1) Switzerland is rich. #2 in GDP per capita. A country with population similar to North Carolina is the 2nd richest by some standards. Hmmm, sounds nice.
2) Excellent pay and low unemployment.
3) Nice watches. I mean, who doesn't like a nice watch.
4) Low taxes for the lower and middle classes. Make good money and don't lose it all. Sounds great.
5) 6 weeks of vacation at your job plus the good money. Work less, have more money, and have more vacation.
6) Swiss Army knives.
7) Excellent public transportation. About 20 percent of the people don't own cars. Zurich and Geneva are the biggest cities in Switzerland and are similar to Charlotte and Raleigh in size. If you don't have a car in North Carolina, it's probably not by choice.
8) No open container laws. Buy a cold beer at 7-Eleven and crack it open on the street.
9) Absolutely beautiful landscape. There might be individual spots that rival it, but Switzerland as a country is as beautiful as it gets. Grassy mountains, glaciers, huge lakes from the snow run-off, beautiful rolling hills, waterfalls everywhere, what more can you ask for?
10) Awesome hiking, great winter sports and a laid back culture.
It must the perfect place to travel, right? Well it pretty much is, but prepare to unleash your wallet if you want to travel here. A chicken restaurant in Lucerne. 2 plates of chicken with sides, an appetizer, two glasses of wine. 70 euros. Almost 80 dollars.... for chicken. A cable car ride up one side of Mount Pilatus (mountain outside of Lucerne) and then a train down the other side.... 2 people, 128 euros. 145 bucks! Ouch. Could you do it cheaper? Certainly. 3 hour hikes instead of cable cars, no drinking, no eating out, no gambling- come on man, where's the fun in that!
A time-line of our week in Switzerland.
Saturday Afternoon- Fly from Rome to Basel. Our flight was delayed about 4 hours because someone near the runway in Rome was burning something on their land and the smoke limited the visibility. "Come on, what really happened?" Seriously, someone stopped planes from taking off from the busiest airport in Italy because they were burning stuff on their land nearby.
Saturday Evening- Rental car from Basel Airport and a 2 hour drive to Lucerne. Basel is in Switzerland but on the border with France and within 5 minutes from Germany. We planned to drive straight to Lucerne (in Central Switzerland) but got turned around and ended up in France for a few minutes. Not everyday you accidentally end up in France.
Sunday- Awesome breakfast buffet, full walking day around Lucerne, expensive chicken dinner, and and an unsuccessful attempt at winning money from Lucerne's casino. Not only is it expensive to visit, but they also take your money.
Monday- Hiking around Mount Pilatus and expensive cable cars. Nonetheless, beautiful. We finished the night at a local burger and Kebab take-away place. We had arrived late on Saturday and went there, seeing as it was the only place open nearby. So good, in fact, that we came back on our last night. We got to talking to the guy who ran the place. He was from Syria, and he ended up leaving because of all the instability in the country. In his words, "I used to be a teacher in Syria, now I'm serving you guys kebabs." He was shaking his head but smiling just a little bit while saying it.
Tuesday- All day driving through the Swiss mountains and hitting some of the best passes in the country and plenty of waterfalls. We drove up Furka Pass where the chase scene from Goldfinger (James Bond) was filmed.
Wednesday- Aletsch Glacier, the largest glacier in Europe. We took a gondola from the parking area to the glacier to enjoy the views and hike in the mountains. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site and near the gondola station there was a UNESCO marked hiking trail on the map. I've been to a lot of World Heritage sites before but have never seen a specifically marked UNESCO trail. I don't know what this trail looks like, but this is a must do for me. It took me a little bit to convince Kaysee but she joined me.... for about 1/3 of the hike. In our next post, Kaysee will explain why this ended badly for her.
Thursday- 7 miles of hiking near Grindelwald. We drove to Lauterbrunnen that evening and took a cable car to the small town of Murren, where there are no cars. Lauterbrunnen sits in the bottom of a huge valley and Murren sits at the top, with great views no matter where you are.
Friday- A couple hour drive to Zurich to drop the car and then a train onward to Austria.
Most beautiful country ever!
ReplyDeletegreat photos!!! :)
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