In the Land of the Holey Cheese

(Me with M&N somewhere nearer the top of the world on Mt. Rigi)

Snow capped mountains, lush green hills, chocolate and holey cheese are what make up the country known as Switzerland. Londoners find Switzerland incredibly dull and boring - I can understand why seeing that there's not much of a big city vibe to the place. (Note that the Swiss walk about 70% slower than most Londoners I know.) Nonetheless, I spent a glorious 8 days relaxing and enjoying having peace and quiet - a huge change from the constant blaring of sirens from police cars/fire brigade/paramedics. Having sunshine with temperatures around 28C helped as well. (Yes, after living 5 months in the UK, I've become one of those "quick let's strip" at any opportunity of sunshine. Well, maybe not quite.... :p~)

I found the Swiss to be incredibly friendly and helpful - chameleons in terms of their willingness to adapt to others and to importantly to converse with me in English!!! (The French are of course another story....) Note that even the bus drivers (universally notoriously grumpy) were all smiles wishing me a "happy holiday".

(The oldest bridge in Luzern)

Slightly off topic - why is Paris Hilton always conveniently visiting the same cities as me? When I was in NY, she was in NY. When I was in Paris, she was in Paris. When I was in Basel, she was... well, you get my drift. It's so irritating... It's like she's omnipresent or something. (Isn't this world big enough?! But now that she's going to jail, I suppose her country hopping will be curbed for a (very short) while.) Her last famous words in Basel were, "I love Zurich" (which is pretty much the same as visiting Melbourne and telling the Melbournians that "you love Sydney"). Dumb ass.

Switzerland is very high on the Big Mac Index - and is actually more expensive than London in many respects (even when travelling with the pound!). Examples:

	Switzerland	London
Burger @ McDonald’s	$7AUS	₤1.50
One hour train ride	$63 (Basel to Zurich)	₤3 (East to West London)
Trampy Lycra at a Supre store	$30	₤3
Starbucks chai latte	$7.50	₤2.55

(Thankfully the beautiful scenery is priceless. Aside from the train ride which cost $90 :p For everything else, there's always Master card - or so they tell me....)

(Gempen - at the start of my 7 hr hiking trip...)

What to do in Basel:
1) Drive to the "three countries' corner.

2) Take the free solar powered ferry to Germany (5 mins)

3) Walk across the bridge to France (another 5 minutes)

(Meanwhile my phone still insisted I was in France all the while.)

PS: A BIG thank you to N & M who showed me the Swiss life of white asparagus, Swiss cheese,

rösti and raclette. And for answering all my unanswerable questions such as, "Why do all your sheep and cows wear bells?" (Possible in Switzerland seeing that farmers seem to only have about seven sheep/cows in total. Heh, can you imagine farmers putting bells on all their sheep/cattle? Not only would they go deaf (from all the clanging,) but they would probably go bankrupt from buying all those bells!)

PPS: In case people are confused, my main destination was Basel, but I did also go to Luzern, Zurich, Freiberg (Germany) and some part of France (the part that is closest to Basel).