Bern

In the past two weeks, I've been to Bern twice. Bern is the de facto capital of Switzerland and about an hour by train from Zurich. It is known for its bears... and I think that's maybe all. But it was a nice and cute little city!

Two weeks ago, Brian and I had a little Sunday trip to the west. We did a whole walking tour of the city... which was pretty empty since it was (a) Sunday and (b) November.



Our main intention of heading to Bern was to see the Rendez Vous Bundesplatz light show. In October and November, it was a twice nightly light show projected on the Swiss Parliament building. It was really cool! Here's a video of some of the best parts. Funnily, though it was completely empty in Bern that day, at 7pm, EVERYONE in Bern was apparently in the square.

About a week later, I headed back to Bern with my friend Linda for the Zibile-Märit, or Onion Market. The Zibile-Märit is an annual festival in Bern celebrating the noble onion. Farmers and other vendors set up stalls throughout the old town, and starting at 4am sell onions, wreaths and ribbons made of onions, and little figurines made of... yes, onions. You can buy onion pies and onion soup all over town... as well as big bags of confetti. When walking around, little kids throw confetti at you and at each other, as well as bop people on the head with plastic squeaky hammers. Because why not?