Bern Marketplace

Bern, the Capitol City of Switzerland, is a clean city with the downtown situated on a high level place with a sharp drop down to the Aare River, which makes a U-turn, right in the city. The streets in Bern are lined with arcades with excellent stores set back under the second floor, protected from the weather.

In 1970 we found that Bern (and 30 years later after several visits still agree) appears to be one of the nicest places to live in all of Europe.

In front of the National Capitol Building there is a market place, with beautiful produce of most every description. We can never understand how the hundreds of street markets we have seen in hundreds of cities, towns, and villages throughout Europe, can have such a variety of excellent produce, most every day of the year.

Between the market and the Capitol building, there are a couple of large game boards (squares perhaps two feet on a side) painted on the street. People stop and put down their shopping bag, and play a game, or a few moves, of chess.