Being situated right in Europe Alps with numerous lakes, this country made itself efficient by creating a vast network of railway lines. Frommers will tell you that the Swiss Railway System crosses so many mountains and valleys that the 'medieval pilgrims would have considered an act of God'. How on earth did they manage to dig a huge tunnel high up in the cold mountains 100 years ago?
So efficient is their rail that in the railway website, they'll even offer you the numerous scenic routes or excursion rails to take so you can enjoy their country as much and affordable as possible. It makes my planning so much easier (unlike Japan) and everything is flexible: Stay as long as you like in a city/town and then hop on to the next train when you like it.
Frankly, I like this country so much, I've visited some of the places more than once. But for WF, its his first. So I plotted the itinerary from the West (Geneva) to the East (Zurich) for the 13 days trip. And simply following the "GoldenPass Line": Geneva - Montreaux - Interlaken - Lucerne - Zurich. Where we will be able to cover watchmaking, finance, lakes, mountains and cheese & chocolate topics.
Some interesting facts about this country:
Land of Time: luxury watch brands hails from this country: Patek Philippe, Blanpain, Breguet, Rolex etc. But NOT cuckoo clocks (I'll share more in subsequent entries).
Milk powder: Henri Nestle, inventor of milk powder is a Swiss. That's why you see a lot of cows and wheat while travelling on the train.
Chocolate: Milk chocolate came from them as well (Note: Choc with milk. Not cocao beans or dark chocolate). And Lindt, a Swiss, invented the conching method (that's how we get smooth creamy chocolate).
And the surprising one for me, Maggi: Came from Julius Maggie who invented stock cubes and now has become a common household name for instant noodles, seasonings and of course, stock cubes!!
They have FOUR national language (and apparently the locals are very proud of it too): Because Switzerland shares the same border with Italy (south), Germany (North) and France (west), they have Italian, German and French as well as Romansh as their national languages. So if you travel to the west of Switzerland, people speaks French there but to the south, it'll be Italian. Thus, all their official documents are published in 4 languages. The children there usually learn THREE languages (we're already complaining when we learn only 2): German, French/Italian and English. No wonder this country churns out one of the highest GDP and is one of the top competitive country. They can speak to almost everybody except maybe the Chinese (Mandarin). And it makes perfect sense for UNESCO, UNICEF, UN, Red Cross, WTO to set up offices there. You get abundance of interpreters...
So much about facts. I should get started on the photos.
Beautiful clouds like cotton balls, seen from the aircraft window:
Of course, I went on a movie marathon (being so deprived of movies back home).
And the view of towns and lakes of Switzerland before we touch down:
Upon arrival at Zurich airport, we took a train to Geneva which is a three hours ride (east to west journey). And WF make full use of his time reading up the guide books on Geneva (subesquently he always do that when we're travelling to the next city/town). As with his carefree holiday style, he had no idea where we're going except to Switzerland. And on the day we left home, he only took his passport and cash. I don't think he knew what clothes I packed for him or whether did I pack anything for him:
And its all quiet on their trains... because:
