Bernatone Alphornbau Journal

August 31. Tuesday (morning)

Gary

For a whole year I have wanted to visit a Swiss alphorn maker and today my wish was amply fulfilled! We took a 12 minute bus ride to the village of Habkern north of Interlaken to visit the Bernatone Alphorn workshop. I got a full tour through the shop, watched several processes, and learned much about the history of the alphorn. I also had the opportunity to play a couple very old alphorns, as well as a new 2021 model. I even got to play a couple duets with the workshop assistant who was an accomplished player, while passersby watched through the window.

I had wanted to purchase a mouthpiece there, and was allowed to try out several before deciding on a beautiful one made from olivewood. I brought with me 3 mouthpieces I made myself a couple months ago, and to my surprise, the one made from Walnut sounded quite nice! What a wonderful day!!

So looking forward to playing my own alphorn back home again. I will be visiting one more alphorn maker in about a week when we are in the Emmental.

Cathy

Our plan for the day was to take the bus, which we thought was free, covered by our guest pass from the hotel, to Habkern, where Bernatone, an alphorn maker, is located. Actually, we had the bus driver tell us our guest pass was no good for a ride to Habkern, so we had to pay. Tim (at the Aarburg) later explained the poorly worded information on the leaflet that accompanies the pass. All is now clear :)

Gary got a tour of the alphorn shop for 15 CHF. He tried several mouthpieces before purchasing one, and he got to play some duets with the assistant. Gary really loved the whole experience.