You Look Like you Need a Vacation...

The Swiss Alps

The Alps contain some of Switzerland's most dramatic landscapes, in a country that is already blessed with spectacular scenery and striking alpine vistas.  Situated at the heart of the Alps, Switzerland shares the mountain range with France, Italy and Austria and provides winter and summer-time enjoyment for skiers, snowboarders, hikers and climbers.  The Jungfra (German for "maiden") is one  of the main summits in the Alps.  Together with Eiger and Monch, form a prodigious wall overlooking the Bernise Oberland and is considered on of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps.  The North Face (of Eiger) towers 1,800 (m) above the valley, since 1935, at least 64 climbers have died while attempting to scale the north face, earning it the ominous nickname Mordwand (Death Wall).

Finsteraarhorn (4,274m) is the highest mountain in the Bernese Alps, however, the summit of this peak is far less frequented than those of the nearby Jungfrau and Eiger.  This is mainly due to it's  location in one of the most remote areas in  the Alps, completely surrounded by un-inhabited and inhospitable glacial valleys.

Lyskamm is a mountain in the Pennine Alps which has gained a nasty reputation leading to it's nickname Menschenfresser (man eater).  The mountain has gained this reputation because of it's many cornices (overhanging edge of snow) lying on the ridge and ubiquitous avalanches.  The traverse consists mostly of a narrow, snow-covered ridge, with some scrambling over rocks, in bad snow conditions (or visibility) the ridge can be extremely challenging worsened from the large (sometimes double) cornices.

Europe contains some of the world's largest vertical relief available to mountaineers, including lines that exceed the scale of Himalayan routes. Tödie in particular, can be generally consisdered one of the most difficult lines in the Alps, including an almost 10,000-foot descent.

Destination #8: Switzerland

Switzerland has a highly successful market economy based on international trade and banking. Its standards of living, worker productivity, quality of education, and health care are higher than any other European country.  Switzerland has a worldwide reputation for the high quality of its export manufactures, which include machinery, chemicals, watches, textiles, precision instruments, and diverse high-tech products. Synonymous with international banking, Zurich has a financial and cultural importance that belies its modest size. The largest city in Switzerland, Zurich promotes itself as 'Downtown Switzerland'. The historic center is compact enough to be explored on foot.          

  

Zurich is located on Switzerland's central plain, with the elevation rising towards the south and the Alps. Positioned at the northern tip of the Zürichsee (Lake Zurich), the city's fine lakeside promenades and expensive houses are prominent and can be spotted along both shores.

Zurich's most familiar sights are, without a doubt, the Fraumünster and Grossmünster churches, which solemnly face each other across the River Limmat. The Old Town spans this river, and some of the most interesting lanes and buildings are clustered along its banks. Ultimately However, tourists are primaroly drawn to Switzerland's Alpine climate and landscapes, in particular for skiing and mountaineering.

With it's spectacular scenery a popular trip is along the Glacier Express, while not exactly an express train in the sense of a high-speed train, but rather in that it provides a one-seat ride for a long duration of travel (Fun Fact...it has the distiction of being the slowest express train in the world.

The overall beauty of the scenery, and the world-class facilities offered to travallers by the general extensions of mountain railways, make the northern side of the Swiss Alps, the Bernese Oberland, one of the portions of the Alps most visited by tourists and experienced mountaineers.