The Switzerland Traveler

So here’s an idea for you.
Get a few of the boats that carry passengers round Lake Zurich in the summer. Tie them up at Bürkliplatz, and fill them full of stalls giving away whisky and cigars. 800 types of whisky (and possibly even whiskey) are there to be sampled.
OK, you have to pay CHF20 to get on, but that’s not a bad deal. Of course, the aim is to sell you bottles, rather than just give away wee drams, but if you’re canny, you can have one of the cheapest nights out in Zürich.
It runs from Thursday, 6 …read more

5 Comments

Time for more views of the beautiful country. Snow is starting to fall in many places, so no excuses for basing the theme round mountains and Christmas. First up, the Christmas lights in Zürich.

And a sunset taken from the train down to Lauterbrunnen:

And another sunset, this time at ZRH, aka Zürich Airport

And finally a cold mountain view…

Photos:  claudia stucki, zap358, renidens, Tim Blessed

2 Comments

I’m guessing that not many readers live in Switzerland, and may well need a hotel close to the airport, either when they arrive or when they leave.
Basel airport is becoming more and more important for travel to Switzerland, and although it is physically located in France, is very convenient for many locations.
Zurich and Bern are both about an hour away by car, and Basel airport (EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse) to give it its proper name, benefits from many cheap flights, certainly from the UK.
There is now a hotel (I pronounce my “h”s so I do not write an “hotel”) very close to …read more

Comments Off

Rufus Wainwright played a blinding set at the AVO Sessions in Basel last night.
Playing in a club setting, with most of the audience seated at tables, he performed a reduced set based around the Release the Stars album which was released earlier this year.
As usual Rufus came on stage to great applause while the band were playing the title track.
He played with a full band, although favourite guitarist Jack Petrocelli is still absent due to other commitments, but hopefully will be returning later in the tour.
Introducing his classic Art Teacher song Rufus joked about Basel being such an appropriate place …read more

16 Comments

La Chaux-de-Fonds is apparently Europe’s highest city, and is known as the city of the three Cs; The architect Le Corbusier, The Automobilist and founder of the great US Car Company Louis Chevrolet, and a poet, Blaise Cendrars.
I like architecture and cars, so I’ve heard of the first two, and sadly have no recollection of the poet, but for this piece I’m concentrating on the work of Le Corbusier.
There are a number of his buildings in the city; La Villa Turque, part of the Ebel watch factory, being probably the most famous of them. But today we’re looking at La …read more

1 Comment

It’s the time of the week for some lovely pictures to show different views of Switzerland at this time of year. I hope you enjoy these:

Lake Lugano: phaedra.sf

Near Lausanne LePhotographe

Lauterbrunnen superbubby100

Lavaux m x b ch r
Don’t you just want to get on a plane now?

4 Comments

It’s snowing! Yippee!
Can you guess who has a ski trip planned for two weeks time? Correct, yours truly, and this weekend there was masses of snow in the mountains.
There aren’t many resorts open in the Alps at the moment, but Zermatt has a large summer ski area, and some of the winter runs are starting to be opened.
The key thing about Zermatt is, of course, the Matterhorn. If you have any inage in your head of what a Swiss mountain looks like, it’ll be the Matterhorn.
It’s the mountain that Toblerone was allegedly modelled on, and whilst it’s not the highest …read more

3 Comments

Bellinzona is known for it’s castles, three to be precise, known locally as tre Castelli.
The three were granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 2000, which presumably means they are at least the 851st most interesting historical place in the world.
And historical it certainly is. There’s been a fortress there for over 1000 years, and has been inhabitaed for at least twice that.
The castle was an important fortification, blocking the Ticino valley, a vital part of the two main North/South Alp crossing routes. This is portrayed as the crossover between the Latin and the Teutonic cultures and must have seen some …read more

Comments Off

One of the pleasant surprises of writing The Switzerland Traveler has been looking through Flickr and discovering some fantastic photos.
So I’ve decided to run a regular, or perhaps “frequent” would be the mot juste, series of photos on this most pleasant of lands.
I’ll be featuring photos taken within a week of the post, so that you can get an idea of what the country is like at different times of the year.
Heading this piece is a picture fromMark Howells-Mead at Giessbach just across the lake from Brienz
Next, St Moritz as taken by sjoerdtenkate

then Basel as the sun goes down …read more

Comments Off

Lake Neuchatel is the largest lake located entirely in Switzerland. Although it’s not the deepest though, so that may only be by area and not by volume.
But that’s one of the attractions – because the lake is actually warm enough to swim in!
The lakes in the sub-Jura area tend to have a different character to the more dramatic lakes of the Bernese Oberland. Warmer, shallower and surrounded by vineyards, there are plenty of beaches to go swimming at, and even a water-sports park at Estavayer.

In fact wine and winemaking are very important to the region, and there are numerous vintners …read more

Comments Off