Tramming

 

 

I discovered "tramming with a girl friend sometime in the 1990s. We decided we would take a Saturday and ride all the trams in Geneva from beginning to end. Geneva is not a huge city, but one tends to stick to the same areas. This allowed us to discover new places.

"Absolutely ridiculous!!!!" her partner at the time said.

"Isn't it?" she said and off we went, stopping for coffee when we spied a café and lunch, noting what to come back to another time. For years we have continued to seek out "absolutely ridiculous" things to do, including a sheep herding course in Yorkshire.

Rick and I go tramming when we are in a city with very little time such as Montpellier on route to Argelès from Geneva. Sometimes we have time to increase our overview as we did in Prague from the beautiful city center to the Communist-era box apartments on the outskirts.

Yesterday we went tramming in Bern. We settled in our hotel and only had a couple of hours until we do at an apèro.

We discovered the Canadian embassy, some fascinating statues, a variety of architectures, the too-low river, parks, football fields all from the comfort of our seats.

Although we've been to Bern a number of times for work, medical reasons, demonstrations, visiting friends and festivals, the one-hour overview gave us a fresh perspective. I hope they have the onion festival. "Zibelemärit dates back to Bern’s great fire of 1405. When 650 wooden houses burned down and 100 people were killed, the people of Freiburg hurried to help. As a sign of their gratitude, the Bernese allowed the people of Freiburg to sell their onions in Bern every autumn from then on." Some 50 tons of onions and all things onion are on display.

We won't need to tram for the Zibelmärit. It's everywhere after leaving the train station.