DAY 5 - BERNE AND BIENNE

day 5 – berne and bienne was a great surprise. berne turned out to be my favourite place in switzerland!

my usual strategy is to walk around a city until i get at least some idea of its geography. we did that in berne.

this is the park where we started our visit with a short lunch picnic.

the beautiful river aarne runs right through the city. and, even if i didn’t know it by then, it’s why i liked berne so much. read on!

at first, i was just franticaly looking for a place to put my feet in the cold running water. i found it. and then, while sitting and cooling down, people started passing us by: in inflatable boats or just simply floating. at first i thought there were just a few. but later i realized this is the local summer sport: we saw people undressing to swimming gear next to their cars and then jumping in the fast stream. i cannot tell you how jealous i was! kids and old ladies, young boys and girls, everybody was jumping in the cool running waters of the river.

so, i have this favour to ask: if you get there during the summer, please jump in and avenge me!

the following pictures are taken from the rose garden on the hill. there is a nice restaurant with the best view in town. we had ice tea and an ice cream sundae. perfect!

then, we left and took a long detour towards the train station. i do this a lot: i chose a way to my destination and then i follow it loosely. it takes longer but there are high chances of discovering more cool local places.

yeah, this is how the locals rolled. and this is why berne was certainly my favourite: i haven’t seen happier people anywhere else that week!

the summer feeling had overtaken the city: hipsters were pedaling barefoot!

in the afternoon, we were supposed to pick up a friend from work. he works in bienne, so we went there to find him. my favourite place was the shore of lake bienne. i don’t have picture though, because we were in the car and i was on the wrong side for taking pics.