Hi, everyone, in case anyone is heading to Bern and tempted to swim in the Aare (a Rick Steves recommendation), you should know that the city of Bern has issued an advisory because the river is at historically high levels and is very dangerous right now. Last week a 16-year-old girl, who was a very strong swimmer, drowned. There are vortexes, especially around breakwaters and bridges, that can just pull you under. It is beautiful to walk along, but not so good for swimming right now. Thanks!
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8372 posts
Thanks for the safety tip! I am so sorry about the young woman.
Posted by
Vancouver, BC
367 posts
Yes! Good tip -- I recently commented to my 20-something Swiss friend that I wanted to visit in summer so I could swim (I've been in December and May so far, and very NON-swimming times). He was mentioning the best lakes and I commented on swimming in the river at Bern and he reacted strongly -- "No! very dangerous currents!" Okay then. I'll stick to the lakes.
Posted by
Seattle
4637 posts
Not sure if Rick recommended swimming in the river. I think it was floating on inner-tubes. Significantly harder to drown.
Posted by
California USA
3951 posts
Good to heed the warning. We watched lots of people last summer during “drought conditions” bobbing along in the river and they were going pretty fast. I’d say only about 1 in 10 people were actually on a raft and we saw no inner tubes. Most people did have their dry pack bobbing along with them that contained their clothes, etc. We spent 3 weeks in Bern and could walk down our hill each evening to cool off, have a drink at a riverside cafe and watch the fast moving parade in the river.
Posted by
OP
Bern, Switzerland
86 posts
It's important to note that when Rick talked about "floating" he didn't mean using an inner tube. He meant that the current is so swift that it just takes you--you don't really need to swim. They don't rent inner tubes or anything like that here. It is possible to take a raft from Thun to Bern, but these are big inflatable rafts that hold several people (and there are much fewer of them right now than there were last year; I think even rafting is quite risky with the water levels and vortexes). The upshot is that it's not safe to do anything more than dip your feet in right now.