Swimming pools and rubbish bins

After a week of cloudy and rainy weather, the last two days have been almost warm and occasionally even sunny.  Despite being a major fan of water, I haven't gone into the pools or river yet.  But I got close today and took some pictures of the free downtown swimming area right next to the river.

Good eyes can see the air temperature is 15 C / 59 F.  

The water temperature is warmer at 21 C / 70 F!

The Bundeshaus (Parliament Building) is the large building on the hill behind the pool.

There is a diving board and a diving platform.

This one complex has a large swimming pool, a separate diving pool, two large kiddie pools, and a "naturist" area where you can choose to be clothing-optional as they say.  I didn't find that area but I wasn't looking too hard either!

Some people were swimming in the river, but I didn't get any pictures of them.  But I did get a picture of this raft going by.

Looks like so much fun!

So why did I add rubbish bins to this post?  We have been so impressed with how clean Bern is.  There is a street sweeper that goes down our street every Monday.  There are city workers picking up trash all over the city and along the trails.  And note how many rubbish bins they have just in this grassy area by the pool.  With good eyes you should be able to see four bins for every one picnicking group!

Lots of pristine grass with NO litter!

Maybe we could solve our unemployment and litter problem in the United States with some solid Swiss cleanliness hires!  Of course, we would have to increase our public budget for that as I'm sure private enterprise isn't interested in supporting that...

Sunday in Murten

It has been great having the INQUA Conference in town as we've been able to see so many people we know from so many different places.  We've seen old friends from Darrell's graduate student days, fellow scientists that do similar work to Darrell, and then foreign students and scientists that had come to Flagstaff to use Darrell's shared-use facility.  It has been really fun!

The conference took a break on Sunday so people could go on excursions in the area.  We decided to go to Murten with Darrell's past student Yarrow and her husband Chris.  They are both professors at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Murten is a small town of 5,000 just 42 minutes east of Bern by train.  My good friend Vera recommended this medieval town.  And our first view was as pleasant as our last - as you will see!

Murten is on a lake with many water activities to enjoy.

Murten has a wall dating from the 1400's that you can walk on around the old town.  The wall and towers must have come in handy during a 13-day siege from the Burgundian Charles the Bold in 1476.  The Bernese force ultimately arrived and reportedly 10,000 people were slaughtered.  And now it seems such a peaceful place!

First view of the castle

Darrell, Chris and Yarrow on the wall.

Classic drinking fountain - still used by thirsty tourists!

Beautiful gate to the city

We wandered on down to the lake, walked along the promenade, and had a picnic of bread, cheese, apples, carrots, and of course, chocolate!

Yarrow, Chris and Darrell at the lake

We saw Hansel's and Gretel's house along the promenade!

Street view of old Murten

We had a wonderful day in Murten.  Now it is Monday, and back to the conference again!  We hope to see a few more friends before they head back to their home countries on Wednesday.

Gurten or Bust!

After walking for hours yesterday in the rain, and looking at the upcoming forecast of more rain, I decided today was the day to go to the top of Gurten, the local hill that rises over 1000 feet above Bern, whether I would get any views or not!

It is possible to take a tram to the top - but I am too frugal to pay for that when I can still walk.  Of course, the tram passed me on the way up!

The up-tram and down-tram pass each other halfway up the hill.

When I got to the top I climbed this tower - which people who know my fear of heights might be surprised at.  I counted all 122 steps - it was a good way to keep me breathing and getting too scared!

They should have a wind turbine at the top!

I took a few pictures from the top, but the alps were not that clear, so you get a picture of town.

The Bundeshaus (Parliament) is the big building in middle of picture, left of river.

The top of the hill is actually a broad expanse.  They just held a huge music festival there last weekend (see www.gurtenfestival.ch) that included three stages plus three dance tents, numerous bars, and a huge camping area.  They were still taking apart all of the temporary construction they had for the festival.

Taking apart a temporary structure

Map shows permanent structures and large park area - note the ski jump on the right side!

It was a lot easier walking down than it had been going up, so I continued walking upriver on the west side of the river where I hadn't walked before.  This is what the trail looks like on both sides of the river. In many places, the river is on one side and a quieter back-channel is on the other.

One of the straighter sections of the trail.   Lots of runners, bikers, and hikers use the trails.

When you get to an intersection, there is often a sign that points people in the right direction - that is if you know where those places are!

Note they give you walking times as well as connecting transportation.  I ended up taking the tram from Muri!

To cross the River Aare so I could get on the "Wanderweg" (trail, I presume) home, I took this lovely wooden bridge.

Pedestrian bridge across River Aare

I started heading back on the other side of the river.  There were large fences and verboten signs around this property.  Notice how there is only one person in the pool!

Lovely pool by the river.  Many pools are free and open to the public, but not this one!

At this point I had been walking for over five hours - not to mention up and down over 1,000 feet - so I finished up by crossing a meadow, being cheered by this cow, and then catching the trolley car home!

Many cows where large bells that ring as they walk!

Teaser for my dad: I am collecting pictures of local plants for an upcoming blog.  They look like ones on Grey Cloud Island to me!

River Walk

This morning I left Darrell happily getting ready for the upcoming INQUA (International Quaternary Association) meeting which begins tomorrow.

I went to meet Katherine, his hard-working lab manager, at the train station as she arrived for the meeting.  We immediately went out for coffee - who knows what time zone Katherine is on!  But she wanted to stay awake long enough to go for a walk along the river.

After she got settled, we began strolling along the River Aare.  We took one of the many bridges towards the north and then walked along the path you see on the left side of the river below.

While I have seen a few kayakers, this was my first time seeing a wave runner.  The line was attached to a tree far upstream and then she played on waves formed by the current.  It looked like fun!

The trail then went by the nicest looking auto-repair shop I have ever seen.  Pretty much everything here is about as darn attractive as you can imagine!

We rounded the bend and started heading back towards Katherine's place - but not before seeing this wonderful place built right into the river!  Notice the gardens on top.

Okay, that's all for tonight.  This little cowgirl is riding off into the sunset!

Graffiti Art

This post is for LINDSEY!  Darrell and I are missing her terribly and Darrell even misses Zipper too!

Aren't they sweet?

Anyway, Lindsey introduced us to the "art" behind some graffiti and we watched a great movie called "Exit through the Gift Shop" on her recommendation.  So I took some pictures of graffiti to share with her and anyone else that is interested.  Oh, and I also went to a castle, but ho-hum, who needs tourist pictures anyway.  I mean it wasn't Chenonceau or anything... I tried to put several photos on a line, and I couldn't figure out how to do that.  Feel free to post me directions!

This last one was a poster that our music girl might enjoy - it was posted for Daliah on the side of the path - and it reminded me of someone I know!

So, I was cruising on some Bern visitor sites and found out that Bern has been invaded!  Talk about amazing graffiti - that is going all over the world - check out this!

http://www.space-invaders.com/bern.html

Gates

Clearly my life has already become mundane and monotonous, not to mention repetitive and redundant.  I mean all I do is go for long walks with my mouth wide open.  So, I decided to do some thematic blogs so you can be amazed by Bern's beauty in small doses.  We will start with gates.  Okay, gates, and fences, and handles, and even a window thing-a-ma-bob.  You'll see.  Here we go.

Looks friendly and welcoming except for the spikes at the top

Stonework and metal work

And one with a garden arch

Fence details can be ornate as well

Not to mention gate handles

And window shutter holders

And now to put it all together...

Notice gate, mailbox, stair railing, window, porch and awning!

And now it is time to go out for another quotidian walk - with mouth agape!

Rain, music, flowers and birds

Today has been rainy, rainy, rainy.  We stayed indoors until noon and then slogged into town to get SIM cards for our phones.  Bern boasts the longest covered shopping "arcade" in the world which basically means you can fold up your umbrella as you walk along a covered sidewalk outside the stores lining both sides of the street in the old town area.  This goes on for blocks and blocks.  And it wasn't too crowded as it was Sunday and only tourists were downtown.  All the locals knew that there were no shops open on Sunday anyway!

After our errand, we wandered to the River Aare, and walked upstream, heading away from town and towards the music coming from the Gurten Folk Festival.  We discovered that there are miles of trail along the river, and also up the local hill.  We couldn't access the Gurten hill today without paying a steep fee as the music festival is up at the top and costs 80 Swiss Franc's each day -  basically $100.  The four day festival, that is just wrapping up, included 66 artists, lots of DJ's, three stages, three dance tents, a camping area, and lots of bars.  Some of the highlight musicians are Chromeo and Arctic Monkeys for you music buffs.

On the way back home, we saw some beautiful gardens with fun sculptures and baubles in them, as well as a hanging sculpture over the trail.  We wound our way through the part of the "Tierpark" (zoo) we didn't have to pay for and saw some nice flamingo's as well!

There are snail shells in the wood sculpture on right

Cool sculpture overhead!

The flamingos didn't seem to mind the rain.