A return to Switzerland – land of mountains, museums and moos! COMPLETED 12/4 About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Beautiful sunrise, even if you didn't really want to be up to see it! Yikes to that shot of the road ahead on your GPS. Looks like a child's drawing of a road!

I hadn't thought of that comparison, but now you say it, it does!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Well, if you're going to be up that early, you may as well grab the camera.
I don't think I'd like to be on one of those buses! I'm sure the drivers are well trained and all, but I'd rather be in my own car. Yikes!

Me too!

[Cam22]

Beautiful how the sun fills up the valley! Lichtenstein is tiny as our whole county is larger and more populated. We have around 60,000 who live in Owensboro without counting all of us who live outside the city limits.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

Beautiful how the sun fills up the valley! Lichtenstein is tiny as our whole county is larger and more populated. We have around 60,000 who live in Owensboro without counting all of us who live outside the city limits.

Wow, that really does put it in perspective!

[chezp]

Friday 6 September – part two: cows, lakes and football…

This sign shows how small Liechtenstein is – the A is for Austria and the CH is for Switzerland…



Then we were into Vaduz, which isn’t exactly what you’d call big.



On the way out, we found these guys – now I have Liechtenstein cows to add to my ever growing list!



We then found the national football stadium, which had quite a big car park.



However, when we thought about it, it made sense, as the national team does compete in the qualifying rounds for the European Cup and World Cup in football, and theoretically, they can draw anyone else in Europe in those rounds, so Germany, France or even the UK could have to come here. Actually, we think that the UK recently did… Note: we checked this when we got home, and sure enough we did play Liechtenstein in the Euro 2004 qualifiers

Then we were back over the border and into Switzerland…



… where of course we found a few cows …



… and lots more stunning scenery, as we’ve come to expect from the country.



We stopped at a parking lot, so we could get some photos of Wallensee, a slender lake (well, by Swiss standards anyway ) that’s a mile wide at its widest point and nine miles long. To the north is the Churfirsten massif, while to the south, are the Glarner Alps.



Then it was back on the road again.



Soon we were entering Zurich…



We found our way to some parking near the national museum, and walked back to it along the banks of the River Limmat.



Here we found a heron:



Next: trying to understand that in German was highly entertaining!

[Colexis Mom]

More great pictures from your drive!

[disney_duke]

Yay, more cows! Beautiful panoramic shot of the lake. I really should take the time to do that with my camera because they really capture so much more of the scene.

[Cam22]

How lucky to sight so many cows on the drive, and then all that beautiful scenery again, too.

[lauriep]

You could probably do a "Cows of the World" calendar!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Yay, more cows! Beautiful panoramic shot of the lake. I really should take the time to do that with my camera because they really capture so much more of the scene.

I don't use the panoramic function that often, but I find the same as you - they do capture so much more.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by lauriep

You could probably do a "Cows of the World" calendar!

I certainly could!

[KMB733]

It is so funny that even in a country as small as Liechtenstein, you still manage to spot a few cows! More great pictures!!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by KMB733

It is so funny that even in a country as small as Liechtenstein, you still manage to spot a few cows! More great pictures!!

I can spot cows just about anywhere...

[chezp]

Friday 6 September – part three: trying to understand that in German was highly entertaining!

The Swiss National Museum is housed in an impressive building, which was built by Gustav Gull in 1898 in the style of the French Renaissance chateaux.



We headed inside, and after getting our tickets, I used the restrooms, and very impressed with the baby changing facilities they had here.


Donkey boy!

We headed upstairs, where Mark got told to leave his rucksack in the lockers. Trust me, trying to understand that in German first was highly entertaining…

The first room shows you the ancient history of Switzerland, all the way back to the Bronze Age. The first settlement in the Bronze Age in the country we know today was actually on the site of Basel Cathedral, where we were last Sunday. It’s interesting how things tend to go in full circles on vacation.



I never realised that it was once part of the Roman empire, so I learnt something straightaway. It was also fascinating to learn about immigration and emigration, and how they put a halt on immigrants in their history.

The next part of the museum looked at religion, which I didn’t find that interesting, although these books from the 14th and 15th centuries fascinated me. They didn’t look anywhere near that old.



This section also told you about how they dealt with witchcraft. As I’m sure you can imagine, it was quite gruesome, with the witches burnt at the stake as in other places around the world.

Then you started to look at the political history of Switzerland, and this was the bit I found the most interesting, learning how the various cantons came to be known as Switzerland.



First, you see this fascinating exhibit, highlighting the battle of Murten. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves here:



Unbelievable isn’t it?

From here, they moved on to discuss how the cantons first came into being, and I was surprised how similar the map of today’s Switzerland looks to the maps from 500-600 years ago.



A lot of the focus here was on the alliances that Switzerland has made during the years, and rightly so, because we learnt that, despite the Swiss being neutral, those alliances have had a huge impact on the country. The first impact was the alliance with the French. The Congress of Vienna was all about removing the French influence from Switzerland following Napoleon’s defeat. I was fascinated by the fact that we’d seen some of the chairs used at that congress meeting in Castle Coole on our visit to Northern Ireland just a week or so earlier. See what I mean about things coming full circle?



Then you moved on to learn how Swiss democracy works today, and trust me, it’s a good system, although my goodness to ensure that they are truly democratic, it is a bit complicated. I’ve learnt about the Swiss system in the past when I was doing my politics degree, and I was fascinated by it then. I’m still fascinated by it today. I see a lot of good points to it, and can’t see why other democracies don’t follow suit. To a certain extent, California has with its referendums, but no-one really gets as much say on issues as the Swiss do.



These were state gifts presented to the wife of the Federal President by Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. This again fascinated me, as I don’t think of state gifts being given to Switzerland, but when I thought about it, why the heck not?



One aspect of Swiss political life where they weren’t so forward thinking was women’s votes. It’s almost incomprehensible, but Swiss women didn’t get the vote at a national level until 1971. At a canton level, it took until 1990 and that followed a ruling by the Federal Court.

There was also a section here on the fictitious character William Tell, perhaps one of the best known Swiss people, even if he isn’t actually real.



Next: money, holidays, wars and crafts

[Colexis Mom]

What an interesting museum! Great pics!