Hello again
This spring has been particularly beautiful -- very dry and sunny. Trees became greener by the day. Some photos to show you what I mean.
The trees south of the Münster were still bare on Easter Monday, April 9.
The river glints silver at the foot of this hill dotted with houses and pink-leafed trees. This hillside is called Rabbental, meaning vale of vines. It was at one point in the past overgrown with vineyards, before the desire for sun-exposed housing encroached.
The river Aare, flanked by trees almost in full leaf only ten days later, runs sea-green below the peninsula on which the Medieval part of the city is located, including the so-called French church to the left and the Münster. Its spire is lopsided due to repair work on the soft and rapidly-eroding green sandstone.
These photos were taken from Kornhausbrücke, one of the two wide arches that span the river on either side of the peninsula. Turn round 180° and this is what you can see:
The whitish buildings in the middle contain my office. Below, a train is just running into Bern train station, which would be beyond the trees on the left. As I type I can't actually see the bridge any longer, due to the now fully-leaved trees just outside my windows.
Berne's Medieval landmark, perhaps its most famous, is the Zytglogge. Here you can see its verdigris spire beyond some buildings. The lantern below the spire holds a large gilded bell and "Hans von Tann", a golden man with a hammer he uses to ring that bell on the full hour. If you click on the photo you should be able to see an enlarged version.
Not far from Zytglogge, in the very heart of the city, is Waisenhausplatz. The city's police headquarters are whimsically embellished by pink-flowering trees and a mauve Easter egg. Perhaps this is a sign that the police force in the Swiss capital doesn't always take everything so seriously. Perhaps it's a symbol of the watered-down liberal socialist politics here... ;)
Opposite the Waisenhaus is one of Berne's more controversial landmarks:
If the Münster -- the cathedral -- is one of Berne's oldest landmarks, the Meret Oppenheim fountain is one of its most recent and most controversial sights. According to M.O.'s sketches, the ground around the fountain should be brick-red and traffic should have been diverted well away from it.
The pillar has two spirals, one a trough full of soil and plants, another has steps down which trickles water. A few more weeks and what now looks brown will be green again. Minerals in the water have left grey-brown-rust tracks everywhere that is not covered with plants. One year, a small tree had taken hold, and a geranium. Last winter, some large chunks of tuff had to be removed that had developed on the pillar's north side and were threatening to fall off.
On my way back from the post office -- returning keys to my p.o. box, picking up the last mail, posting my backup laptop computer to my new address -- I couldn't resist taking a few photographs. I'm not much of a meteorologist so had no idea just then that the weather would be as gorgeous in Oban as it had been in Bern. Still, may these photos remind us all that the sun shines above the clouds, no matter how dismal, cold, grey and wet it may be on the ground.
I've always enjoyed looking at this façade and the zig-zag line of the fire escape, which reminds me of Manhattan, although there they all seem to be painted with glossy black paint. The white-seeming façade with the bit of shadow is the original Toblerone factory. This part dates back to the 19th century. The brick part to the left was added still in the late 19th century, but the top floor was only added on some ten, fifteen years ago, when the entire complex was converted into facilities for the Arts and Humanities of the University of Bern. The ground floor houses the cafeteria/restaurant, while most of the faculty work on the upper floors. Lecture halls are in the building of which just a corner can be seen far right.
