Bern Historical Museum (4/9/1983)

Friday, April 8, 1983

Wasn’t sure when I’d be picked up by the S family for our French-English lesson. Hans Rüdi arrived at 20:00. We had cottage cheese with raspberries, currants, and bananas with our tea. Home at 23:45.

Saturday, April 9, 1983

Pouring rain today, so a good time for chores. The Ss were supposed to call about going to a movie, but never did. After lunch, Marsha C and I caught the 13:34 train to Bern. The ticket seller noticed my half-price pass holder was falling apart and gave me a new one! In Bern we checked out the movie board to find there were a lot of good movies! We purchased 80 Rappen/40 cent tram tickets and took the #3/5 tram to Helvetiaplatz.

Bern tram ticket

We contemplated the monument made up of a bronze group of figures on a fountain (inaugurated 1922) by Ticinese Giuseppe Romagnoli, commemorating the foundation of the International Telegraphic Union. We went in the neo-Gothic building of the Bernische Historische Museum/Bern Historical Museum, which had a façade of mosaics. There was free admission, but we had to deposit our wet umbrellas in a stand. We first went left to see an American Indian exhibit, and beyond it to see a part of Henri Moser’s collection of Asian weapons. Then to the right to see prehistoric artifacts (such as tools and jewelry) found in excavations mostly around Bern. Downstairs to a porcelain collection and into an 18C drawing room that wasn’t so magnificent with a few pieces of furniture and costumed mannequins. In the basement we saw period rooms, Swiss ceramics, and a newly installed exhibit of the statues from the portal of the Münster/cathedral. We climbed to the first floor to the great hall lined with banners and flags, and part of the booty captured from the Burgundians at Grandson and Murten. In a room to the left off the stairs were four huge tapestries from Tournai, Belgium on the life of Julius Caesar.

A corner turret and a long wall had stained glass windows. In the center of the hall was a display of uniforms. There was a clownish-looking archer at one end and a boy with an apple on his head at the other end. Also displayed was a prison cart. In the rooms to the right off the stairs were more tapestries including the Judgment of Trajan & Herkinbald (1450), and the Millefleurs/Thousand Flowers style with the Burgundian coat of arms in the center (c. 1566, of Charles the Bold). There were religious pieces, embroideries, smaller tapestries. Also a room of capes and one of religious treasures, chalices, gold crosses, etc. There were Kauzbechern/owl cups in the shape of owls. On the top floor were arms and armory with more flags in the center. To the left were areas showing a pharmacy, musical instruments, tinware, and toys. There were machines of sound, of calculation, and medicinal objects, and a room of Egyptian artifacts. To the right were areas of household goods for the bathroom, kitchen, for cleaning, etc. A small back room was a jumbled mess of mechanical items and the walls were lined with paintings of traditional costumes. We left the museum to catch the tram back to the train station. The tram waited until I finished getting my ticket from the automat.

Bern tram ticket

We found the Cinema Club beyond Wendy’s and bought tickets for the 16:20 showing of “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

"An Officer and a Gentleman" movie ticket

We had time for a Frosty and fries at Wendy’s before the movie. Afterwards we caught the 18:53 train back to Biel. It had stopped raining and you could see the Alps from Bern.