Grindelwald - Berne

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As forecasted, it is raining. Everywhere. So nowhere to escape it by train. We decided to go to Berne and visit the Alpine Museum and Natural History Museum. There was the usual chaos at the bahnhof and a very busy city but we eventually found our way down through the old town and over the river to the musems. Berne is an interesting city with contrasts of old and new. The shops and pavements are sheltered by stone arched verandahs. The main street is for people and trams only so it's people friendly. There are many buskers and one street is for the market only on a Saturday. Since we have been here several times before there's no need to talk about the Old Town. This is always a city well worth visiting especially if you can't get out hiking.

The Alpine Museum was one of the better ones we've visited. It had some fantastic models of the mountains in various parts of the country. It described the history of climbing, mountain history, glaciation, the various guest accomodations over the years, surveying, cartography since the 1500's, the Swiss Mountain Clubs, and finally a section of photographs taken by Jules Beck in the 1800's and early 1900's. It was a great record of early exploration and climbing, but also showed the glaciers then compared with now. If you like mountains, then this is a great museum to visit.

One street back from here is the Natural History Museum which I'm always drawn to. They invariably have something different in them from other musems of the same ilk. This musem was different in that it was well set up for kids and their interaction, but it had a huge section on skeletons plus butterflies and insects. BUT, the best part was a crystal exhibition. I've been to many museums showing minerals and gems (as Lindsay will testify) but this one had astounding crystals. A couple of Swiss guys had discovered some large cavities in granite high in the Alps and they were full of huge quartz crystals - as big as a body and various lengths. They're really like crystal posts or poles. These crystals were the foundation of the exhibition, but also included were other fabulous speciments of all types. They made my puny ones at home look quite sick.

So, all in all, a good day for a wet day. I had my interests in mountains, cartography and rocks and minerals satisfied in one big hit. Lindsay enjoyed the Alpine Museum very much and appreciated the others for what they were.

By the time we returned back to Grindelwald in the evening, the rain had stopped, the wind had stopped and the sun shining - until we got to Grindelwald where it's clagged in again.

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Photos

Berne
Looking across the river back at the old town of Berne

Huge quartz crystals
Huge quartz crystals at the Crystal Exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Berne

Early Swiss Mountaineers
Swiss Mountaineers of the late 1800's. Note the clothes, they look like suits. In such clothes they climbed 4000m peaks