A Good Walk: Kirchenfeld

Begin at Casinoplatz and dip downhill onto the Kirchenfeldbrücke. Far below on your left is the Matteschwelle, a weir almost as old as the city that steers river water around and through the Matte district (most of the time—in August 2005 the entire neighborhood flooded to the point that people had to be rescued from their homes by boat). On your right is a panoramic view of the Bundeshaus and the less precarious Marzili area.

Keep left as you come off the bridge, and duck inside the Kunsthalle Bern to check the pulse of contemporary art, then cross the street and aim to the left of the building labeled Schulwarte; a little farther along its facade on the right is the entrance to the Schweizerisches Alpines Museum. Return to the corner with a new appreciation for mountaineering, and cross Helvetiaplatz to the castlelike Bernisches Historisches Museum. The self-consciously epic statue in the middle of the square commemorates the advent of telegraphic communication in Europe. Exit the museum when you've exhausted Bernese history, and follow its walls in either direction: to the left down Bernastrasse for the low-key Naturhistorisches Museum or to the right down Helvetiastrasse for the interactive Museum für Kommunikation. From Helvetiaplatz, cross the Kirchenfeldbrücke back to the Altstadt.