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.

Bern in Spring (2007)

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.