Recently, I have attended a retreat in Sicily where I met people from all over Europe. One of them was Carolina who lives in Switzerland as well. She lives in Biel which we haven't visited before, so we agreed to pay her a visit last weekend. It was supposed to be hot, and we planned to go to the forest, but in the end we stayed in the city as we fell in love with it.
Biel is located in the central Switzerland, in the canton of Bern. It's the second largest city with two official languages which are German and French. Bern is a German speaking canton, but Biel lies close to the border with French speaking Switzerland, and everything there is in both languages including street names, menus in restaurants, signs on bus stations, information on receipts, etc.
When we entered the city we realized that it was much bigger than we expected. The streets were wide and the buildings tall which was surprising as we thought it was a small town. In the end, we found out that there are more than 100,000 people living there which is three times more than where we live.
We arrived before lunch and it was already hot. We were supposed to meet Carolina at a restaurant, so this is where we headed after we parked the car. She arrived a bit late, and I was so happy to see her again. We had a great time at the restaurant, and after a couple of hours we went to explore the old town. Normally, I would plan our itinerary, but she said that she will take us around, so I didn't do any research about the city and just enjoyed the day.
We started our tour at the Burggasse with its Justice Fountain. The original statue dates back to the 16th century and was renovated several times. In the past, it was one of the drinking water sources of the city, and of course you can drink water from the fountain today as well. The statue as well as the surrounding houses are decorated with rich and full colours which gives the impression that they were recently renovated.
One of the best restaurant in Biel is hidden behind the walls of the townhouse from the 16th century. We realized that we didn't choose the best days for our visit as most of the restaurants and bars were closed due to the summer holidays. It's common in Switzerland that such places close for a couple of weeks in summer, but I was surprised to see that almost all of them chose the same time. It wasn't easy to find an open one.
We continued our tour up the hill towards the heart of the old town called Ring. We passed by many thrift stores and Carolina explained to us that thrift stores are very popular in Biel, and people like recycled and upcycled stuff. It's a city that values sustainability, and also tries to have a positive impact on the environment by preferring bicycles and pushing the cars out of the old town. We have found some interesting stores, and one of them we will visit after their vacation break as they make upcycled wooden furniture based on individual ideas and we will need some new furniture for our new house.
Some parts of the city reminded me of Bern as there were some typical architectural features from this canton. It's interesting to notice differences between cantons, and sometimes it feels like we were abroad.
We approached the Ring which was full of life in comparison to the rest of the city. The terrasses were full of people and we could hear happy chatter and nice music. There was also a thrift market which my husband loved, so I had to drag him away as we would have spent rest of the day in this place.
From the Ring we had a nice view of the street that we passed by. Most of the old Swiss houses have these colourful external shutters to keep the sunshine and heat out of the apartment. And it really works! You close the shutters to keep the nice temperature inside. The only disadvantage is that it keeps the light out too.
And we approached the Obergasse with its beautiful Angel Fountain or Engelbrunnen. The fountain is situated below a huge chestnut tree which provides much needed shade in this heat. There are many benches under the tree, so it's a perfect place to enjoy.
We can see an angel protecting a lamb from the devil which symbolizes our struggle between good and bad. Look at those colours!
The arcades on the right are typical for this canton. You find there various shops, bar or restaurants, and sometimes there is a door to the basement where you find wine shops with local wines from grapes grown in the region.
From there we walked around and enjoyed the charming streets and lovely architecture. We also entered a few thrift stores and purchased some things that we don't need, but they were too cute not to take them home 😊
This is the city church which has such an impressive exterior, but inside it's rather empty as it's a presbyterian church, so there is almost no decoration.
Biel is the city of Rolex, and here we can see the original production site which now serves as a residential building, but Rolex kept the sign. The production was moved to another part of the city, and today Rolex is the biggest employer in Biel with 4,000 employees.
It was time for some refreshment and we found this cute library bistro in the basement of one of the buildings in the old town. You can take a book to read while drinking your coffee - what a great idea!
Once we finished our drinks we walked in the direction of the lake to the funicular that took us to Magglingen which is a training area for the Swiss top athletes.
Biel is built on various levels and you can see that it goes quite high up the hill.
If you follow the canal you will get to the lake - no way you can get lost here.
Lake Biel is one of the largest lakes of the Jura region. There are several beaches, an island, plenty of vineyard trails, and much more. We will come back again to explore it.
The funicular up the hill took a few minutes. We thought it would be a short trip, but it took longer than we expected. Maybe it wasn't so long, but we sat in front of the funicular with a roof glass, so it was like we were inside of a greenhouse - the longest minutes of my life.
However, when we reached the sightseeing platform I quickly forgot about the funicular struggles. The views were stunning! We didn't see much of the Alps as it was clouded over there, but it didn't matter as what we saw was beautiful anyway.
I think there is a Swiss flag at all sightseeing platforms in Switzerland 😊
Here you can see a bit of mountains on the right...
It's so complicated to get the straight flag when it's windy...
Do you see the tiny lake in the back? It's part of the lake Neuchatel.
Here we can see the river Aare which flows through Bern too...
The views were like from postcards...
We wanted to have a drink, but everything was closed, so we walked around and then took the funicular back to the city. It was getting late, and we went to the hotel to get ready for dinner. After dinner we went bar hopping and came back at 3 AM. I must say that I'm still recovering from that night 😊
Happy travels and see you next time!