Swizerland is the only nation I know to speak the languge of their three neigbours: german, french and italian. Their nationl language is schwitzerdutsch a sort of dialect which comes from german. This added to many other aspects makes of Swizerland a tiny but very cosmopolitan country.
During this century the fact of having many mountains, their personal courage and their stuborness kept them aside from the two wars and they could take and give advantage of this. They were the natural refuge of surrounding nations black capitals and even world money refuge. Their economic strenght lied in banking, watches and high tech research industries together with milk and chocolate derivatives. The banking supremacy and the watch one has been chalenged and has disminishd. But they are expanding outside their country worldwide with consumer industries like Nestlé.
Tourism is one of their main strenght and evidently they are by far the nation best prepared for winter sports. Gstaadt and its surroundings is the widest congagation of sky resorts we know but if you want a sportier ski you should go to Zermat from where you can ski over the mountain and the glacier (Testa Grigia in between) to Italy. Mürren has also good slopes and the longest run is at Davos (the parsenne 14kms?).
Switzerland is only some 300 kms east to west and you would think fast to cross. But it is so mountainuous that any trip from place to place is slow even if bird distance is short. To go from Geeva to the capital, Bern, by train used to take 8 hours. As soon as you have to take the road it usually becomes a long journey. The plane, which is fast, climbs and descends steeply from airport to airport. Harry Winston was making years ago a diamond exhibition at the Palace Hotel of Gstaadt; there was a prune size astonishing diamond (slightly above 100 carat). The Winston representative, who was asked about safety of the exhibition, told that it was one of the safest places as on the road there was no way out but a well watched road and through the air as soon as an unidentified flying object appeard the swiss aviation takes the air and asks who he is. No bad gand story possible here.
On top of it the swiss police is one of the best in the world. The police bribery scandals that appear in other countries are unthinkable here. The policeman is a friend of the neigborhood and usually knows each person in his section and remembers their lives. It is not done on purpose for rich millionaires to live in Switzerland but is a result of the small size of the neighborhoods and the fact that they share the same lifes and activities. These safety conditions makes switzerland an ideal place to present valuable collections of paintings or stones as insurance costs become lower because of the safe surroundings.
Zürich is the largest city of Switzerland with a population of .34m, Basel .17m, Geneva .17m, Lausanne .11m and the total population is 7.08m. The swiss cities are ancient and have beautifull parts. Berne was founded in year 1191. The many lakes of Switzerland some of which they share with their neighbours the Leman with France,the Bodensee with Austria y Alemania, and the Mayor and Lugano with Italy are lovely in summer and a touristic attraction.
Since prehistoric times this part of Europe was inhabited. In most lakes you can see the remains of pilotis (wooden supports of houses) from the stone age. Afterwards, Switzerland was under roman domination until the VIth century when the Barbars invaded it. From then on it belongued to the kingdom of Bourgogne and followed the back and forth dominations of that kingdom. In 1291 the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwald signed an agreement of interdefense which is the start of the Swiss Confederation of today. It seems that the previous story of the Grütly meeting and the actions of Guillaume Tell is a skandinavian legend even if the battle still persists.Inbetween it of course was invaded by Napoleon Bonaparte. Now Switzerland is formed by 22 cantons.
Switzerland is the home of two worldwide organizations. The Red Croos (1864) and the United Nations, both in Geneva. It has also been the birthplace of protestants currents (Calvin...). German is spoken by 65% of the population, french by 30% and italian by 5%.
