Geneva - Lausanne - Bern
A few videos and photos made during this year's trip from the village of Herrischried through to Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, and back.
The videos are compiled from my dashcam.
First we went straight to Geneva, and after a few hours there, we went to Lausanne, where we spent about three hours, and then to Bern.
Almost all of this journey was made using the motorway, with the exception of the trip from Bern to Herrischried, where we went down the local road in order to better explore the Swiss countryside, as we still had plenty of time left.
We left at around half five in the morning and went straight to Geneva
On the way to Geneva
Six kilometeres, or about four miles to Geneva.
Geneva is virtually on the Swiss-French border and on the south-west bank of the Lake of Geneva.
Geneva is also the capital of the Swiss canton of Geneva that is a French-speaking canton.
The Lake of Geneva
In the lake of Geneva there is a water jet that is named as Jet d'Eau or as some people call it, the Geneva Water Jet.
The National Monument.
The two ladies are: Miss Geneva and Miss Helvetia (Switzerland).
They both look towards Switzerland.
This monument symbolises the integration of Geneva into the Swiss Confederation (Confederatio Helvetica) that took place on the 12th of September 1814.
This is a well known Geneva Flower Clock.
In summer the black paths are also filled with usually violett flowers.
After visiting Geneva, we went to visit the city of Lausanne.
This is a two-minute video of driving through the centre of Lausanne (video size is 80 MB):
From 1994 the city of Lausanne is officially an Olimpic Capital.
The center of Lausanne.
Lausanne is on the north-east bank of the Lake of Geneva, and is also the capital of the Swiss canton Vaud that is also a French-speaking canton of Swiss Federation. I tried to speak German here but nobody understands it.
English, however, is understood fairly well.
The three-hour parking in this car park we paid around 8 Euros, or 7 Pounds.
This is a shortened 16-minute dashcam video of our trip down the motorways from Lausanne to Bern (the video size is 720 MB):
The Old city of Bern (Bern Altstadt).
This square is named as Waisenhausplatz (Orphanage Square)
And the tower is best known as the Dutch Tower (Holländerturm), because in middle ages it was often used by the Dutch officers where they could hide from the public and smoke their tobacco, as smoking of tobacco in Bern at those times was still banned.
The tower was built in 1256.
Old Bern
Bern trolleybus
From the city of Bern we went back to the village of Herrischried by using the local roads,
which was much more interesting.
I think these types of housed are called the Swiss chalets.
Very interesting, well preserved and very well maintained.
I have to say that we'd seen plenty of such chalets while driving the local roads of canton of Bern.
In these chalets, the long balconies were used for drying clothes, accommodating bee hives in order to provide honey for the harsh alpine winters, and also for storing various goods that needed protection.
The noticeably long eaves are also very useful these days as in summer they do not allow the Sun, that during this time of the year is high in the sky, to strike through the windows and create heat inside the house.
However, during the winter months, when the Sun is low, its rays can easily go through the windows, and create additional warmth inside the house.
There is a very interesting article about these Bernese houses in German language: https://mariannepluess.wordpress.com/tag/berner-bauernhaus
One can also create a terrace on the balcony,
and have a good lunch or dinner even when it rains.
The countryside of the canton of Bern
The house looks old, but still well maintained.
The 20-minute video of our trip down the Swiss countryside (the video size is 1 GB):
The border crossing from Switzerland to Germany. Cars go with non-stop.
The short, one minute and a half, video of the Swiss-German border crossing in the town of Stein (Swiss side) and to the town of Bad-Säckingen (Baden-Württemberg (Germany) side), (the video size is 60 MB):
The Germans love Europe.
The four flags on this roundabout, that is just after the border crossing, are: EU, Germany, Switzerland, Canton of Bern and the Republic of Baden-Württemberg
This is a 12-minute video of our trip from the border town of Bad-Säckingen to our village of Herrischried, (the video size is 700 MB):
This whole trip lasted around 15 hours, and was 450 km (360 miles) long.
First we went straight to Geneva, and after a few hours there, we went to Lausanne, where we spent about three hours, and then to Bern.
Almost all of this journey was made using the motorway, with the exception of the trip from Bern to Herrischried, where we went down the local road in order to better explore the Swiss countryside, as we still had plenty of time left.
We left at around half five in the morning and went straight to Geneva
On the way to Geneva
Six kilometeres, or about four miles to Geneva.
Geneva is virtually on the Swiss-French border and on the south-west bank of the Lake of Geneva.
Geneva is also the capital of the Swiss canton of Geneva that is a French-speaking canton.
The Lake of Geneva
In the lake of Geneva there is a water jet that is named as Jet d'Eau or as some people call it, the Geneva Water Jet.
The National Monument.
The two ladies are: Miss Geneva and Miss Helvetia (Switzerland).
They both look towards Switzerland.
This monument symbolises the integration of Geneva into the Swiss Confederation (Confederatio Helvetica) that took place on the 12th of September 1814.
This is a well known Geneva Flower Clock.
In summer the black paths are also filled with usually violett flowers.
After visiting Geneva, we went to visit the city of Lausanne.
This is a two-minute video of driving through the centre of Lausanne (video size is 80 MB):
From 1994 the city of Lausanne is officially an Olimpic Capital.
The center of Lausanne.Lausanne is on the north-east bank of the Lake of Geneva, and is also the capital of the Swiss canton Vaud that is also a French-speaking canton of Swiss Federation. I tried to speak German here but nobody understands it.
English, however, is understood fairly well.
The three-hour parking in this car park we paid around 8 Euros, or 7 Pounds.
This is a shortened 16-minute dashcam video of our trip down the motorways from Lausanne to Bern (the video size is 720 MB):
The Old city of Bern (Bern Altstadt).This square is named as Waisenhausplatz (Orphanage Square)
And the tower is best known as the Dutch Tower (Holländerturm), because in middle ages it was often used by the Dutch officers where they could hide from the public and smoke their tobacco, as smoking of tobacco in Bern at those times was still banned.
The tower was built in 1256.
Old Bern
Bern trolleybus
From the city of Bern we went back to the village of Herrischried by using the local roads,
which was much more interesting.
I think these types of housed are called the Swiss chalets. Very interesting, well preserved and very well maintained.
I have to say that we'd seen plenty of such chalets while driving the local roads of canton of Bern.
In these chalets, the long balconies were used for drying clothes, accommodating bee hives in order to provide honey for the harsh alpine winters, and also for storing various goods that needed protection.
The noticeably long eaves are also very useful these days as in summer they do not allow the Sun, that during this time of the year is high in the sky, to strike through the windows and create heat inside the house.
However, during the winter months, when the Sun is low, its rays can easily go through the windows, and create additional warmth inside the house.
There is a very interesting article about these Bernese houses in German language: https://mariannepluess.wordpress.com/tag/berner-bauernhaus
One can also create a terrace on the balcony,
and have a good lunch or dinner even when it rains.
The countryside of the canton of Bern
The house looks old, but still well maintained.
The 20-minute video of our trip down the Swiss countryside (the video size is 1 GB):
The border crossing from Switzerland to Germany. Cars go with non-stop.
The short, one minute and a half, video of the Swiss-German border crossing in the town of Stein (Swiss side) and to the town of Bad-Säckingen (Baden-Württemberg (Germany) side), (the video size is 60 MB):
The Germans love Europe.The four flags on this roundabout, that is just after the border crossing, are: EU, Germany, Switzerland, Canton of Bern and the Republic of Baden-Württemberg
This is a 12-minute video of our trip from the border town of Bad-Säckingen to our village of Herrischried, (the video size is 700 MB):
This whole trip lasted around 15 hours, and was 450 km (360 miles) long.
