Friday 25 November 2011

Bologna to Bern

I took a fast train to Bologna, which was recommended to me as the home of the oldest univesrity in Europe, as well as bolognese sauce. There didn't seem to be anywhere cheap to stay so I ended up at the Mercure hotel near the station.

The town has relatively little in the way of sights apart from two massive mediaeval towers in the centre that were closed for repairs but is full of nice arcades especially by the university where I found a neglected little museum that seemed to consist of no longer wanted teaching aids such as waxwork internal organs and old globes.















I did have bolognese with ravioli for dinner but while it was fine I can't say it was that much better than in places that didn't invent it.

In the morning I visited the city mediaeval museum but the signs were only in Italian so I don't know what I saw exactly.







From there I went to the station planning to catch the 10.40 train north only to find a huge queue for the reservations I needed and end up going an hour later. The route to Milan was flat and largely misty but after changing the train climbed to the border where there was a second (unadvertised) change to a Swiss train that rapidly moved into tall mountains and big lakes. The temperature dropped and we even passed through an area with snow on the ground before dropping slightly to Zurich where I made the final change for Bern.


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