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South-West Travel Blogs

Background: The Swiss Confederation was founded in 1291 as a defensive alliance among three cantons. In succeeding years, other localities joined the original three. The Swiss Confederation secured its independence from the Holy Roman Empire in 1499. Switzerland's sovreignty and neutrality have long been honored by the major European powers, and the country was not involved in either of the two World Wars. The political and economic integration of Europe over the past half century, as well as Switzerland's role in many UN and international organizations, has strengthened Switzerland's ties with its neighbors. However, the country did not officially become a UN member until 2002. Switzerland remains active in many UN and international organizations, but retains a strong commitment to neutrality.

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By HatCat
December 14th 2009

Ballenberg sequel Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Interlaken

Greenhouse/studio

As we've seen, I found the spring hatmaking course at Ballenberg to be superb. This summer, at home in western New York State, I located a farmer who was growing an ideal stand of winter rye. In mid July, before the seed heads filled, I got permission to harvest enough straw to stock my greenhouse/studio for hatmaking over winter. The greenhouse lends itself well to plaiting, as I've configured it on a heated concrete slab, which I poured a few years ago. I'm able to heat the slab with hot water from our wood boiler in the old milkhouse next to [View Full Entry]

By KHALEH NAZ
November 16th 2009

SWITZERLAND-GENEVA-1112 THRU 1115 Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Geneva

Photo 2

The TGV train ride from Gare De Lyon of Paris to Geneva is a beautiful one...It goes thru fields, forests, lakes, and mountains...It was a smooth and pleasurable ride... I arrived in Geneva at 2:30 pm and met my cousin S at the Station...She took me to the UN headquarters where I took a tour of the Palace of Nations...It was a very interesting and informative one hour tour... Geneva is a beautiful small city with a very international crowd...It is geographically well situated, surrounded by the Alps and Jura mountain ranges (with a view of the Mont Blanc peak), adjacent [View Full Entry]

By gigga
November 14th 2009

Test itrag Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Sion

ändli is äsowit und ich cha minä erschtusch itrag machu! z judihui!!! dasch wirkli genial, ich hoffu jetz d lit chännä miär nachär comments schribu, susch bringt mär dä där blog nit gad äso selli vill. äbu ha jetz fasch z ganz material afa värchu, eifach d rächnigä und äso. z visum fehlt mär nu, abär hoffu öi das klappä nu irgend äswänn. hoffu scho dass alls güät chunt. will jaaa dä is eifach z ga alls wännt nit sichär bisch, ob alls in ornig isch. hittu gani übrigens ämabu uf agaru, wird mis einzig mal si wani cha fasnachtu ärläbu [View Full Entry]

By BronMacey
October 23rd 2009

Swiss Vendange Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Lake Geneva

Not a bad place to be picking grapes!

A little background for how I ended up in Switzerland picking grapes: One sunny afternoon at CanDo4Kids back in Adelaide my CEO, Paul, asked me where I’d be at the end of September. To my reply of “floating around somewhere in Europe” he said “How would you like to do some paid work in one of the most beautiful places in the world?” As it turns out Paul’s partner’s sister and her Swiss husband manage a winery out of St Saphorin (not far from Vevey) on Lake Geneva. A couple of emails later it was all teed up for the last [View Full Entry]

By Beebe
October 21st 2009

I Get to Speak French for a Few Hours Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Geneva

Lake Maggiore

Day One Geneva to Milan But now we're in Italy....and I can't yet speak Italian...frustration again! We started this trip with a late taxi, but that has been the only problem...and we still got to the airport in plenty of time...Everyone we dealt with has been extra nice from the United ticket agent to the train conductors. We've had no one bother us or ask us for anything! Not even one taxi driver has approached us! We were able to travel in business class from DC to Geneva, so that was quite wonderful...the seats moved to a completely flat position for [View Full Entry]

By Dylan 1991
October 15th 2009

Klein Matterhorn Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Zermatt

Managed a solid six hours of boarding which is a good effort considering the size of the mountains.. Hard on the old legs. Had a go on the half pipe and im pretty sure i have a brocken arm and maybe a few brocken ribs..nah abit of r&r and it should be sweet! Also played the "how many asian tourists you can spray when they fall over game" lucky for me a whole Asian tour group was on the mountain got a personal best of fifteen!..ummm its time for me to make like a tree, Switzerland is way too expensive, because [View Full Entry]

By Dylan 1991
October 14th 2009

The Matterhorn, Switzerland Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Zermatt

The Matterhorn is still closed. The wind isnt as strong as yesterday but the temperature at the peak is minus fifteen degrees. Instead of going to Interlaken I am going to stay here until I am able to snowboard this stupid mountain. The train to Interlaken is a budget crunching 80Franks so its probably a good idea i dont go. I also found out that with Eurail, one country isnt one day, you can go as far as you can in that date on any train service which is bloody good! i dont know what im going to do today. Just [View Full Entry]

By izazou82 gmail com
October 14th 2009

Quand les Allemands envahissent la Suisse Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Lake Geneva

Fondue

J'ai eu l'immense plaisir de recevoir ma bonne amie Antje, son copain Florian et sa soeur Lisa, directement venus de Bremen en Allemagne dans ma ville d'adoption pour 5 jours! Comme ils étaient trois et que j'habite un minuscule studio, je n'ai pas pu leur offrir le gîte, mais je leur avais réservé une chambre privée dans une auberge de jeunesse et je leur ai servi de guide pour la semaine. Antje est une amie que j'ai rencontré il y a quelques années déjà lors d'un séjour à Terre-Neuve, j'avais rencontré Lisa lors de mon passage à Berlin (le même été) [View Full Entry]

By Dylan 1991
October 13th 2009

Zermatt, Switzerland Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Zermatt

It was snowing really heavily in the village yesterday which was the coolest thing ever, i felt like a three year old kid when you first see snow. But today it has completely cleared up. The Matterhorn is closed because of the strong winds on the the peak, around 46kph. So because of the visibilty I went hiking with two other Australians (Matt and Andrew), also staying at the Matterhorn Hostel. We climbed to the top of Dufourspitze which is 4634 metres above sea level. It gave a 360 degree view of the Alps and the Matterhorn and across the boarder [View Full Entry]

By LSL09
October 11th 2009

Didn't plan to go to Switzerland, but hey! Whatever! Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Lausanne

From Shell: So while we are having a pretty long holiday..... we were very focused on only visiting Italy, France and Stephen* in Europe, so that we wouldn't spread ourselves too thinly. So imagine our surprise when we spent four hours viewing the most stunning Swiss country-side yesterday (albeit at 150kph!). It all started with our combined wish to travel via train from France to Italy and resulted in our Eurail pass consultant booking us from Lyon, France to Milan, Italy by way of Geneva, Switzerland. Maybe she had something against the Mont Blanc tunnel?? Anyway, the gods of trave [View Full Entry]

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