Freiburg is the most beautiful medieval city you’ve never heard of In Switzerland. Does the name sound familiar? That’s because there are two cities of the same name in Germany. Perched high on a hill top, Freiburg (or Fribourg in French) features original urban fortifications surrounding the well-preserved old town. Read more…
Known in German as Biel and in French as Bienne, the city is truly bilingual. While Freiburg might advertise itself as being legally bilingual and give French preferred typefaces on signs, Biel treats both languages equally. When you walk into a store, you’re greeted by a “Grüesse” followed by a Read more…
It is quite expensive, but there is a reason to it…Saas Fee is a natural theme park. At 3,456 meters above sea level, the summit of Mittelallalin gives a “Christmas touch” to that winter magic. When you arrive, a well-organised ground crew of teenagers direct you to empty parking spots Read more…
Not very well known to the outside world, nor to Swiss people for that matter, Heiden is locate in the conservative canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Despite having just 4,000 inhabitants, it actually holds some significance to Swiss history. Henry Dunant, one of the founders of the ICRC spent the last Read more…
Traveling between Chur in Switzerland and Tirano in Italy, the 156km trip takes over 4 hours to complete. The reason why buses can run this route faster than the train is that the Bernina Express is the only train route to traverse over the alps and not under it. There Read more…
Most well known for its international role of hosting the World Economic Forum, Davos is also a ski destination and a retreat in the mountains. The rich come for holiday by helicopter, athletes use its slopes as training grounds for skiing, snowboarding, and bobsledding. It also has three museums, of Read more…
Heidi is perhaps the most famous piece of Swiss literature to non-Swiss people. Spyri’s take of a girl living with her grandfather, being sold to a rich family in Frankfurt, and then returning to the mountains due to homesickness has been turned into major motion pictures all around the world. Read more…
Known as “Sylvester Klausen” to High German speakers and “Sylvesterchlausen” to Swiss German speakers, the festival is unique to Appenzell and only happens twice a a year in winter in select villages of Switzerland. To celebrate Saint Sylvester’s day on December 31, volunteers in each participating village meet at 5am Read more…
Appenzell is a rather curious place in Switzerland. While the country was named after the canton of Schwyz in the centre of the country and its language is as diverse as birds in the trees, Appenzell feels to me as the most quintessentially Swiss region. Appenzell is located in the Read more…
It has been a few years since I gave an art museum its own post, but the Graubünden Art Museum in Chur is something special – I saw my first poo exhibition here. Poo aside, the museum consists of an older building and a newer cuboid building. The entrance in Read more…