Not the most conventional Bern views -- the new Bundeshaus cupola, etc.

Hello again

Feeling a bit blah after a pretty fantastic weekend. It's a very grey, pretty chilly day out there. So I thought I'd remind myself of the fabulous weather we had last week. I remember moaning about it...
A not very conventional view of the new cupola atop the Federal Government building (above), photo taken from the "Grosse Schanze", what used to be a military fortification but is now the lawn-covered forecourt of the main building of Bern University. The next photo was taken from more or less the same point. Bern is under construction, and it shows:The above is a view of the city's theatre and concert hall, the "Stadttheater", with the same cranes as in the previous photo framing the cupola of the "Bundeshaus". Photo taken on "Kornhausbrücke", one of the two beautiful arched steel bridges crossing the river Aare.
The next two photos show a view one can enjoy only if one climbs to the top of the building in which I have my office.
Bern's great railway viaduct, a concrete and steel structure built in the 1930s, I believe. The white building centre right is the School of professional and industrial crafts (Gewerblich-industrielle Berufsschule Bern -- GIBB). I understand it was built by an architect inspired by Le Corbusier. The hill background left is the "Bantiger", with the tall needle atop a huge transmission tower for TV, radio, telephones just visible in the blue sky.A train just pulling into Bern station, hidden and tucked into the hill below Grosse Schanze (right centre). The neo-Gothic spire of the Münster, left centre. The white chain of the Alps on the horizon, the dark triangle of Eiger is quite clearly visible just right of the Münster. Two cranes frame the Bundeshaus cupola in front of the Niesen.


Last Saturday, I was MC at a friend's 80th birthday (see next post). And yesterday I worked on Saturday's photos for an album for my friend, and had a couple of friends round for drinks and dinner and a good chat. Slightly hung over today ... but it was well worth it. :)

Finally, here's my very first video showing the fabulous water fountains on Bundesplatz of Bern (took this in April, shortly after the jets were turned on again for the summer season). On a hot day in summer, kids (and adults) love to play about. Enjoy!

Here's hoping that nobody gets flooded out of their homes today.