Chocolate! Cuckoo Clocks! Brothels! Oh, wait, that's just in Zurich. Mountains! Scenery, scenery so stunning that you wouldn't believe it could exist if you weren't looking at it! A train service like nog other (in a good way)! (Except for my beloved Frecciarossa.) Horse meat on the menus! (Warning: The word "pferd" on a menu means "horse".) Four official languages, of which only two are spoken and Italian isn't one of them! Prices that will make your gonads and your eyes bleed simultaneously! Yes, baby, you're in SWITZERLAND!
A colleague warned me that the place feels a little... strange... in some ways. He couldn't quite put his finger on how, but he worked there for a short time and had no wish to return. I felt the same vibe, but, while I wouldn't want to live there (did I mention the prices?) , I was OK with it for the time that I was there though I'd rather be able to speak German better than I do.
However there is no way I would have wanted to miss going to Svizzera, and in an ideal world I'd like to go back one day, if the dreaded gods of Time, Money and Opportunity permit.
Switzerland has an area of 41,285 sq km (15,940 sq mi) and is home to just under 9 million people as of 2023. It's landlocked, though around 4.3% of its area is water in the form of lakes. Some extend into other countries, such as Lago Maggiore which reaches into Italia. The official name is the Swiss Confederation, because technically it is a federation of 23 cantons (states), of which 3 have two half-cantons, making 26 in total. I won't list them here but the ones that matter for the purposes of these galleries are: [*] Graubünden (GR), the largest of the 33 in the south east of the country. This is the one we passed through on the Bernina Express from Tirano (Sondrio (SO), Lombardia, Italia) to Chur, the capital of GR. [*] Zürich (ZH), home to the city of the same name where we stayed for a couple of days. [*] Bern (BE), the second most populous and second largest canton, which stretches from the west into the centre of the country coming to rest at the Bernese Alps. This contains our base in Interlaken. [*] Schaffhausen (SH), the northernmost canton which borders Germany, and where the Rhine Falls exist on the border with the Canton of Zürich. We spent a day there on a day trip out of that city.
