Travel to Switzerland

Sporting Life

Sporting Life in Switzerland With more than 2,000 miles of biking paths, Switzerland is a haven for bicyclists of all levels. But you needn’t bring your bike to travel on two wheels: Many Swiss train stations are stocked with current models available for rent. The price includes insurance, and a Swiss Travel System ticket entitles you to a special rate. Designed for convenience and to help you get rolling, many trains feature special compartments to transport bikes. Rented bikes can be stashed for free, and there’s a minimal charge to carry ones that are not property of the Swiss Travel System. Since many visitors travel to Switzerland intending to ski the world-famous peaks (at altitudes above 3,000 feet, there’s perennial snow cover), Swiss Rent-a-Sport offers the latest gear, ranging from skis to snowboards.

Neuchâtel

Neuchâtel is capital of the Canton of Neuchâtel and also the name of the adjacent lake, Lake Neuchâtel. The city is located on the northwestern shore of this lake, and among its activities we find tourism, a major tobacco manufacturer, many small high tech firms and vineyards. The city has several excellent museums, like the Latenium which is an archeology museum focused on the prehistorical times in the region, and the Museum of Art and History, that features the first robots with the Jaquet-Droz programmable androids, made between 1770 and 1774.

Jura Mountains

The Jura Mountains go through 5 Swiss cantons, Vaud, Neuchatel, Fribourg, Bern, and Jura. The northern Jura is more heavily populated, and represent a distinct culture from the rest of French speaking Switzerland. The cities of the Northern Jura are where the famed Swiss watch industry took off in the 18th and 19th centuries, so tou can find there a lot of interesting watch-making related things to see.

Evian

Located north of the department of Haute Savoie, on the south shores of Lake Geneva, the small town of Evian is surrounded by lakes and mountains, and is a great tourist resort. It is the birthplace of Evian Natural Mineral Water, known throughout the world, and the city has preserved its architectural heritage. You can find a great variety of Spas and health resorts, holiday resorts, historical sites and landmarks, casino, gardens and parks, and many sports activities like golf, skiing and yachting.

Zytglogge

The Zytglogge is an elaborate medieval clock tower with moving puppets, located in Bern. It is famous for its astronomical clock, that dates from the 16th Century, and the hand shows the sun´s position and a gold and black ball shows the phase of the moon, and the angle that forms between the 2, marks the lunar phase. The Zodiac is the moving part, and 3 concentric golden circles show the heights of the sun in the different seasons. At the right hand of the astronomical clock, is the glockenspiel, that moves every hour, and sounds small bells telling the number of the next hour. While the Jester rings the bells, seven bears rotate, which represent the days of the week.

Berne

Located in the Swiss plateau part of the Canton of Berne, it is the capital of Switzerland, and the place where Albert Einstein worked out the theory of relativity, while working as a clerk in the patent office of the city. The landscape surrounding the city was formed by glaciers in the ice age, and the city itself was built on a peninsula by the river Aar, and all the bridges were built to allow the continuous growth of the city. Berne has a large offer of cultural activities and places, like museums, theaters, festivals and fairs, that come with an important nighlife activity, and a bear pit where, obviously, you can find Bernese bears.

The Federal Palace

Bundeshaus, is the name of the building in Bern where the Swiss Federal Assembly and the Federal Council are housed. The building was designed by the architect Hans Wilhelm Auer, and its inauguration took place on 1 April 1902.
The two chambers where the National Council and the Council of States meet, are separated by the Hall of the Dome. This dome has an external height of 64 m, and an internal height of 33 m. The mosaic in the center represents the Federal coat of arms along with the Latin motto "Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno" (One for all, and all for one), surrounded by the coat of arms of the 22 cantons that existed in 1902. The coat of arms of the Canton of Jura, created in 1979, was placed outside of the mosaic.

Sent

Sent is a municipality in the lower Engadine Valley, in the swiss canton of Graubünden, and has aproximately 900 inhabitants. The base of the town´s economy is tourism, and you will find lots of winter sports and small inns to stay. Because of it´s size, it can be considered a very romantic town, and the citizens make sure that all the tourist that arrives feel just like home or even better.

A Clock Country

Switzerland is known for it´s highly quality in clock manufacturing, and one of the most typical clocks, are the Cuckoo Clocks. These clocks are valued for a number of reasons and features, like the outer worked wood case, usually made of beautiful dark wood with intricately carvings with folk and forest scenes. Every hour ( often the half-and quarter-hour as well), the lovely carved bird pops out of a door and sings the hour in a melodic "Cuckoo!Cuckoo!" call. He is usually introduced or followed by a parade of townspeople, forest creatures, or other animals that circle through another door and seem to celebrate living in their beautiful clock home.

The cuckoo clock may have been invented in about 1730 by Franz Anton Ketterer, a well-known Black Forest clockmaker from Schonwald. The cuckoo's sound was simply incorporated in the contemporary clocks of the day. Cuckoo clocks are made from the wood of the linden tree, which is a hardwood that grows in Europe. Some parts of the housing may also be made of walnut. Skilled wood workers purchase the linden and walnut woods in advance so the wood can be aged for two years. The clock manufacturers have developed their own styles of chalets and forest scenes for the clocks, as well as particular "casts of characters" for the cuckoo bird itself and the villagers or animals that may share "action scenes" with the cuckoo. New lines or styles of clocks won´t be found, since customers buy cuckoo clocks for their traditional style. Every Cuckoo Clock is a real piece of art, and I will even consider them a "landmark" of this beautiful country.