Day three. SUNDAY. Heading out to the Paul Klee Museum in Bern we had little luck finding an open restaurant through our google search so with nuts and jerky in my pack we boarded the train. The ride isn’t as beautiful as through the alps but it is interesting and has its moments. Today I notice again all the industry along the railway but also garden allotments and open space.
And so we arrived in Bern with two things on the list. The Paul Klee Museum and the astronomical clock. Both done! And the views which I didn’t expect added to the measure of another fabulous day.
This station is fairly large, 50 platforms and shops galore. On Sunday the train stations are allowed to have open shops but the town shoppes are almost all closed. We exited the station and walked right into a well planned bus depot.
Walking straight out of the station we enter a park with a viewpoint
Look left and see the funicular going down.
Walk along the path and find peace.
With little open we entered a large long plaza with a few restaurants and had a passable salad and carbonara at Santa Lucia. Two small bottles of water, 5 francs each, I will never get used to this paying for water thing.
Then I think we did it right. We hopped the number 12 out to the Klee and I spotted an open chocolate shop – Tschirren. A true winner. The salesclerk was helpful and we selected five different truffles. Each fabulous. And the shop was gorgeous.
As with every one I have met and every place I have gone the people are super, here, the clerk waited at the door to help as people exited the shop. No matter that anyone was waiting, everyone was happy.
Bachman’s, Laderach and Lindt seem to have branches. I think this is a sole shop. Why that makes me happier I can’t say but it does. As we exited the shop I looked up to my left and saw the astronomical click.
Date, time, zodiac, all accounted for.
At the Paul Klee we saw a Lee Krazner exhibit we had seen last year at the Barbican in London. It was interesting to see it set in a different space and fun to just look because nothing was in English.
We got the audio guide for the Klee but it didn’t help. The exhibition was designed around the relationship between the work of Klee and that of Charlie Chaplin though the two did not know each other.
I like the way he doodles in the book. Ever since I saw the exhibit at the Grolier in NY where the collection was of doodles, well, I have started to notice them.
We took the bus back towards town and got out at the top of the hill before the bridge and strolled.
The views were spectacular. At the bottom of the hill was a bear pit where apparently they once kept bears.
And for me a super thrill was to be at eye level with rooftops. This may be something ordinary people experience all the time, but as with mountains adn snow, a girl from Miami rarely gets this view.
After crossing the bridge. We headed down a smaller street that ran parallel to the main road. Another good move
On this back street sat a church and a square with its fountain.
As we headed back to the station we saw the astronomical clock again
and in the small hutch underneath were official measures.
And some paintings.
On the train on our way out of Bern we passed a bit of graffiti. About the only graffiti we have seen. I was only able to grab this quick shot
As an afterthought I loved the design of the Klee Museum and there were signs and models around showing perhaps different phases of the sign and build process.
and some miscellaneous photos from the day.
