Classical accordion

Since moving jobs in 2008, I often end up going into Bern city centre at lunchtime, a five minute tram ride (or fifteen minute walk during my current fitness drive). Once there, with errands to look in the sections of camera shops containing second-hand cameras, I often walk back through the main shopping area of Marktgasse.

The street is an excellent place to spend a lunchtime, with shops catering to tastes from clothes to music, from cameras to jewellery and watches. I often get a sandwich or takeaway bite to eat from one of the stalls set up beneath the old, historic archways. If I’m not in a hurry, I eat while watching the endless stream of passers-by hurrying to and fro; trying to get their own tasks done whilst dodging the trams and buses which shuttle across the city centre.

Today, I didn’t stop for food but for a street musician. A lone man sat on a little fold-away stool beneath the arches, out of the way of people hurrying past, and played classical music wonderfully on an unaccompanied accordion. After filming a few minutes of the wonderful music, accompanied perfectly by the scuttling people around, I dropped a compliment and healthy tip into his collection plate and headed back to the office.