As a general rule of thumb, the German speaking Swiss look down on most of the French speaking part because of the comparative lack of cleanliness, etc. My mother was native born Swiss-German and I still remember our first visit to Lausanne. It didn't seem as clean to me and I asked her if that was the case or just my imagination. Her reply was, "Of course it's not clean, they're French!"

I would consider Bern one of Europe's most underrated cities - especially in light of what you have heard about it in your OP

Great old city centre - if rainy there are miles of arcades to walk under.

The Aare River area - so picturesque - the Bear Pits with bruins playing around - the Bear being the symbol of Bern - walk along the river - so nice or even hop in and swim with the current (get advice beforehand though)

And no Eurailpass for you but a Swiss Pass would be excellent for that travel. If out of Switzerland buy your pass before arriving as the exact same Swiss Passes bought in Switzerland are about 18% higher last time i compared prices. RailEurope, part owned by Swiss Railways in U.S. is the major outlet in U.S. but they'd charge an $18 mailing fee for most Swiss Pass orders. I always recommend BETS (www.budgeteuropetravel.com) for their expertise and lack of mailing fees even though a RE agent. Their free European Planning & Rail Guide you can request on their site has a good chapter on Switzerland trains and also on the Jungfrau area. www.swisstravelstystem.com has lots on Swiss trains, lake boats, etc.

Beauty of Swiss Pass is that it also gives 50% off all cabelways and mountain trains not covered by Swiss Passes - (25% only on Jungfraujoch trains however.)

sundown~ Oh believe me, the feeling's mutual... You should hear what the french-speaking Swiss have to say about the Swiss-Germans!!!
;-)

The Röstigraben: the Rösti trench between the French and German speaking areas. Lots of stereotyping is involved and neither really like each other all that well due to this. Thankfully, this love/hate relationship is not too serious and because of democracy, everyone has the same voice. It's much like comparing the East Coast with the West Coast USA.

Now the Swiss don't really think that Zürich is the real capital. We're quite proud of our voting process and government. All of our politicians are based in Bern. Zürich has the money and banks. It has lots of hip bars, great concerts and infrastructure and is the place to find the newest trends. It's rather like comparing Washington DC and New York City.

Crossing the Rostigraben:

several times from trains crossing this Franco-Germanic Suisse line i've especially looked at wood piles by houses.

Immaculately stacked on the German side with each log uncannily the same length and stacked in very straight piles

i can tell the French side by the noticeably more haphazzardly stacked wood piles.