Bern - Capital of Switzerland

We went Bern on my friends' 2nd day here. Had to change the itinerary a little because of the weather. Over here, especially in Apr, the weather can be real freaky. It can look bright and sunny in the day but can rain and go cloudy & rain in the afternoon with a sudden fall in temperature. I suppose likewise for S'pore's weather now as well. No wonder people like to associate women's temperament to that of the weather :)





Waiting for our train to Bern which takes about an hour. Swiss are known for their punctuality, & likewise for the timing of their train. The train was quite comfy with a double-deck. Fortunately no smoking is allowed on trains. You may think that it should be the case but over here, smokers are everywhere and...they allow smoking in cafes, restaurants and eateries with the exception in shopping centres and the restaurants in these shopping centres. So you can imagine how much 2nd hand smoke I've taken...so not ideally a healthy place yet.

And well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So I can't be possibly staring at everyone who throws their cigarette butts around. It's strange. They are civic conscious when it comes to throwing their rubbish (they have quite a rule in their rubbish clarification, will come to that in my later blog entry), but when it comes to cigarette butts, they can just throw it on the floor. So besides dried chewing gums, cigarette butts can be founds on the streets. The 'Ah Tiongs' must be happy here except that they can't display their 'expectorating' skills here. Kar pui!

From left: Ms Wong (aka Ms Upright Pinky), Lynn (aka Dao You or Shifu - who managed to attain 'enlightenment' at Mt Zermatt), Shawna (aka Climbing Stairs Dao You cum photographer & the one who witness 1st hand, Shifu's 'enlightenment') and Wendy (aka Ms 'Dun Waste').

Streets of Bern

First stop - Einstein Museum (Admission fee: Fr 18)

Inside the museum, the stairs leading up to the other exhibits of the museum is constructed with mirrors which creates a feeling of a different dimension.

Einstein sure stands out in amongst them :)

Ms Wong, aspiring to be like him ;p

Young little Einstein

A little life history about Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a German born in Ulm, Wurttemberg in Germany on Mar 14, 1879. He was a theoretical physicist best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass-energy equivalence, E = mc² (formula looks familiar?). He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. He's a Jew although his family was not observant of Jewish religious practices.

He later renounced his German citizenship to avoid military service (he's an advocate of peace) and became a Swiss in 1901 where he studied in Switzerland. Later, he managed to find work in Bern with the help of his friend, as an assistant examiner.

The toys that he play when he was young. Simple (except the one on the far left) yet mind stimulating.

So you see, don't have to worry about your child not developing as 'normally' as other kids. Sometimes it could be a genius in the making :) For your info, Einstein didn't even pass his exams and scored badly for his physics (actually, there's a controversy whether he did badly or well as the grading system was different in Switzerland and Munich). But for sure, he's poor in his language and because of that he couldn't make it to what in S'p termed as 'Polytechnics'.

Found an interesting article in this website http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/einbrain.htm
which talks about whether Einstein's brain is different from the rest of us. What I found true is this statement which states that what Einstein did with his brain depended on the nurturing of family and friends, a solid German and Swiss education, and his own bold personality.

Can you guess which is Einstein? Clue: The cool one who doesn't look into the camera ;p
Still can't get it? Ok, he's the one sitting cross-legged.

Correspondence with Sigmund Freud. Hmm...didn't know he was his acquaintance...wonder if this had some influence on him and perhaps why he has a few marriages? His love life is rather complicated or colourful if and it was made into a short documentary. The 5 of us actually stood there a few good minutes to watch the documentary on the women of his life even thou it was in German haha ;p

Einstein met his first wife, Mileva Maric, in the university, ETH Zurich. She had Einstein's first child, Lieserl Einstein, before they were married. As it was not socially acceptable for someone to have a child before marriage, she went back to her hometown to deliver the child. However, no one knows where this child is or whether she survived.

They got married against the will of their families in Bern and later gave birth to their first son, Hans Albert, in Bern and their second son, Eduard, in Munich.

Einstein and Marić were later divorced and lived apart for five years. Einstein later married Elsa Lowenthal, Einstein's first cousin maternally and his second cousin paternally. Together the Einsteins raised Margot and Ilse, Elsa's daughters from her first marriage. They did not have any children in this marriage.

As for his other wives, I can't remember much as there was quite a few and most of them are quite strong in character. He even married a female spy. I've googled to find out about his history and many speculated that his first wife had made a great contribution to Einstein's theories e.g. theory of relativity. Well, I would choose to believe that she could have helped shed some light during their discussions though there are no written records to prove. But I supposed she did play an important role in Einstein's career. Don't forget that she's the only lady in the Mathematics class at that time.

Einstein in his last years

My fav expression of him :)

Time for lunch!

We went around searching for a reasonable priced place for lunch. And it was a real 'cheap' meal we've had. We chanced upon this bar and went in and whiffs of smoke welcomed us. I guess it was sort of their tea time or after lunch hours, as most of them were drinking, smoking and having snacks. It was a cosy bar with a very hospitable host who will go round the table to check that his customers are comfortable. A nice chubby old and cute gentleman.

As you can see, the photos looked rather dark here because of the gloomy weather as it was drizzling.

Münster Cathedral

The first church on this site was probably a small chapel dating from the founding of the city (1191). Its existence is first recorded in 1224.

On March 11, 1421, a master builder from Strasbourg named Matthäus Ensinger (who already had three cathedrals under his belt) began construction on a new minster to take its place. At the time, only 5,000 people lived in Bern.

Work continued on the Münster until the mid-16th century. After a gap of about three centuries, it was finally completed in 1893 with the addition of the bell tower. In the meantime, Bern had become Protestant. Thus what began as a Catholic cathedral ended up as a Protestant minster (collegiate church).

The most exceptional feature of Bern's Münster is the magnificent depiction of the Last Judgment over the main portal, which contains more than 200 carved wood and stone figures. This is one of the only remaining unified examples of late-Gothic sculpture in Europe. Actually when I first saw the church, I thought it looked similar to the Indian temples because of these stone figures.

The cathedral's 100m (300-foot) bell tower is the highest in Switzerland and can be seen from almost anywhere in Bern.

A panoramic view of the Bernese Alps, the old town, Bern's bridges, and the Aare River. It cost Fr 4 to climb to the tower's viewing platform which is about 344 steps up. It's definitely a strenuous spiral climb up the narrow stone steps. With Shuh leading, we finally managed to make it to the top. Fortunately there are a few stops for us to take a breather, phew!

Going up...

The Münster's gigantic 10.5-ton bell was cast in 1611 and is the largest in the country. Apparently the bells will be rung at certain time...To think that we thought they are not in working condition...imagine the bell ringing on our way up there...and imagine the person having to climb all the way up to ring the bell.

The view from the top at 64m high.

Coming down...

Bear Bear...

The famous bear in Bern. Poor family who gets cooped up in a small enclosure. Ok, the rain is getting heavier, so we decided to seek shelter at the visitor's centre where Lynn decides to munch into her ice-cream while Wendy is still out there calling out for the bears...

Sakura in Switzerland too?

Guess who??

Kafigturm (Prison Tower)
The sandstone Prison Tower is the second western city gate and was erected between 1256-1344; it was a prison between 1641 - 1643 and served this purpose until 1897. The clock was added later (in 1961).

We ended the day cold as it rained the whole day...

Well, if you don't have time to spare, I suggest you could give Bern a miss. Though the capital of Switzerland and less populated, it's pretty much the same as Zurich, just that Zurich has nicer scenery (with a lake or river as the people termed it) and the people are friendlier here somehow. It's pretty small a place. I suppose if you prefer to shop at unique stores since they have streets lined with all sorts of shops selling different things, or visit Einstein Museum or the Einstein Haus (which we've given it a miss for this) or the more historical buildings like the Münster Cathedral or the Kafigturm (Prison Tower), then you might wana consider making a trip there. The train journey isn't as scenic as well given the many tunnels that make your ears get stuck because of the pressure.

As usual, Ms Wong always ends the day with a good laugh for all of us. She has kindly sponsored her Beautex tissue paper for our toiletry needs as she felt bad being the heaviest user of the toilet paper that was provided by the apt ;p But thanks to her that I've found the nice and pretty toilet paper with embossed prints and nice scent (which one of my colleague's mum and aunty used to bring it back to S'p when they travelled to Europe). I now understand why and yup, i intend to bring some back too hehe ;p

Fr4.90 for 6 rolls

Some of the photos are taken by our group photographer, Ms Shawna Yuen :)