House of travel Northern, Central & Eastern Europe Brochure 2017 | Page 20

Experience
Switzerland
T he cows and goats really do wear bells in Switzerland, you really can feast on
Fast Facts
Country Name: Switzerland
Population: 8 Million
Capital: Bern
Currency: Swiss Francs
Time Zone: 10 hours behind New Zealand
(except during daylight saving)
Electricity: Current is 220V, 50HZ
Plug is a 2 point round-pin adaptor
Festivals and Events 2017
16
02 Jan Harder Potschete, Bernese
Oberland
18-21 Jan Inferno Ski Race, Mürren
Apr Combat des Reines, Martigny
Jun Zürich Festival
30 Jun-15 Jul Montreux Jazz Festival
18-23 Jul Paleo Festival, Nyon
Aug Street Parade, Zürich
chocolate and fondue (or chocolate fondue!) and best of all if you’ve over-indulged
you can still reach the summit of a Swiss alp with no effort at all.
Switzerland is synonymous with mountains, and although you can get to the top
the hard way, part of the charm of this landlocked nation is to reach the summit by
other means. The world’s steepest cog railway will take you all the way to the peak
of Mt Pilatus, or watch awe-inspiring scenery slip by on a train journey between
Zermatt and St Moritz. In Zermatt board one of the highest cable car rides in Europe
and then an elevator trip to the summit of Little Matterhorn – on a clear day you can
see more than 40 peaks over 4000 metres high. Then there’s the Jungfrau Railway
in the spectacular Bernese Oberland and the incredible trip to the highest train
station in the world at 3454 metres – a journey of tunnels, glaciers and icy grottos.
Back closer to sea level, its cities too are distinctively different – lakeside Lucerne
has its iconic covered bridge; cosmopolitan Geneva has the United Nations in
residence; Zürich, famed for its bankers, is surprisingly trendy, and of course
where could be more fashionable than Montreux and St Moritz? Cheese lovers will
make a pilgrimage to Gruyère perhaps, but there are many other villages to explore
too, such as picture postcard perfect Appenzell and Andermatt, or Morcote on the
shores of Lake Lugano.