Bern · Things to do

The city museum, with a permanent Einstein wing covering the patent-office years in which he wrote the special relativity papers in his spare time.

The second-floor flat on Kramgasse where the Einsteins lived from 1903 to 1905, furnished as it was. Twenty minutes, and worth it precisely for how ordinary it is.

The parliament building on Bundesplatz, with free guided tours when the chambers are not sitting. Register in advance and bring photo identification.

Twenty-six water jets, one per canton, set flush into the paving and running from spring to autumn. In late autumn the facade behind them becomes a projection screen after dark.

A well-made and genuinely funny museum about how people send messages, from stamps to servers, in the Helvetiaplatz museum cluster.