Bern, Switzerland by Minato

[Minato Ku]

Welcome in the capital city of Switzerland.
I did not venture out to the center because of my lack of time.

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[ColDayMan]

Great photos of Bern! I wish all rivers were that clean!

[mousquet]

Nice to see you there, Minato. How bilingual are they in this town? I have no idea and I'm curious. Could you find some folks to master our language?

Plus: it seems clean indeed. I can sense some proper quality of life from your pictures.

Wrong: it just looks a bit too humble compared to our visually crazier and richer historic standards.

Oh well, France vs Germany as often...

[Minato Ku]

Yes, there are people who speak French.
Information, cashiers and some passengers in the trains to Basel.

Originally Posted by mousquet

it just looks a bit too humble compared to our visually crazier and richer historic standards.

I don't think so, take in mind that Bern is not a big city, it has less than 500,000 inhabitants in its metropolitan area.

Bern might be the capital of Switzerland but Switzerland is a decentralised country, lots of things are managed at local level.
The city doesn't have the size and the power of Zurich and Geneva. It felt quite provincial but the city impressed me, it feels larger than cities of similar size in France.

I could divide the city center in two part.
One is the functionning city center around the train station with lot of offices, chain stores... (pictures 1 to 21 and 35 to the end).
The second part is mostly touristy with souvenir shops, art gallery and traditional craftsman shops (pictures 22 to 34)

[mousquet]

Yeah, maybe. But I still think they could do bigger. Frankly, no offense since one of my grandpas was a (French-speaking) Swiss, so I kinda know their country. Their central fabrics aren't decorated enough, I'm telling you. It's far too humble! They need to go bigger, open their country and spend their damn money in bigger productive things.

Well, that's just my opinion. And again, my grandpa was the son of a Swiss immigrant to Paris.

[hauntedheadnc]

Interesting... Up to this point, all I knew about Bern was that, one, a group of settlers from there established New Bern on the coast of North Carolina in the early 1700's, and, two, in 1965 Bern had terrible traffic:

• Video Link

[SHiRO]

Good looking town! Thanks for the pictures!

Originally Posted by Minato Ku

it feels larger than cities of similar size in France.

That's because it is quite a bit larger than you think it is...

take in mind that Bern is not a big city, it has less than 500,000 inhabitants in its metropolitan area.

I know you have a knack for underestimating the metropolitan areas of cities in countries other than France and the US , but Switzerland is one of the few countries that do have official definitions and metropolitan Bern had 660,000 in the year 2000, so it probably is around 750,000 now.

http://www.are.admin.ch/themen/agglo...x.html?lang=fr