TGV to Switzerland, then Einstein and bears
Departure station. Le Train Bleu restaurant inside the station is a Belle Époque masterpiece — painted ceilings, chandeliers, gilt mirrors. Even if you don't eat here, walk through. Or grab a croque-monsieur for the train.
Bern's grand dame hotel. 5-star Belle Époque, opened 1913. Terrace restaurant overlooking the Aare River and the Bernese Alps. Heads of state stay here. Room rates CHF 400–800/night. Ricki will pretend to complain. He will secretly love it.
UNESCO World Heritage. 6 km of covered arcades (Lauben) — you can shop in the rain without an umbrella. Medieval sandstone buildings, 100+ fountains with painted figures, cobblestone streets.
Bern's medieval clock tower. Mechanical figures perform at 4 minutes before every hour — a rooster crows, bears march, Father Time turns his hourglass. Built 1530. Interior tour available.
Kramgasse 49. Albert Einstein lived here 1903–1905 while working at the Swiss Patent Office. In this apartment, he developed special relativity and the photoelectric effect (Nobel Prize). The most important apartment in physics history.
Bern's symbol is the bear ('Bär' in German, 'Bern' likely derives from it). Real bears live in a terraced riverside park along the Aare. Free. The kids can watch bears fish, swim, and climb. Open year-round.
Turquoise glacial water looping through the city. Locals float the river in summer (it's fast and cold — 17°C). Even if you don't swim, the views from the bridges are stunning.
Morning: TGV Lyria from Paris Gare de Lyon. Four and a half hours through France — past Dijon (Ricki: 'That's where the mustard comes from'), through the Jura mountains, and suddenly the landscape goes vertical and Swiss. The last hour the train hugs hillsides and crosses valleys and the Alps appear in the distance.
Arrive Bern mid-afternoon. Check into the Bellevue Palace — the xlsx specifically names this hotel, and it's a statement: 5-star Belle Époque, terrace overlooking the Aare River with the Bernese Alps as a backdrop. This is the splurge night.
Afternoon: walk the Old Town. Bern's Altstadt is UNESCO World Heritage — 6 km of covered arcades (the Lauben), so you're shopping under shelter even if it rains. The Zytglogge clock tower performs its mechanical show at every hour. Einstein House is on Kramgasse — the apartment where he developed special relativity while working as a patent clerk. The most important apartment in physics.
Evening: Bear Park (free, the kids will love watching bears along the river), then dinner at the Bellevue Palace terrace with the Alps glowing pink at sunset.
Kochergasse 3-5, 3001 Bern
The splurge night. CHF 400–800/night. Terrace has the best view in Bern. Book the river-facing rooms.
Einstein House: he was a 26-year-old patent clerk with a baby and a struggling marriage, and in one year (1905) he published four papers that changed physics — special relativity, mass-energy equivalence (E=mc²), the photoelectric effect, and Brownian motion. All from this apartment.
Bear Park! Real bears living along the river — swimming, climbing, playing. Also: Bern has over 100 decorated fountains throughout the Old Town, each with a painted medieval figure on top.
Bern Old Town is flat under covered arcades — easy walking in any weather. The Bellevue Palace terrace is the place to sit with wine and watch the Alps. Bear Park involves a short downhill walk to the river (or view from above).