The city of Biel is located at the western side of Switzerland near France...and is also not that far from Italy. So the official language spoken in Biel is a combination of German and French, with some Italian thrown in should the opportunity present itself. Oh, and everyone speaks fluent English as well (of course). If nothing else, spending a week there provided a massive incentive to ramp up our studying of the German language.
While Andrea enjoyed her full days of training, I set out to get to know Biel and Switzerland. Switzerland is known for many things including great chocolate, wonderful Bavarian-themed food, and of course, hiking in the hills. Great food and great hiking.....my favorite combination. I quickly adopted the routine of hiking the nearby hills in the morning with a much needed cool-down by the lake in the afternoon. Brutal schedule but I somehow survived.
Hiking up the local hill you will run into the resort of Magglingen, home to the Switzerland Olympic Training facility. It's not only packed full of state of the art equipment and facilities, it offers a great view.
Hiking around the local trains reminded me of the Pacific Northwest (Seattle).
The town of Biel is divided between the newer, more modern buildings and the original buildings. Walking through the "old school" section of Biel was definitely more rewarding.
My mission of hiking and discovering the city by walking around was quite taxing. Luckily the warm weather, impromptu sandy beach, and comfortable reclining chairs alongside the lake shores offered an opportunity to rest the tired dogs.
Back on the mission, we headed back into to the original section of Biel to take in the unique architecture.
On a day that Andrea' training ended early we elected to do an mini-roadtrip up to Emmental to visit the local cheese making village.
The views from Emmental were worth the trip alone.....
The cheese waiting to age before being shipped off to you and me to enjoy.
On our way back to Biel we decided to take a mini detour and visit the city of Bern. The city lies on the Swiss plateau and just north of the Bernese Alps. If you are in the area, we highly recommend stopping and taking in the original section of the city. Legend has it that the Duke who "discovered" Bern vowed to name the city after the first animal he met on a hunt....which just happened to be a bear. Bern does not translate directly to 'bear' in German, so there is obviously some celtic or other influence to credit for the name. The bear is a very important symbol to the city to this day. A part of the seal and coat of arms since the 1220's, they began the tradition of keeping live bears in a pit within the city limits around the 1440's. The tradition continues to this day (more on that in a bit).
Parking the car and beginning the walk into the main walking area, you are immediately rewarded with some great views of the river Aare.
Downtown Bern
The cith is arranged so some of the stores are entered into through these 'cellar doors'. We were walking down the street past closing time, so most of the doors were shut.
Bern was also home to Albert Einstein in the early 1900's. During his time in this apartment from 1903 to 1905 Einstein founded the Theory of Relativity, or E = mc2 by watching trains come to and from the town clock tower.
More downtown Bern
And finally the area that is home to the bears of Bern. Here you can see one of the bears making it's way down to the waters edge.
And this is about as close as you can get to the bears......which is also as about as close as I would like to ever be to a brown bear. Impressive creatures for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment