Seeking Einstein and the “Child Eater” in Bern, then cheese in Gruyères
This time our hotel included a decent breakfast with protein, even. We packed up our room, checked our bags with the hotel clerk and set out to explore a bit more of Basel. We were surprised not to hear the trolley in the morning and then, as we ate breakfast saw groups of people running down the street, in the Basel marathon. The marathon offered a nice side-effect for our wandering.
We crossed back over the “Middle Bridge” Mittlere Bruecke from Kleinbasel to Grossbasel, disappointed that the chocolate shop had not yet opened (though it was past the posted hour) so we continued back up the hill to Steinenberg where we saw and cheered on more runners. We continued west up a set of stairs, arrived at what appears to be a plateau that overlooks the older part of Basel and consists of 19th and early 20th century buildings and apartment houses. Randomly choosing a route, we ended up walking past the main old synagogue of Basel, built in 1868. Jews were first allowed to live inside the city limits not long before.
The synagogue has its own bus stop named for it.
Turning down the next block we noticed a number of mezuzot on doorposts and on the opposite side of the street, a plaque indicating that Hermann Hesse lived there (#12 Mostackerstrasse) from 1900 for a few years. The Wikipedia article lists ten novels he wrote from 1900 through 1919. Mark found it interesting that he lived in the “hood,” until we learned that Hesse’s third wife was Jewish. By this time we were no more than a short block away from the Jewish Museum… our second goal for the morning.
the Jewish Museum of Switzerland
The museum is small. Aside from a large selection of Herzliana on display,
we were pleased to see a pewter Seder plate similar to ours (though much more elaborate),
a dreidle (“trendel”) like one the Hurvitzes had as kids, though theirs was not enameled,
and a print from Chagall’s “Mein Leben” series, similar to the one in the Hurvitz collection.
We had a nice conversation with the young woman who staffs the museum and continued on our way back through the old town
still hoping to find chocolate
to see if the chocolate shop “Xocolatl” had opened. Sadly, no. See the red circle in the alleyway called Blumengasse hidden by a Nespresso on the left and a Confiserie Bachmann on the right fronting on Marktgasse.
Marathon runners were still making their way across the Mittlere Bruecke as we returned to “our side,” encouraged by:
We had read in our guidebook that Basel is a center of the chemical and pharmaceutical business, and claims the beginnings of psychedelia. Albert Hoffmann of Sandoz Laboratories (now Novartis), discovered the properties of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) while trying to obtain a respiratory and circulatory stimulant (drug). We saw no evidence of LSD, or its use, on our walks.
Our tasks in Basel complete, still in the late morning, we set out south for Bern. The drive from Basel to Bern took us through some exquisitely beautiful, brilliantly green countryside. Mark kept exclaiming that he did not know when we had seen green pastures so bright contrasted with clusters of dark green trees on the hillsides leading up to clear blue skies.
The maps of Bern are not topographic and offer no idea that the thumb of old Bern pointing eastward with the Aar river making a tight curve around it, lies deep inside a very dramatic valley.
As we arrived, we found a place to park overlooking the old city. A German couple was leaving and took our picture.
How did Bern get its name? Supposedly, city founder Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen, in 1191 killed a bear nearby. And, now… as you enter the old city along the Nydeggbrücke you see Bear Park where the symbol of the city and canton romp for the tourists’ pleasure.
Old Bern is tiny; we had only a few items on our list:
First: Einstein’s apartment where he lived when he (and his wife?) developed the theory of relativity.
There’s a charge of 6 CHF each to enter and walk around the tiny apartment which is only slightly larger than our studio apartment in NYC. Standing beside Einstein’s desk, he is, of course, wearing his favorite Einstein button. The woman selling the tickets was intrigued: "We don't have that one!"
The view from Einstein’s front (sitting room) window:
Afterward we ate a simple meal of the bread, cheese and fruit we had packed along with a cup of coffee and cappuccino at a little confiserie on the main street a few buildings away from Einstein’s apartment,
Our second goal for Bern was a visit to a statue in a fountain our friend in NYC had told us about, but along the way we came to a clock tower in the center of town with a crowd of people standing around. We arrived seconds before 3:00 PM and waited for something to happen on the hour. But, as the minute hand passed the 12, nothing happened.
Once again, the Prague clocks were much more interesting.
A few meters through this tower and to the right we found…
The Kindlifresserbrunnen (point A on the map at the beginning of the Bern report).
As our friend had written:
There's a Jewish oddity: on the main paved street downtown, which goes across a number of gates, there are numerous fountains that date back to the 16th, 17th, 18th century. One of them is called "Kindlifresserbrunnen", the fountain (Brunnen) of the children eater, on Kornplatz. If you look closely, you can distinguish Jewish cliches: nose, pointed yellow hat, etc. A persistent legend says that it tells the story of blood libel that shook the city some centuries ago, during which the Jews were persecuted or expelled.
Most of the photos we’ve seen of the statue do not show off its more frightening appearance. Though smaller in “person” it is gross, as Mark’s photos indicate.
And, third, another high-quality chocolatier that we learned about from Elisabetta Capei of Truffe in Zurich, but we could not find it. Disappointed, we nonetheless found an interesting chocolate/candy shop that carries a local Bernese specialty:
Barely an hour had passed since we had been at the clock tower and a new group of people stood expectantly. This time, at least, we heard the four chimes. As we walked back out towards the east end of town to the hill where we had parked the car, Debbie pointed out an old building on the edge of town visible from the Nydeggbrücke bridge:
no need to crane our necks, the vistas are grand
Then off to Gruyères for the night before our tour of the Cailler chocolate factory (which Mark hopes will be our last) in Broc (10 kilometers away). Along the drive we saw signs for Fribourg which we had been told is a beautiful town. We turned off the highway to explore. When we arrived at the town we headed first for its fairly large university up on the hills and wondered what the excitement was all about. Then as we headed down into the center of town, along the hillsides we found a quite beautiful, medieval town, deep inside a huge gorge. We did not stop. As we continued driving the skies became stormy with sunlight breaking through.
We pulled off the road at a rest stop, parked next to a car where a young couple was just getting up from their nap… and they took our photo.
Aiming for Gruyères we followed Gertrude’s directions off the highway, from one little town to another smaller one, along one little road to another smaller road, until we approached a hillside with a huge medieval construction on the top. The sunlight was perfect. So, not knowing what it was, we stopped taking what we thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime photo.
And then we noticed as we continued driving, we came closer.
Little did we know that what we had seen is Gruyères, and the little hotel we would be staying at that night is barely out of the photo on the right hand side, and that these would be the views from our room:
We walked into “town” (from the blue triangle on the lower right)
and around the chateau (on the left) before having dinner, a fancy grilled cheese sandwich, saving the fondue for what we knew was coming in Geneva. We then made our way back over the cobbled streets to our hotel in a massive downpour.
