On the fourth Monday in November ( Mon 22 Nov - the bustle starts at 5am ), the old city in Bern, between the railway station and the Place du Palais fédéral (Bundesplatz), blossoms into a giant market with hundreds of stalls. This is the day when cheese, cheesecake, onion cakes and onion soup are on offer in all the restaurants, giving off a spicy aroma. Younger visitors scatter confetti in the streets, and have fun at the fairground.


Neighboring farmers gather to sell over 100 tons of plaited strings of onions, as well as other fruits, vegetables and nuts, while street venders and secondhand goods dealers peddle their traditional wares.



In the afternoon and evening, especially after school and work, the carnival-side of the festival, with confetti fights and people in costume, melds with the lively market scene.



In the evening, ironic poetry recitals on the events of the past year are held in the local taverns.



Satirical newspapers are also published on Onion Market day.


Special trains are available.

Yes folks, it starts in a couple of minutes from now.

Some pictures taken a few minutes ago. The warm spicy wine ( Glühwein ) was something new for me. Got confetti-ed too.

But did you get hit over the head with a plastic hammer by some little oik?

Actually, yes, I did .. wondered if that was the norm ...

Right folks, for this year, it will be held on the 4th Monday of November ( 28.11.2011):


http://www.bern.com/en/city-of-bern/...s/onion-market



and meanwhile ....

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_ne...l?cid=31459824

If anyone is interested in going along in a group, please send me a PM.

If I have friends to go with, I'll put in for the day off from work....I'm due a little bit of overtime ;-)

I've been twice before, and enjoyed it. One year it was gorgeously sunny, with crispy snow on the ground, the other year it was rain and slushy snow.

Swisspea

It is really fun. When I lived in Bern, I always went.

We might just have to join in.

Cool! how late does it go?

From 4am Monday right up to 7pm same day, weather dependent as well.

SBB just released some info:

URL

Can anybody say if this is within walking distance from the train station? Im very interested if work times allow and all that...

Yes it is.

Thank you Shame im in Geneva but at least there are direct trains

It's an hour from Zurich HB to Bern. I've been to the market twice before and I'm not a fan of being really cold, so I'd rather leave Zurich once the sun has come up (and after I've dropped my son to kindergarten)...

So, I am just waiting for approval for my day off work, and if it's all OK I'll suggest that we meet at Zurich HB at 8:45am and catch the 8:56 to Bern...

Please PM me if you are interested and as soon as I can confirm, I'll put an event onto the social calendar...

Please do, by all means.

Good luck to your day off

If everything goes well i will meet you guys in the train station in Bern. Hopefully the trains from Geneva and Zurich will come at about the same time

I think that was the year I went, my first fall after my arrival. I enjoyed the market indeed, mother-in-law brought both of us new daughters down to Bern for the fun.

Don't forget to get your SBB SuperSaver tickets to the Onion Market.

Looks interesting. I'm in Fribourg so not far away.