Northwest Switzerland

Bern

Bern, the capital of Switzerland, is a nice old city with arcaded cobblestone streets. These are a couple of Bern's best known sights, the clock tower and the bear pits. Bears have been kept here since the 15th century, and the city name itself comes from bears which were hunted here when the city was first founded. Besides these areas, I also visited the Cathedral of St. Vincent and did some window shopping at the expensive shops along the main street, some of which sell very expensive and very unique items, including very unusual furniture. I came here on a day of heavy rains due to rainout of my mountain sightseeing in the Bernese Oberland. Yes, those are raindrops you see in the water in the bear bit. The rain also reduced my sightseeing here, although I was at least able to see a few interesting things.

Gruyères

This city, famous for Gruyère cheese, is interesting but small. There's a few sections of defensive wall, this one main street, and a castle. I took a tour of the castle, it wasn't as interesting as some other of Europe's castles. Chillon on Lake Geneva, not far south, is much more interesting. This castle had a few interesting features, a nice garden that wasn't accessible (visible only from above), and lots of modern art works (paintings and sculpture) for sale. Some of the art was good, I suppose, but wasn't what I was expecting of a site with an admission fee. You won't miss much if you skip the castle. The main street is interesting, but doesn't take much time to see. If you come by train, the train doesn't stop right in the town which is on a hilltop. You can hike up to the town from the station in about 10 minutes (or I think there is bus service available).

Murten, reputed to be Switzerland's best medieval walled city, isn't as interesting as Germany's best medieval walled city, Rothenburg. Within its walls Murten has 3 main streets, the main one arcaded much like Bern's main street. I was here in October, which may not be the main tourist season, but I saw very little in the way of businesses catering to tourists. While you may think the tourist business is overdone elsewhere, souvenir shops are I suppose more interesting than shops selling coathangers and birthday cards. Murten is on a lake, but not much was going on there either when I was here (a chilly October day). There is a wall around the city, but less than half of it is accessible for walking (that section shown here).

Avenches is a short distance south of Murten. I didn't allow a lot of time to see this town, I was mainly interested in the Roman Amphitheater shown here, but the town itself was interesting, with nice old streets, more defensive walls, other interesting buildings, and from what I read, more excavations of the remains of Roman settlements in the surrounding countryside (I didn't have time to locate them). There's a museum of Roman artifacts in the building above the amphitheater. The amphitheater itself only has original seats in one quadrant, the other stones have been taken over the years for other uses (this has happened with many Roman sites all over Europe - stones from these sites were taken for constructing newer buildings).

Created June 27, 1998
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