Switzerland's Charming Towns

Although the cost of everything in Switzerland often made it a bit difficult to fully enjoy everything, I have to say that there are so many beautiful and charming towns in that small country that it's hard not to like it. Unlike its neighbors, Switzerland avoided the incredible destruction of WW2 bombs, so a lot of towns still have 13th century houses, winding narrow roads, and old cathedrals and churches.

okay, I confess--this photo is actually in Freiburg, Germany, but it was on the way to Switzerland!

Our first stop was Bern. Its Altstadt lies on a hill surrounded by the River Aare, with most buildings made primarily of greyish-green stone and arcades in the front. (I'll admit, I pictures Hampton Beach when I first heard 'arcades', but this just means that the sidewalks are covered.)

Although we found the stone a bit drab in the grey, rainy days we were there, the views from the bridges are remarkable. It was so romantic to stand on the bridges and watch the warm lights slowly blink on all over the city.

my photos do not do this view justice!

We also got to see some of the famous Bernese bears (apparently, the rest of them were visiting China at the time), which live in a good-sized enclosure on the steep bank of the Aare.

we didn't translate this fully, but basically they discourage feeding the bears,
letting your dog play with the bears, and playing with the bears yourself.
All the signs were in 5 languages; English was last.

Bern is also the town of the $100 a night hostel where you have to rent bath towels, but I try not to dwell on this and remember the fun parts ;)
Our next stop was Zurich, which had a surprisingly large and well-preserved Altstadt. We ate really good lamb wraps at a take-away place, gawked at crocodile steaks and 10,0000 year old mammoth tusks for sale, and took in the views.

the largess! we also saw plain ol' watches for sale for $150k

i love the geodes in the windows of the Grossmünster  church,
base of the Swiss-German Reformation in the 1500s

Lucerne was just lovely. Part of this had to do with the weather--one of the few sunny days of our trip--but it's mostly because it is just a beautiful town.

the photogenic Kappelbrücke, originally built in the 1300s

i couldn't resist snapping this photo of chocolatiers
hard at work as we walked by!

the Lion of Lucerne, memorializing Swiss mercenaries who died
in the French Revolution

We got a great deal on a hotel in the Altstadt (a palace after our hostel stay!) and we spent most of the afternoon wandering around the old walls, exploring the town, and finally finding the lake before heading back to the hotel for a nap and then dinner.

old city walls in the background, happy photographer in the foreground

the Swiss had a thing for Scottish highland cows

St. Gallen felt so different from Lucerne; the sun disappeared, and about 3" of snow came down overnight, winter's last hurrah. I felt like we were walking around in a perfect winter painting.

In addition to having a great cantonal archive and library, St. Gallen is also a tourist destination. The Altstadt centers around the cathedral, with the Staatsarchiv and other governmental offices in the old cloisters.

the incredibly ornate Rococo interior of the cathedral

the incredibly large Alice in Wonderland cabinet.
so curious about what's inside!

But my favorite thing in St. Gallen was the magnificent monk's library, the Stiftsbibliothek (aka the Abbey Library of St. Gall).

(image from wikicommons)

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it's even more magnificent than it looks. You put on funny shoe-cover slippers and then shuffle your way inside. There were books from the 1400s just sitting on the shelves, and in the display cases we saw hand-written manuscripts from the 700s. The card catalogs were cleverly hidden in the paneling, neat, old-style writing on yellowed paper. The floors were intricate, too, with different types of wood inlaid to create a huge pattern of the entire room. And under each window, more clever paneling disguised small desks just waiting for a monk to open it and begin studying. There was also an Egyptian mummy princess on display--I felt a bit sorry for her, out in the open, but she has been there since the 1800s.

One of my favorite things in all the Swiss towns were the chimney hats on all the traditional houses:

They also had fountains all over the place (we heard that the water was drinkable?), including this funny one in Bern:

for jumping? aquatic oratory?

Look for one more Switzerland post about the Alps portion of our trip!