A Week in the Country-Part 3

Theme 3:  Water

The Bernese Oberland has lots of water.

We visited the Aare Gorge.  Here the fast moving Aare River has carved  a dramatic gorge that in some places is only a few yards wide.

We visited the Reichenbach Falls, site of one of the most famous scenes in English literature.  It's the place where Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty fell to their deaths.  A star marks the spot on the trail where they fought and fell.  Holmes fans were so upset about this that Arthur Conan Doyle had to bring Holmes back from the dead to solve dozens more cases.  There's a Sherlock Holmes museum in the town near the falls.  Kind of an interesting concept -- a museum focused on a fictional character.  I wonder if, in a 1,000 years, people will forget that Holmes was fictional. Back to the falls, it seems to come straight down the mountain, but leaves some places untouched.

There are public fountains everywhere.  Mostly these are for human use (thank goodness, because we seem to be thirsty all the time).  But they are out in open areas and constantly running.

As someone who lived in the dessert for 9 years, I still find flowing tap water surprising and a little unsettling. I instinctively look around for the handle so I can turn the tap off while simultaneously lecturing whomever might be listening on the importance of conserving water. I guess when you’ve got glaciers up the mountain (for a little while longer, anyway), conserving water is not so much of a concern.