How to Spend Half Day in Bern

Bern is the capital of Switzerland, FYI if you didn’t know about it. Not Zurich or Geneva, but this lovely city that is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site for its beauty in the old town of Bern. Bern can be quite different than the suburb or countryside or the big city like Zurich and Geneva. Actually, I just realized that in Switzerland, every city, every village has it own charm and different from one another that makes you want to visit each of them.

I wrote a post related with Bern about a year ago and it’s about me wandering around in the old city of Bern. During that time, around summer I believe, I specifically went to Bern to go to the Bern Street Food Festival. I’ve been a fan of Street Food Fest in Switzerland. But since I have a day in Bern and spending all of it in the Street Food Fest seems to be exhausting. So walk around to parts of Bern that I’ve been and never been to.

The best thing to do when you arrive in Bern for the first time is to visit the very touristy place. No shame on being a tourist and those places must have reason why they are very popular among tourists right?

What to Do in Bern

On my first post about Bern, I went to the Kunstmuseum and they exhibit paintings from famous artists like Paul Klee, Ferdinand Hodler, Edgar Degas, Vincent Van Gogh, Picasso and many more. If you a fan of Paul Klee’s work, there is a Paul Klee Zentrum which is a museum dedicated to Paul Klee. I personally never been to Paul Klee Zentrum, but keeping that on my list to-go if I go back to Bern. In Bern, there’s The Einsteinhaus and it used to be the residence of Albert Einstein and now it’s a museum.

The Federal Place of Switzerland is located in Bern. The parliament building is not as huge as the one in Budapest or London, but it is worth to see (from the outside). If you go on the other side of the Federal Place of Switzerland, you can see beautiful sceneries of houses with red roof. In summer, it is a pretty site to see. A little glimpse of the Aare river can be seen from there.

Sadly, the Bern Münster or the Cathedral of Bern was underconstruction when I visited Bern twice (yes, both times) so I never been inside the cathedral and only can see it from the outside. And this time, when I visit Bern there was a bizzare group of people singing or praising or something like that and it was very crowded and weird for me so I move on to the next place. Even if you see it from the outside, you can see the details of the church just fine.

My ultimate favorite spot in Bern is the park next to the cathedral or the Müntesplattform. You can see the Aare River very clearly, the bridge and the red roofsof Bern houses. And then on the other side, you can see like a garden and it’s even prettier in real life. What I also like about this park, the fact that it’s free and you can stay there whenever you want.

If you take the stairs to go down (if you use the elevator, you have to pay), you can see a cute little garden that I think it was purposely set-up because there’s no entrance and you cannot enter the garden. But if you observe closely, it seems like they set it up like a fairytale garden (cause why they put rather old-fashion shoes on a table?).

Another favorite place of mine, my second favorite, is the little cave (it’s not actually a cave, but I don’t know how it called so Imma call it a cave) in the Bern old town. It is by the river, somewhere in Mattenenge street. It has this massive sketch of Bern on the wall. You can go down to the river and take a dip or swim along the river if you dare. Although I see a lot of people swim or ride a boat and let the river stream take them.

If you are looking for a cute and unique shop in Bern, go visit Maison Art in Herrengasse 36, in the old town part. They sell various range of adorable stuff from clothings to jewelries to decorations. I don’t think you can find any store that is as beautifully decorated as Maison Art.

Thank you for Maison Art for letting me to take pictures of their beautiful store.

Last but not least, is the semi-aerial view of Bern from the Rose Garden. I went there just in time for sunset. I barely can do sightseeing in the Rose Garden as it gets darker. There’s a restaurant just next to the garden called Restaurant Rosengarten and I bet they have an amazing view of Bern. Make sure to do reservation or check online because in 2017 they will do renovation or such things.