Bern is Switzerland's beautiful capital city, 55 mi/90 km west of Lucerne. It was destroyed by a fire in 1405 and then totally rebuilt, so it has many fine examples of early-15th-century ...

The sidewalk going up the Aare River is congested with wet and happy Swiss, hiking upstream in swimsuits just to float back into town. I join them — marveling at how this exercise brings out the silly ...