We captured some more lovely church bells in Bern, which has an amazing old town with a fabulous inside out detail on the clock tower. It goes on forever, as do many of the church bells. I wondered what it would be like to finally hear them enough that you would just tune them out or not notice them?
I also started wondering about the heavy infuence of the church on the daily living of citizens for all those centuries. Of course, I knew we were heading to Rome soon, and the Vatican so that might have had something to do with it. But really, an hourly reminder of Gong, Gong, Gong, or God, God, God, or the church is here, the church is here, the church is here. What must that have been like? I didn't grow up with church bells that I can recall. We had a little Westminster chime clock that did ring on the quarter hours, but it was never tied up with church in my mind.
Bern actually sits between TWO rivers. There's a lovely valley on one side, and we took some amazing pictures. Then the city walk, past the clock tower and into some wonderful shopping. But the streets had an arcade over them to protect shoppers from the again sprinkling rain. What was really unusual were the double decker shops tucked up neatly under the stairs to the elevated arcade! Like storm cellars, they sit underneath the sidewalk. Originally designed to hold onions, potatos and wine, they are now quaint and cute little shops. We loved the candy store that had a slide down into it alongside the steps down.
Bern had a reputation as a very "fun" city back in the day. And it's a lovely place with lots of shops and restaurants in addition to Einstein's family home and the temporarily closed Einstein museum:( Boo. We did stop in the cafe under it though. But I digress. The fun city then got attacked by Napoleon, who TOOK ALL THE WINE! Bern became known as "the sad city". I can't make this stuff up folks.
We found another Rick Steve's restaurant for dinner, and had a delightful day in Bern.
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