By bike on the Aare riverside
This easy, 30 km long tour without great differences in altitude starts in the watch manufacturing city of Biel. A canal was built between Nidau and Büren an der Aare during the first Jura water correction 150 years ago. Today we pass the Häftli nature reserve, which extends around the old course of the Aare shortly before Büren a.A. and can be viewed from the birdwatching tower.
In Büren a.A., striking sights can be found every step of the way: The castle of the former bailiffs, the town hall, the two town fountains, the local museum "Spittel", the arcades on the main street and a mighty wooden bridge over the Aare. At Grenchen, the tranquillity of the Aare is occasionally interrupted by aircraft noise, small and business planes take off and literally land over the heads of cyclists.
Afterwards the route always runs flat through a beautiful part of a natural plain, the so-called Witi. Here is Altreu, the Mecca of the storks. In fact, the storks stand everywhere on the high roofs of the farmhouses in their eyrie. Since 1948 the stork station Altreu has been striving for the well-being of the stork. More than 100 animals are sometimes at home here. Today the animals live in freedom, are naturally settled and feed themselves. Thus the visitor sees numerous free-flying white stork breeding pairs, with a little luck also young storks can be observed. In the information centre one can be by video camera with the brood business of the storks live thereby.
Finally, in Solothurn, the traffic-free old town with its many boutiques and numerous small guesthouses is a wonderful place to stroll among the beautiful monuments, patrician residences and defiant fortifications.
Realised by Roland Baumgartner
www.bgr.ch
