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.

Passes: Brunigen, Susten, Sarnen, Klausen, Saanen

Getting There

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There are always the autobahns between major hub cities, much like a tinkertoy setup. The passes here are not autobahn routes - these are cross-country, switchbacks, sometimes one lane, or 1 1/2 lanes, with a lay-by for passing.

I.  Brunigen, Susten and Sarnen Passes

These will take you roughly from Bern to Altdorf, where resides the legend of William Tell.

Susten Pass, Switzerland

Even on a level place, do not expect to make time. In fog, listen for the cowbells.

Susten Pass, refuge hut; or monitor hut; or a herder's summer home? at top

There is often a tiny community of little houses built into the mountainside at the tops of most serious passes.

Tops of Swiss passes: weather changes fast

These are passes that can accommodate two-lane traffic most of the time, if everyone goes slow, and creeps around the corners.  The sharpest corners may have an extended part of paving at that corner.

Where the pass is one-lane, there will be a reasonable lay-by in view, most of the time, where one of you will tuck in while the other slides by.  Be prepared for mirrors to click.

Find these if you go the route from Lucerne to Altdorf that travels down from the west side of Lake Lucerne.  The safer route is down the east side, but you will not know that until you are committed - the main road just stops on the west side, leaving you to maneuver about.  Not to worry.  We learned to believe the map - if the line stops, it stops. Susten Pass: The Stein Glacier is up there, and a lake called the Steinsee.

2.  Klausen Pass:

The Klausen Pass will take you from Altdorf (William Tell) to Maienfeld (Heidi)

Do a Bing topographical search for Klausen Pass and see what this is like.

A mere road map will not do. Start at Altdorf there, and then scroll over the vast expanse to Maienfeld, north of Chur. Better yet, search for Maienfeld, and then expand outward until Altdorf shows. All switchbacks, mountaintops, then a flat valley and D.C. al fine. :||.

Refuge, rescue or herder's hut? Klausen Pass, Switzerland

Community, monitor or herders' huts, perhaps refuge, Klausen Pass, Switzerland



At roadside, steep, cows by car window, Klausen Pass, Switzerland

Stop the car and hear the cowbells. Longer. 

View down, Klausen Pass, Switzerland

Huts at top, Klausen Pass, Switzerland

Valley, Klausen Pass, Switzerland

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3.  Saanen Pass.

A somewhat lower pass or series of passes takes you from Montreux to Interlaken, with a lovely valley at Gstaad - famous ski resort. Looking for the name of the pass.  The town of Saanen is there.

For an idea of the terrain, read this 1867 account of Saanen (the pass could be the Saanen Col or Saanen Pass, partially) to Sion, an end-point more to the south. 

• Go to A Handbook for Travellers In Switzerland at page 138, Route 41, by John Murray, who went by horse.  See this Google book at http://books.google.com/books?id=NwANAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA138&lpg=RA1-PA138&dq=Saanen+pass&source=bl&ots=aFyKRhoDFf&sig=dgxVO6wNi7VyVnhdlcJJOmfqL_g&hl=en&ei=F0HdSozCC4ri8Aapy7xi&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Saanen%20pass&f=false.

• Scroll to the next page for Route 42 and see what looks like ours exactly:  his Thun to Vevay, our Montreux (next to Vevey) to Thun, north of Interlaken. This book, at least in excerpts, is a must-read, a time capsule of travel 150 years ago:  horseback, by foot, on or with mules, chairs with bearers (keep reading for a few pages further), carriage with 6-9 seats takes 9 hours Vevey to Thun. Inns, mineral waters, cheeses.
  

 Byron called this route "as beautiful as a dream."  See the Murray book at 141.

Saanen Pass, high pasture, Switzerland

Is it true that the uphill legs of Alpine cows are shorter than the downhill?

Roofs nestle into hillsides, Saanen Pass, Switzerland

This possibly is part of the Klausen, not the Saanen. This looks milder, so we think Saanen.

John Murray calls the mountainnat the Montreux or Vevey end of the route, by the French, the Dent de Jaman. Would that be Tooth of Jaman? The profile of the mountain looks like the view from Montreux or Vevey looking east.  See ://www.randonnee-pedestre.ch/index.php?marche=dent-de-jaman&site=montagne/