Saturday we were up fairly early, had breakfast at the hotel and then off to the Basel train station.  Today we stopped in Bern to see one painting and then back on a train to Zurich where we’ll stay two nights, and where there are three paintings.  Each ride was about an hour.  The trains in Switzerland are on time!  We arrived in Basel and stored our luggage at the station and set off for the Basel Kunstmuseum.  It was just a 15 minute walk from the station.  We found our painting, and then checked out the rest of the museum.  This was another nice museum, not quite as large at Basel’s but still nice.  Bern has a medieval clock tower so that was next on the list.  It is called Zytglogge.  It was built in the 13^th century, and an astronomical clock was added in the 15^th century.  It was just a bit disappointing because there really isn’t much going on at the clock, and we were there when it struck 12!  But I got a few photos and I did take a video.  But didn’t post it because there are only two small figures that move just a little; not worth the time t watch it.  The clock tower is located in Bern’s Old Town section, as is one of the houses where Einstein lived when he was a patient examiner in Bern.  1905 is considered the miracle year when he formulated his groundbreaking theories.  The main street though the Old Town is a shopping street.  Thank goodness Sue isn’t a shopper or we wouldn’t have gotten out of town.  We went back to the station and got our train to Zurich.  On our ride into Bern our seat mate, a lady in her 80s, who lived in New York for 38 years told us that sometimes the view into town is beautiful if the sky is clear.  Well it was sunny but hazy so there wasn’t anything spectacular to see.  But on our way out we were able to see the snow covered mountains in the distance behind the town, and it was an impressive view.

We checked into our hotel and set off to the Zurich Kunsthaus where there are two paintings on our list.  We found our two paintings about halfway through the museum and then we went to see a special exhibition at the museum.  The exhibition was of the work of two artists that have paintings on our list that are in Private Collections; don’t get me started on having paintings in private collections in the list of paintings you must see!  We had the faintest hope that maybe one of their paintings would be there, but they weren’t.  We may consider substituting one or two of the paintings we saw for those on the list.  We will consult with our fellow searches when we meet them in Florence in a couple of weeks.  I’m not sure how Royden will vote, but I know Nancy his wife will vote yes.

We went to the café for a coffee and a soda and to take a bit of a rest.  We then finished off the rest of the museum.  Have I mentioned before how it always amazes us how all of these museums have so many paintings by all of the same artists.  When did these guys ever sleep?  We walked back to a church that is right behind our hotel for the 17:30 mass.  I have to mention that Zurich outside of the central area is very hilly, and the church is almost straight up hill from our hotel.  It is a big elaborately decorated church, and there were a lot of people at mass.  Attending a mass in a foreign language is always a bit strange.

We went to an Italian restaurant almost next door to our hotel.  Can Sue pick hotels or what?  I had a lamb dinner that was outstanding.  It was so good that we are going back tonight so Sue can have the lamb.

Sunday morning we were off to the Rietberg Museum to see if we could connect with the curator who agreed to show us our painting that wasn’t on display.  I had emailed him twice to set up a time but he never replied.  The receptionist told us that the Doctor was very particular and that she is sure he would have replied if he had received the emails.  She was sure they must have been blocked because he is such a precise and person.  Today was his day off and we leave tomorrow.  However our train doesn’t leave until 11:30 so I’m going to call in the morning to see if he will be at the museum even though the museum is closed on Monday.  We are hoping for a miracle.

We had an appointment at the E.G. Bührle Collection at 13:00 that has two paintings, so that was our next stop.  This gallery is only open on the first Sunday of each month, and you have to make an appointment in order to visit.  The gallery is up a very steep hill in a very nice neighborhood.  The gallery is in an old, very large home/mansion.  I rang the bell at the gate and the attendant comes out with a list to check our names before he let us in.  This place is amazing!  Short story (too late for that, huh?) Mr. Bührle who was very successful in business (e.g. married into a business and then started his own).  He started collecting art in 1951, and he died in 1956!  But he did a hell of a job.  The house now has about 200 paintings and sculptures, 60% of the original collection.  He had a daughter and a son and they each got 20% of the collection.  There were 20-30 people that were split into two groups for the English and Germany language tours.  The tour lasts a bit over one hour, and it was terrific.  I know I say that a lot, but we love this stuff.  The gallery is only open one day a month because it was robbed of four paintings in 2008!  Two were found in a car close by almost immediately.  The other two were found in Serbia in 2012, and one of those paintings was the Cézanne that we came to see.  Thank goodness for that.  Both of the paintings on our list were on the ground floor, there are two more floors, and all the rooms are filled with paintings, and two rooms with medieval wooden religious sculptures.  We did see two paintings here, I ready to substitute another painting for the painting by Saenredam.  He specialized in painting church interiors, and we must have seen over a dozen Saenredam paintings of church interiors when we lived in Amsterdam.  But it is finally nice to see the actual painting.  But if you want to see why I was ready to make the substitution just Google for Pieter Jansz Saenredam and then select Images at the top of the page to see how many paintings there are.  And then try to determine why ours is so special.  But I am glad we tracked this one down because seeing this collection and getting the tour was worth the effort.  And now it is off to dinner because Sue is beginning to drool just thinking about that lamb.

We are back from dinner, and the lamb was as good as last night.  Sue thinks it may be one of her best meals ever!  I had the loin of venison, and it was terrific.  You’ll see the photos.

I almost forgot to mention Zurich’s Shopping Mile.  Again, fortunately, all the stores are closed on Sunday.  The street is lined with expensive stores that even I have heard of.  Every third store seems to be a jewelry/watch store, but we didn’t see any Swiss Chocolate stores.  In Brussels every other store is selling Belgium Chocolate.  

Bern-Zurich November 1 2014