Bern looks like a city drawn by a medieval cartographer who never doubted his own plan. It sits on a high, narrow peninsula inside a tight loop of the Aare river, with the old town packed along the ridge and steep green banks falling to the water on three sides. It was founded in 1191 by Berchtold V, Duke of Zähringen, and the legend says that he named it after the first animal he killed on a hunt, a bear. Bears are still everywhere: on the flag, on fountains, in a park beside the river where several of them live.
The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is worth the entry for the arcades alone. About six kilometres of sandstone arcades run along the main streets, so that shoppers walk under cover in all weather, and the streets are lined with sixteenth-century fountains, each topped by a painted figure. The Zytglogge, the clock tower, performs its mechanical show a few minutes before each hour. Albert Einstein lived in a flat on the Kramgasse while working at the patent office, and it was here in 1905 that he wrote the papers that changed physics.
Bern is Switzerland's capital but acts like a small provincial town, with about 120,000 people, a relaxed air and a river you can swim in. On summer evenings, residents float down the Aare in the cool green water. For riders, the city is a convenient base with good roads in every direction: the Gurten hill to the south, the Emmental to the east, the Seeland and Lake Biel to the north-west. The old town centre is mostly pedestrianised and cobbled, so park outside and walk in, and watch the tram tracks, which are treacherous in the wet.
Fuel and food are easy. Bern has stations on all approach roads, and the Marktgasse and its side streets are full of cafes and bakeries. Try a Zopf, the braided Sunday bread, or the Berner Platte, a heavy plate of boiled meats and sauerkraut, if you are hungry. Switzerland requires a motorway vignette, speed limits are strictly enforced, and fines are steep. The best months to ride are May to October, and the view from the Rosengarten across the roofs to the Alps is worth a stop.