Most people float down the Aare River in Bern just for fun. For Evelyn Schneider-Reyes, it was her summertime commute home. “I only had like 30 seconds walking from my office to the river,” she recalls.
“I had an ‘Aare Bag’, where I put all my clothes, my smartphone, wallet and shoes. I put on my bathing suit and swam home. I would leave the Aare at Lorrainebad, then I walked up the hill for 8 minutes and was already home.
From my office to the Lorrainebad it usually took me about 15 minutes in the water. Lovely!” Especially lovely was the day Schneider-Reyes saw something bobbing along on the river. Suddenly, “there was a cold beer can swimming next to me”, she says.
She popped the top and enjoyed the best after-work drink ever. The Aare River runs through Bern, Switzerland’s charming little capital city. During summer thousands of locals and visitors jump into the Aare’s milky glacial-melt waters (even during a hot day in high summer, the water is usually only about 21 C), and float down to one of the handy exits marked by red bars you can grab onto as you float by.
Locals have favorite places to get in and get out (see below). A preferred spot may depend on where they live or where they want to get a drink with friends afterwards. Anna Baehni lives in Bern’s medieval Old Town just a short walk to the river.
In summer, she slides into the river several times a week. “Bern people can be not too friendly during our daily life, but there is something ab.