seem to have been taken very near to the bears, I can assure you I did not lean over to get closer but used the zoom lens on the camera.

As belongs to every tourist attraction, just behind the bear pit there is a souvenir shop where nice little fluffy bears can be bought.

The restaurant and souvenir shop was actually the tram end station at one time, but was converted and my friend and I had a cup of coffee in the restaurant. Beer is brewed on the premises and here follows a photo of the brewery protected by a glass window in the basement (just next door to the toilets – there must be a link somewhere?)

I think we attempted to leave the bear pit twice, but each time the bears pulled another trick so our photo safari continued. They are quite active and have water for a bath and a high area with trees to walk around in. To appease all who find this is not right, a new bear park is being built in Bern to replace the pit. I have “borrowed” this text from an Internet site:

“Bear Park: The existing Bear Pits are to be turned into a Bear Park in the future. The project was launched in April 2003 and aims to create two bear enclosures measuring over 10 000 m2 in which the bears will be able to be outdoors all day throughout the year (in winter caves).

Furthermore the new enclosures will provide the bears with the opportunity to swim and fish in the water of the River Aare for the first time ever. A new feature of the Bear Park will be that it is open 24 hours a day and visitors will be able to gain a good insight into "bear life" from paths running round the enclosure. Furthermore there will be technological equipment to help locate the bears.”

If anyone ever strays to Switzerland and visits the town of Bern, then I can only advise to visit the bears. It was at least 3-4 years since I was there and I really enjoyed the visit.