Bern, Switzerland

Bern is the Swiss federal city — the de facto capital, although the Federal Constitution carefully avoids using the word — and one of the few European capitals where the medieval town centre survives intact. The Old Town (Altstadt), wrapped inside a horseshoe bend of the emerald-green Aare river, was inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 1983 and preserves 6 km of covered sandstone arcades (Lauben) — the longest weather-protected shopping street network in Europe — plus the Zytglogge clock tower (the city's eastern gate from the early 1200s, with its mechanical-figure show every hour), the Rathaus, the Käfigturm, and the Bern Münster cathedral whose 101-metre spire is the tallest in Switzerland. The Aare itself is the city's lived-in centrepiece: from May to September, Berners commute to work or lunch by floating downstream from the Marzili public baths past the Bundeshaus terrace and the Lorraine bridge, climbing out at one of the marked exit-points. The Federal Palace (Bundeshaus) on the Bundesplatz is open for free guided tours when parliament is not in session, with advance online booking; the Bundesplatz itself hosts a Tuesday-and-Saturday market and the summer outdoor opera and the autumn international cheese fair. Einstein lived at Kramgasse 49 from 1903 to 1905 and wrote his Annus Mirabilis papers — including the special theory of relativity — at his apartment desk; the Einsteinhaus museum preserves the rooms. The diplomatic quarter clusters in Kirchenfeld and along Helvetiastrasse and Thunstrasse, on the south side of the Aare bend, where most foreign embassies operate. Bern's food culture is a quiet pleasure: Toblerone was invented here in 1908 by Theodor Tobler, the Bärner Platte (smoked meats and sauerkraut) is the city's signature winter dish, and the historic brewery scene — Felsenau, the original Felsenburg beer hall, the smaller artisan breweries — anchors a beer culture that gives Bern its 'Switzerland's beer capital' tag. Trams and trolley buses (Bernmobil) cover the centre; the main station Bern HB is one of Europe's busiest hubs by volume per capita; the Aare bend makes the city eminently walkable.