Friendship Meeting Club Berne-Arcadia September 19th – September 21st 2008
Soroptimists who represented our club were: Gill Palin, Anne Barnard, Sue Jones, Cathy Rowland, Anne Thompson and Jacquie Weatherall. Members from sister clubs in Germany and Hungary also attended.
If you want to see the photographs click here
Friday to Saturday lunchtime
We flew to Geneva on the Friday and made a 2 hour train journey to Berne which took us through some stunning scenery and gave us a real flavour of the Swiss countryside and the picturesque towns and villages.
As someone who has never visited the country I have to say that I had no idea that it was so beautiful and the views of Lake Geneva were fantastic. The enormity of the lake was amazing as it seemed to go on for miles. I was also surprised to see from the vines in the fields that Switzerland is a wine growing country, although we later found out that none of their products are exported.
We arrived in Bern at about 5.30pm on the Friday night and were warmly welcomed and escorted to our hotel by one of the Berne club members. We then attended a welcome meal at the Restaurant Rosengarten (rose garden) where we were introduced to about 12 members of the Berne Arcadia Club and also the members from sister clubs in Germany and Hungary. About 30 people in all attended the meal.
The restaurant had great views across the city and one of the Berne members who is a florist had gone to great trouble to decorate the tables with rose petals and each visitor received a rose at the end of the meal which was a really kind thought.
We travelled to the restaurant by tram and were impressed with the efficiency, timekeeping and cleanliness of the city transport system. It also gave us an opportunity to see the city which was very like Paris in some ways. However, we all agreed that the old quarter was in some ways actually more beautiful than Paris. The river provides a stunning backdrop as it winds its way through the heart of the city with its lovely shades of blue green.
The whole city seems quiet, with a strange atmosphere of calm for a capital city and is fairly car free with the vast majority of citizens using the excellent public transport system. I have never visited a city where the people are more friendly and keen to stop and help visitors. One only had to look vaguely lost and the people would stop and ask where we wanted to go and spoke excellent English.
The next day we were again met at our hotel and taken to the City Mayor’s Offices for a reception with drinks and traditional Swiss bread and biscuits and given a tour. Again the views from the offices were stunning and the hosts took many pictures of the visiting groups with their members. We were then offered various tour options (4 in total) for us select from and all escorted by Berne - Arcadia members. These were:
1. Visit to Paul Klee Museum
2. Einstein Exhibit and History Museum
3. Farmers market
4. Shopping
All of us from Nantwich opted for the shopping trip in the old quarter and the farmers market as it gave us the chance to discover Bern. The city is not large and we able to walk to the old quarter where many of the beautiful buildings date back to the 17th and 18th century.
The area is pedestrianised and many of the shop fronts are covered by a wide covered pathway which also dates back to the same period. The shops in this area are mainly boutique, expensive and exclusive but fantastic to browse around!
Two of the Berne club members own businesses in the area and we were able to visit and go behind into the workshops. One was a very exclusive florist shop with arrangements, that although out of this world, cost out £200 each! We were able to see the stock and how the flowers are put together into the amazing displays which was fascinating. The other shop was a jewellers where pieces are custom made for clients. We were able to view the very fine and intricate work being done in the workshop and also hear about the whole process from designing a piece to the finished product. Absolutely fascinating!
We then went to the hotel/café where the members hold their monthly meetings and talk about how they run their club.
• They meet once a month and have a guest speaker
• The members are generally younger (30 -55) and are the second club in Berne
• It seems to be more of a networking club than an activist club
• Only one member has had any involvement at a higher level than club level
Saturday lunchtime until we left on Sunday
After the various trips in the morning we all came back together at lunchtime to go on a boat trip and to visit a castle at Thun. To get there we went on a short journey by train from Bern. Needless to say the train was on time, this being Switzerland! Very thoughtfully the Bern members gave us lunch on the train. This consisted of delicious small rolls from the local delicatessen.
The lake at Thun is very beautiful and is overlooked by the Alps which are covered in glaciers. The sun was shining and we sat on the boat admiring the scenery and eating cakes brought by the Hungarians from their village bakery. The boat dropped us at Oberhofen Castle which is part of the Bern museum and overlooks the lake. After looking around we had aperitifs at a restaurant, again by the lake, and were served Swiss wine which is not exported and so is a rare treat.
We went back to Bern and straight to dinner at a local restaurant where other members of Bern Club joined us. Again the table was beautifully decorated with flowers from the member who is a florist.
On Sunday we began by visiting the bear pits. Bern is named after the German for bears. Since its foundation in the 12th century the city has always kept bears. At the moment there is just one lonely bear in the concrete pit but we were told that another one was joining him shortly. One of the Bern members is an architect and she has been working on redesigning the pits to make them more interesting for the bears.
We then went on to the Bruder Klaus Church where Berne Club had arranged a lovely concert especially for the friendship weekend. It was performed by Maria from the Hungarian club playing the church organ and Marianne on the flute, and Sylvia on the clarinet, both from Berne Club. The concert lasted for about 40 minutes and was very moving.
There was then brunch arranged at a restaurant opposite the church. This consisted of coffee and an enormous piece of plum pie which was quite delicious. It was then time for us to leave.
When I first came to soroptimists I was told by several members that you do a lot of eating and drinking and that was certainly true! I was though surprised at how instantly friendly and kind everyone was. The whole weekend was extremely well organised and well supported by Berne members and a great deal of thought and effort had clearly been put in. It was packed with events but relaxed. We really enjoyed it and would certainly go on another friendship weekend!
This blog was written by Cath and Sue
Tags: Berne, Friendship links
May 25th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your Friendship visit to Switzerland - even if it was six months ago!
In friendship
President Anne