Welcome to another guest blogger. This time its the turn of Tina Hartas from the great blog site "Trip Fiction". She is showcasing the beautiful, mysterious country of Switzerland. Tina's blog hosts numerous books with a travel theme. If you, like me, loves travel and books, you'll love it.
Hello Tina and thanks for joining us :)
Hello Tina and thanks for joining us :)
SUMMER TRAVELS IN SWITZERLAND
Last Summer we based ourselves in the small resort town
of Leukerbad, Valais, just off the Rhone Valley, a couple of hours from Geneva
airport and situated at 1300M to over 2000M. We used this is our base to travel
around Switzerland, and it proved to be a real eye-opening and positive trip.
To start with, we were amazed by the glorious weather. We
discovered that many of the little places dotted around the country have their
own little micro-climates and have as many days annual sunshine as resorts
along the Mediterranean coast, which is really astounding. In fact, Leukerbad’s
tiny neighbouring village, Albinen, is the sunniest place in the whole of
Switzerland. Thus, in the Summer months it
can be wonderfully hot during the day, yet cool at night. It might still be
snowy on the peaks yet it is truly resplendent with lush meadows at lower
altitudes (absolute eye candy).
Leukerbad has year round thermal baths, and believe me,
there is nothing more delightful than lying in a bubbling pool, outside,
looking at beautiful scenery (of which, of course, there is lots!) and having
all the stresses and strains soothed away by hot swirling waters.
Thermal Baths at Leukerbad |
From Leukerbad we moseyed down into the valley and picked
up the Glacier Express which trundles over to St Moritz, and again, the scenery
is stunning, truly chocolate box, and truly Alpine.
During our meanderings across the country, mainly using
the Swiss Rail System, we never actually came across an actual Alphorn, but the
Swiss are clearly hugely proud of tradition: they use Alphorns and weathered old
men in Alpine gear (yes, Lederhosen and
Badger Brush hats and oftentimes sitting alongside huge truckles of cheese) in
many of the advertisements up and down the rail system. And the railways are,
of course, super efficient, (unless the train originates in Italy, and then it
can be a very different story, as the Swiss like to impress upon you!).
Leukerbad |
The Italian part of Switzerland is a dream, hot and palm
fringed in Lugano, or beautifully olde worlde. with Italianate style in
Locarno. Going north, there is Lucerne, with its old bridge, the Kapellbrücke (which incidentally is the most visited monument
in Switzerland, and is a delight, particularly when it is garlanded with
fragrant flowers and lit up at night); and Zurich, which is a low-key, world
city, with a fabulous art gallery and easy living along the lake and river (the
Bahnhofstrasse is the most expensive shopping street in the whole of Europe,
apparently).
The downside at the moment is, of course, that
Switzerland isn’t the cheapest location on the tourist trail. However, the
supermarkets are on a par with pricing in other European countries and the rail
system offers discounts to tourists, so a visit doesn’t have to break the bank.
And for our own trip-planning we found www.SwitzerlandTravelCentre.co.uk to
be really helpful with suggestions and booking.
As a really wonderful add-on to any destination - and of
course this is the raison d'être for TripFiction www.tripfiction.com
- we always take a couple of books that
enhance our trip (in addition to travel guides) that are set in and evocative
of location and these books can add a really new and interesting perspective on
the locale. This time we took an eclectic selection:
Swisswatching is a particularly great book to take with
you on a visit to Switzerland, the author has a wonderful style, and he really
introduces his readers to his adopted country, with historical, factual and
some very quirky and interesting insights (you will note, for example – as we
can attest – that a high proportion of women in this small land-locked country wear
red shoes…go figure. Is it patriotism to the Swiss red flag, an attempt to
escape from conformity, perhaps….? Many theories abound…)
Thank you Tina for a great blog post. I'm sure that will have tempted many to want to make the journey to this beautiful country.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking the time to leave a message and thanks for visiting my blog.