Biel

Biel/Bienne (Biel in German, Bienne in French) is a the 10th largest city of Switzerland and is located on the northern edge of the canton of Berne. Famous for watchmaking, and home to Rolex, Omega and Swatch among other famous makers.

The city lies at the foot of the first mountain range of the Jura Mountains area, guarding the only practical connection to Jura in the area, and on the northeastern shores of Lake Biel (Bielersee, Lac de Bienne), sharing the eastern tip of the lake with its sister city, Nidau.

The city has more than 50,000 inhabitants and the agglomeration more than 100,000.

Get in

By airplane

From the airport of Berne, take bus 160 and 334 to Belp (8 min), and change to a suburban train (S-Bahn S3) to Biel (30 min). There are also direct intercity trains from the international airports of Geneva and Zurich.

By train

Biel/Bienne is connected to Berne by suburban rail (Bern S-Bahn), with 2 trains/hour (4 during peak) on line S3 (also S31 during peak), taking 30-35 min to Biel. There are also train connections to most other cities in Switzerland. Direct connection Lausanne, Geneva, Basel, Eastern Switzerland, Lake Constance and Zurich For timetable see [2]

By car

3 highways are connecting Biel/Bienne with the rest of Switzerland.

By boat

As Biel/Bienne is located at the end of Lake Biel, it can be reached by boat not only from other touristic lake villages, e.g. Ligerz, but also from towns on the Lake of Neuchatel, e.g. Neuchatel or the Lake of Murten, e.g. Murten

Get around

Public transportation

The City has a highly efficient, clean and safe public transport system. It includes trams, buses, S-Bahn (local trains) and even boats for the lake and river. Tickets must be purchased from a ticket machine before boarding or from one of the ticket selling kiosks, except for the city bus, where the ticket machines are in the bus.

By foot

It is possible to visit the main touristic sights of Biel/Bienne on foot. It's safe and not far.

See

• historic medieval Town (Bieler Altstadt / Vieille ville de Bienne)
• historic international Style and Bauhaus City of the 1920 (Bieler Neustadt / Nouvelle ville de Bienne)
• The Volkshaus near the main central train station. Symbol of the labour movement in the first part of the 20th century.
• Hotel Elite, opposite the Volkshaus. The Symbol for the bourgeoisie.
• The neoclassical main train station and the 1st class waiting room of 1900 (frescoes by Robert)
• The urban and busy squares: Zentralplatz und Guisanplatz
• The main churches of the German-speaking (located at the historic medieval town) and the French-speaking (located at Seevorstadt).
• District of Culture (Museum Schwab, Museum Neuhaus, Museum Pasquart)
• Watchmaking museum (Omega Museum)
• Lido at Lake Biel (Architecture: Bauhaus / International Style)

Talk

Biel/Bienne is one of the few places in Switzerland to be fully genuinely bilingual, with Swiss German as the majority language and French as the minority language. Standard German and English as widely spoken as well.

Do

• Go swim in the Lake Biel (Bielersee) [3]
• Take a look an stroll to the historic medieval town (Altstadt).
• Lake Promenade at the Strandboden.
• Do a cruise on Lake Biel.
• Go to the Taubenloch Canyon (Taubenlochschlucht) and explore the cascade.
• Pick up a bike and take a ride around the lake or the jura mountains. If you can, take a look at the wineards: you´re going to find many medieval constructions and some good restaurants serving fish from the lake and local wine.
• Drink a glass of the famous local wine (especially white wine) or local beer.
• During ice-hockey season visit a game of the EHC Biel.
• Visit the chocolate factory Camille Bloch at the City of Courtelary in the Jura mountains. (15 min from Biel/Bienne City centre)
• Visit the maschine-factory Mueum Müller. (Tu-Su 14-17:00; Adults CHF. 8.- / Students CHF. 5.-)[4]
• August 1st is the national day of Switzerland, and watching the fireworks on a boat is a good experience.
• In winter: Take the bus to Les Près d'Orvin and go sking and snowboarding (20 min from the city center)
• In the summer, there is a music festival at the old town.
• Omega Museum, Stämpflistrasse 43, ☎ ""hours="Tu-Sa. Museum dedicated to the famous Omega watch..-)[1] free entrance.  edit

Buy

The main shopping district is in the middle of the city. The main shopping streets are the Bahnhofsstrasse and the Nidaugasse. Both car-free! For example: Buy a watch made in Biel/Bienne (ex: Omega, Swatch, Rolex, Candino and a lot more)

Eat

• Fish from the lake Biel (especially perch and luce)
• Cheese from the Jura mountains
• Vegetables from the seeland.

Drink

• Famous white, red and rose wine from the vineyards at lake Biel.

Sleep

• Elite Art Deco**** Swiss Quality Hotel, 14, rue de la gare, CH-2501, ([email protected], fax: +41 (0)32 127 77 70). Located in the city center, only 200m from the train station Biel/Bienne but 110km from the airport Zurich. Great hotel bar "Baramundo". Single room from 205CHF, double room from 297CHF (rates from february 2009).
  www.hotelelite.ch www.SwissQualityHotels.com  edit

Get out

• Berne
• Geneve
• Neuchatel

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