Bern - Fountains, Statues, and Street Scenes, Einstein House.

Old cities.

Here:  Three sides of People in Bern, past and present. Bern  - Berna - Barn - Berne. People and History, On the Street, Thinking up Relativity.
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1.  Bern's layout, statues and fountains and history
2.  Bern's (and other places in Switzerland) street hazards.  And a Bern shopjoker.
3.  Einstein's house - Relativity here
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1.  Bern's layouts, statues and fountains.

Some Old Cities have unique layouts.  Here is Bern. Instead of one large, main Old Town square, Bern sports a centrally located clock tower, and broad streets radiating off, lined with arcaded shops, and below-street shops.  Find water delivery service by means of  fountains up and down in the middle of the street. Each subject statue has its own meaning.

Zahringer, or Bear Statue (fountain), Bern, Switzerland

The bear represents the founder of Bern, one Berchtold von Zahringer. The Zytglogge, or Clock Tower, is in the background. Try to learn the real language names. This one can be remembered because you can zit while you 'av your glog.

Close-up, Bear Fountain, Bern, Switzerland

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See the bear in full armor, a little bearlet at his feet. Good close-ups of the fountains are at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_City_of_Bern/. 

Vennerbrunnen, or Banneret Fountain, Knight, with City's Bear Flag

Bern's fountains are practical. Each major street off the Clock Tower, has several, well-spaced down the broad road.   Do your medieval washing, water the dogs and horses, slop the gunk away.  We understand the water is safe for drinking still.

Shopping.  Arcades - medieval in origin, to keep the shoppers dry.  Still there.  A Bern architectural marketing tool.  Come out and socialize. See who's eligible. Discuss who's philandering, if that was an issue or interest. See ://bern-1914.org/thomas_cook/nyc_text.html/  The old Cook's Tour books, this one from 1914, are a solid source of historical connections modern guides consider boring.  Not for us.

Look up on the Kramgasse, to the facades of buildings, not the fountains this time; and see larger than life figures on pedestals - many representing the town's old craft guilds. The Moor, here, stands for the clothworkers. These are very high up.

Moor, representing Clothworker Guild, Bern, Switzerland
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 They are also detailed. Six-pack abs here.  Why the Moor as the symbol?  We are checking. There is a recurrent motif of Moors, one on banners at Avenches, others on walls at Chillon Castle, Montreux, for example. Are they all cloth guild symbols?

Closeup, Moor, Cloth Guild, Fountain, Bern, Switzerland

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There is an ape, for the stonemasons and bricklayers;

Close-up, Ape Statue, Stonemasons and Bricklayer Guilds, Bern, Switzerland

Clearly a macho occupation.

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This must be a tanner, or leather worker? What are those tools?

Closeup, Tanner or even a blacksmith? Bern statue, Switzerland

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And Samson.

Closeup, Samson statue, Bern, Switzerland

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We did not photograph all of them. There is a fearsome fellow with the axe is for the carpenters. See ://switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/bern/easternoldtown.html/

Don't forget the blindfolded Lady Justice is showing a bit of leg here (old persuasion?);

Bern statue, blindfolded Lady Justice, showing a bit of leg

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She has what looks like a shield over her backside.

Bern statue, Lady Justice, and CYA

Lady Justice in Bern, CHA.

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2.  Street hazards.

Hazard alert. A tortish place, so change your mindset.  You are not being looked after. You trip, you fall, ha. You lose.

Watch out for precipitous as well as subtle drop-offs.

Here, an effective rain gutter runs below street level down the middle. Fall right in. The main streets here are not for autos, except for deliveries, or the main intersections, so the exposed drain probably doesn't trap many car wheels, despite the lack of neon cones anywhere.  People are expected to watch out for normal or remotely visible hazards on their own.  There are shifts in levels on sidewalks and unmarked sudden drops from walkway to street, no yellow highlighting, to make a tort lawyer cheer. Seriously.  Watch your step. Ridges, height changes, no markings in particular. No big neon cones. Tort alert.
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Below-level drainage, gutter, mid-street, Bern, Switzerland

Watch out for yourself for other reasons. What is this wet patch in the middle of the street?

Mystery street soak, Bern, Switzerland

Unsuspecting ladies shop by.

Passersby get the squirt, Bern, Switzerland

Then splash-splat comes the water jet from on high, nearly right on their heads, if the secret shop-hidden jetter is lucky. It is only a hidden shopkeeper, out to get a a little attention here. Go ahead.  Look up.

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Creative shower marketing, Bern, Switzerland

What the? Then a laugh. We take life so seriously here. Don't dare get a walker wet! Not there. Enjoy.

Or look down.  The Arcades house shops at street level, and below.

Shops below the Arcades, Bern, Switzerland

Is this one where the shower originated?

4.  Albert Einstein, Kramgasse No. 49 (a main street, clock tower at one end)

He lived in a house down from the Clock Tower, a modest home, and there he developed the Theory of Relativity.  He and his wife rented an apartment, the second floor, from 1903-1905.  That is a short time, but Relativity happened here. It may be that there are chinks in the armor of the Theory of Relativity, see ://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427314.400-rethinking-relativity-is-time-out-of-joint.html; but that does not detract from its scope and impact.  It works over the span of single galaxies, apparently, but perhaps not so well at cosmic scale distances greater than that. The idea is that gravity warps space-time as light goes by, such as the sun's gravitational field distorting passing starlight as it passes.  Beyond that, it is Greek to us, but the article is helpful. And so are the exhibits.

Here he is from one of the exhibits at the house.  See Einsteinhaus at ://www.einstein-bern.ch/index.php?lang=en/

At the Albert Einstein House, Kramgasse No. 49, Bern, Switzerland

The materials call him a physicist and humanist. Excellent combination. The "Annus Mirabilis", associated with Einstein the "miracle year",  is 1905, with many advances in Physics for Einstein as well as others. He came to the United States in 1933. He was married twice, had two children, son lived in California, daughter not mentioned after early childhood - died? Lieserl. Einstein died in 1955.