| Aug 2, 2007 - Goodbye to Switzerland
| Today I say auf wiedersehen to Switzerland and my first attempt at guidebook research. I am at the train station in Basel waiting to catch a train to Colmar, France, where I will start the 2nd part of my trip. All in all, I have to say its been a pretty good experience, even if I did have a few obstacles thrown my way (mainly, having my laptop konk-out). I am pretty sure I will do it again, but I will wait and see until I have finished updating the book files. Its certainly not as glamorous as it sounds; its a LOT of work.
I feel like I got to see a lot of Switzerland and I really liked it. Its a wonderous land of creamy chocolate and stinky cheese, of friendly people and beautiful scenery where everything is clean, well-ordered and efficient. What`s not to like? Here is a brief list of my favorite and not so favorite things about this country:
Raves:
- chocolate (lots and lots of creamy, smooth chocolate, mmmm)
- Rosti (basically, Swiss hashbrowns served in a variety of ways, plain or with cheese, egg, or sausage)
- pastries (lots of different kinds and all so yummy)
- good coffee
- clean, clean, clean. Everything in this country is spick-and-span clean
- efficient and orderly (If a train is scheduled to leave at 10:06, it leaves exactly at 10:06. During the entire time I was here, only once was a train late by 5 min. and the locals were ready to riot. I found out later it was because a cow had broke through a fence and wandered onto the track.)
- an AMAZING transportation system (man, we could really learn something from the Swiss. I wish we could hire them to build our light rail system!)
- friendly people
- beautiful scenery (there are visual treats around every turn)
- hiking and skiing galore
- free or cheap bike rentals in most good sized towns
- good, clean drinking water (nearly every town has these old fountains all over the place, usually capped by a statue and covered in flowers. They say the water is more pure than bottled water)
Rants:
- expensive (almost everything here is expensive, I guess efficiency has a price)
- cigarettes (its Europe and a lot of people smoke. Its getting better, all trains and public transport are non-smoking and more and more hotels and restaurants are either smoke free or have non-smoking areas, but a lot of people smoke here)
- stinky cheese (man, this stuff really reeks. We`re talking dirty sweat sox left in a plastic bag for a few days stinky, and no, I am not over exaggerating)
- fondue and raclette, its stinkier cousin (I`ve seen and smelled more than my share of this crap. The locals love it but usually only eat it in the winter and at restaurants so the don`t stink up their homes)
ok, well that`s about it. Over all, a whole lotta good things about Switzerland. Its about time for me to go catch my train, so I`ll catch you later, tchus! |
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