Bern; Tuesday, 14 August, 2007

I had another restless nights sleep, something that was becoming quite common this summer, though on this occasion I could locate the reason instantly. As my flight from Gatwick was early I had booked into the Travelodge in Croydon the night before. Along with the glorious views of South London's Manhattan (!) my room overlooked the even more exciting view of the extractor fans for the air-conditioning in the Somerfield (Notso)Supermarket, which were on the whole night. I did get some sleep, it's just a shame that the majority of it appeared to be in the period immediately before my alarm went off. I had a quick shower, grabbed my bags, checked out and headed for the station.

30 minutes later and with my bags dropped off at the (for once correctly titled) fast bag drop, I was at the back of what appeared to be one of the longest queues for security that I had ever seen, thankfully as I joined the queue they opened another two desks, so I shot right to the front of the queue, giving me enough time to actually have some breakfast before the flight.

Which was good, as the flight was 30 minutes late leaving Gatwick because of Fog in Zurich, and the service that followed was well below BA's usual quite low standards! Breakfast on the plane was a bacon roll that if you stretched your imagination could be described as palatable. This was made all the worse by being in the back row, opposite the toilet, which had a door that flew open on take off to release waft after waft of loo cleaner/disinfectant smells. To make things worse members of the Cabin crew kept going past it ignoring it (apart from occasionally spraying a bit of air freshener around). By the time I landed I was starting to feel quite unwell. Thankfully, within a couple of minutes of leaving the plane I felt much better again.

A relatively smooth journey through the airport was only held up by having my bag searched by customs. The man seamed quite downhearted that he only found clothes and a couple of guide books, on the down side, by the time I got to the station I had missed the train to Bern and had to wait another half an hour.

With the ruthless efficiency with which the Swiss railways are known the train left Zurich airport on time, quickly reversed into Zurich main station and then headed out fast to Bern, arriving a little over 60 minutes later. I walked the short distance to the hotel, checked in, dumped my bags, and headed back out to explore the city.

My first stop of the afternoon was to be Gurten, one of the main hills that overlook the city. The instructions for getting there are relatively simple, catch the number nine tram from the station to the Gurtenbahn stop and then catch the Gurtenbahn Funicular up to the top of the hill. Unfortunately, Bern is in the process of building a brand new tram and bus station in front of the railway station, and since the beginning of August, until the end of the year, they had severed the tramlines across the city. The trams were still running, it's just it took nearly 20 minutes to find where they were running from. Once I found the tram, and broke a note into enough small change to be able to buy a day ticket, it was a very simple journey.

From the top of the Gurten the views are spectacular, looking over the city and to the mountains beyond. To give nature a little helping hand a tower has been erected at the highest point which takes you an extra 60m or so up, clear of the tops of the trees and able to see even more of the city. After taking in the views I had a bit of a wander around the parkland at the top of the hill, and stopped for a very late lunch in the self-service restaurant by the Gurtenbahn station. After finishing lunch, having a bit more of a wander I caught the Funicular back down to the bottom of the hill, and the tram back into town.

I had a long wander through the town, taking in the bulk of the area that lies in the curve of the river. From the main station the river loops around the edge of the city for about a mile, and it was a very pleasant walk to meander along the top of the hills overlooking the river. At one point the river surges through a small set of rapids and a short waterfall, adding in the high up bridges crossing it at this point it makes for a dramatic site.

My wanderings ended me up in the Rosegarten, above the city on the opposite side of the river, again the views from here are spectacular, more so perhaps than from the Gurten, if only for being much closer in to the city centre, and able to watch the river in full roar. By the time I left the Rosegarten it was gone 7, so I wandered back to the hotel to drop my bag off and have a bite to eat, before heading back out again.

I headed back out shortly before 8:30 and made my way back towards the Gurtenbahn, arriving back at the top of Gurten just as the sun finished setting behind the city. I spent about 30 minutes wandering around the park taking some more photos of Bern at night before heading back down into town and back to the hotel for, what I hoped would be a decent nights sleep, ready for an early start the following morning.