Yarn shops Bern

Just a quick overview of the yarn shops in Bern. All photos are taken from the respective shop's website because I again forgot to take pictures. I have linked to all the websites and they have many more beautiful photos to share.

Maglia Mania

This shop has limited hours but is well worth the trip. The yarn shop is in the basement of the building and in a doorway right next to the bank entrance you will find your typical European buzzer with their name above it. Just press it and then will buzz open the door for you. They sell only their own hand dyed yarn and they try to source as many of the fibers from Switzerland as they can. There is Swiss mountain silk in most of the bases.

The owner was fantastically friendly even replying to an email (in English) in advance when I was unsure of the directions to get to her shop. The shop was right next to my hotel but maybe 20 minutes walking from the historic town center. You could take the number 12 bus all the way there too, or it is just a walk up the hill from the train station. I think that it is well worth the visit.

Natura Handarbeiten AG

Sadly there is no real website for this store and no pictures. You can go to Goggle street view and just make out the first part of the sign behind one of the medieval statue fountains on the main street. The shop was small but packed neatly with German, French, and Swiss yarn. The shop assistant spoke very good English and was very helpful. Since this shop is in the center of the city there is no reason to miss it.

Near the train station there are two different stores that have not made it onto Knit Map yet. I learn about them from the Fresh Stitches blog and I include a link to each of the post below. (Go look, she remembered to take pictures!)

Loeb

Another blog post about Loeb's yarn from Fresh Stitches

Every European country I have visited has a yarn section in their huge multi-story department stores. There might be more than one, but the one I found was Loeb. Like many department stores it has multiple buildings. The one with the yarn on the 5th floor was just across the street from the end of the glass roofed bus hub.

The selection was amazing. I have seen many yarn shops with less selection. The sock yarn selection alone is worth the trouble of visiting. These German speaking countries know their yarn!

There was also other craft supplies here too, they even had seed beads (a thing that is very hard to find in Spain for some reason).

Here again, speaking English was not a problem.

Bastelzentrum

Other blog post from Fresh Stitches

Now this store had the biggest selection yet! If you visit here you might want to either know what you are looking for or that you have at least an hour to browse. You have to take an escalator from the main street to get down to the entrance. That "first floor" is what holds aisles and aisles of yarn, buttons, sewing supplies, (be still my hard) roving and felting supplies. Look for the stairs towards the back because if you, like me, are from a craft store deprived city the lower floor has everything your crafty heart could possibly desire. They had more craft supplies than most American big-box stores do.

Bern

 There was a time when we hoped that we would live in Bern. A time that seems so very long ago (but is only about 4 years). Now between new anti-immigrant and sentimentalities and some recent politics with the EU we will probably never get the chance. So when the opportunity came up to visit, we both jumped at the chance.

Bern is the small capitol of Switzerland, and with the very heart of the city being a UNSCO World Heritage site, a very nice place to visit. (If you go in May be sure to take an umbrella and a change of shoes.) Bern means Bear in German and the symbol was all over the city.

It was easy to tell when we had walked into the older part of Bern. 

This clock tower (in in the next photo from the other side) was built in the 13th century and still runs without electricity.

On this street (looking away from the last view of the clock tower) Einstein lived during the time he came up with the theory of relativity.

The street is dotted with fountains with statues.

The UNESCO part of town is located inside a loop of river. When you are on the other side of the river the views are breathtaking. (Sorry about the lighting on some of the photos. It kept storming and then was sunny so the light changed all of the time.)

There are brown bears kept just across from the "loop". When we were there, there were three bears, the parents, and this juvenile.

There was also sheep on the steep slope facing the river. I could hear them before I could see them, they were all wearing bells. As the Spanish would say "it was very Heidi".

Roses

Sorry for the radio silence. I took a trip to the capitol of Switzerland and I brought back a cold. I am in the mist of selecting from the hundreds of wonderful photos that we have of Bern and while I am doing that, I will share with you a little from the many pictures I took of the Rosaleda in El Parque del Buen Retiro here in Madrid. I took them as virtual flowers for a good friends birthday and mother's day, but there is n reason that I can not share them with you. If you are in or plan to visit Madrid soon go to the rose garden soon!

Alcalá de Herares

Alcalá de Herares is one of the lesser known (for tourists outside of Spain) day trips that you can take from Madrid. I had never been, which is a shame, because really it was very close. It is just NorthEast of the city. We got there in about an hour, and you can also get there in about an hour from the center of Madrid using the Cercanías (regional trains).

We went this weekend with some friends to see the town and also to go to the Museo Archqueológico Regional (English information link here). They have an special exhibit "La Cuna de la Humanidad" (the footprint of humanity) which has only before been seen in Africa.

Special exhibit 

I feel like I should make the disclaimer that the museum's regular collection is only in Spanish. Since this is only a regional museum it is only about the history in what is now the providence or "Ayuntammiento" of Madrid. However the exhibits are thoughtful out together and even starts with a rather impressive Imax-eske video dating back 460,000,000 years ago to present. I had no idea that a once the "safari" animals called Spain home too!

A relic of Roman occupation, Achilles defeating the Amazonian Queen  

As for the Special exhibit it was very cool to see a copy of "Lucy" and alsoof footprints of our early ancestors. It also went into great detail on the Leaky family and their contribution to our understanding of evolution.

"Lucy"

I always look for  textile paraphernalia in museums. These are "fusayolas" which mean spindle whorls in Spanish. I have more pictures of more whorls from this museum, but that might get it's own post. If they are like other spindles I have seen here in Spain, they probably had a carved shaft, about 25-30cm long, with a spiral leading to a point at one end to encourage the fiber to rotate off the point. However there was no information here.

The absolute best thing about this museum (or my favorite, anyway) was the tiny gift shop. Now, I have been to many museums and they are usually filled with t-shirts, postcards and books, not that those things are bad, but this museum had replicas and kits! Look I got a spindle whorl replica and a cave painting kit (complete with dye stuff, background stone and your own stick brush with hair at one end). I love this kind of thing. These alone made my whole day.

Across the street from the museum is the Archbishop's palace, which was very photogenic. 

Catalina de Aragón

We also saw the house were Cervantes was born Spanish link, English link. That house had two spinning wheels and an old fashioned bobbin winder! Unfortunately taking photos was not allowed inside.

Image taken from the museum's website.

The beautiful Cervantes plaza already has huge roses blooming, and was surrounded by beautiful views in all directions.

I am fascinated by the herons and their huge nests/obsession for church towers.

Even the side streets are cute here.

The old mosque, still very picturesque.

Elation

Every once in a while I get this magical feeling that it is ok to enjoy the little things. To not care about what people are think of me and to do what I really want to do. In theses magical moments I feel carefree like singing and dancing. I wish I knew how to bring about this mentality on purpose because I am convinced the secret of life is to find as many moments like these as possible.

This feeling is like being in love for the first time. Everything is magical, fresh, bright and new. The sky is bluer and plants are greener, the people smile instead of glower at you when you pass. You feel so full of happiness that you want to pass it to every person you meet.

I am an uptight person. I believe firmly in the rules of my own personal culture and because most of the world does not I am generally unhappy with most of humanity. I have no idea how much up my ridged uptight personality is from my upbringing in US culture and how much is simply me, but I know that it is a combination of both. Sometimes I wonder if the reason that I see all of these expats around me enjoy this country more than me is simply because they are younger that they can let go of their cultural identity easier. As I have said in a previous post what seems like outright rudeness can just be a perspective of culture.

On these days where the magical feeling happens I can accept people for who they are and believe in my heart that they can accept me too.

These photos are from my morning walk in the park, where I was pleasantly surprised that my favorite flower (lilac) was already in bloom.

I felt that I had to rush home and try to capture this feeling of elation in a blog post. For later today  deliver bad news might be delivered. Maybe not. Live in the moment people, we only have the one life.