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LIVING IN SWITZERLAND

10 things you should do in Switzerland at least once

Switzerland is small but for the curious and adventurous people, there are plenty of opportunities to try something new and exciting. Here’s our list.

10 things you should do in Switzerland at least once
A fLake Geneva ferry transports passengers between Switzerland and France. Image by Loyloy Thal from Pixabay

Walk (carefully) the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the Alps

High above the village of Randa in canton Valais, hangs (though thankfully not by a thread) a 500-metre long foot bridge.

This ‘walkway in the sky’ is suspended at the height of 85 metres between Grächen and Zermatt, and offers spectacular views as far as your eyes can see.

It is open from May until October, but closes (for obvious reasons) during storms.

And oh yes, heed this advice from local authorities: “It is an advantage to not be afraid of heights for the crossing.”

‘Open cellars’

If you love wine, then you will enjoy visiting the traditional ‘caves ouvertes’ or ‘offene keller’, which take place across Switzerland’s wine-making regions throughout April and May.

For a set price (varying from region to region), you will get a chance to sip locally-produced wine, while also having a chance to visit the old, quaint villages where the vintners live and harvest their grapes.

Quaint villages of the Lava (Vaud) wine region. Image by Singha Bohrer (-Bender) from Pixabay

Climb the Matterhorn

This is clearly not for the faint-hearted, but if you enjoy mountaineering, climbing Switzerland’s most iconic mountain will be quite a feat and will surely impress all your social media followers.

If you are not a hard-core (read: very well trained) climber, choose the easiest route — Hörnli — that is on the Matterhorn’s northeast side.

But ‘easiest’ doesn’t mean you can just stroll up without breaking a sweat.

You need to be in excellent physical shape and be prepared for high-altitude conditions, such as very cold temperatures.

Chocolate workshop

If climbing the Matterhorn is not on your bucket list, but you still want to get the taste (literally and figuratively) of Switzerland, then learning to make chocolate could be just the ticket.

Luckily, the Cailler company, the manufacturers of the famous Swiss chocolate, runs workshops in its factory in the town of Broc, canton Fribourg.

There, you will learn how  to make your own chocolate and while you’re at it, sample quite a bit of it too.

Cheese workshop

If you are more of a ‘savoury’ than ‘sweet-tooth’ person, then you may prefer the art of cheese making.

No problem: Zurich has a workshop where, “under the guidance of the master cheesemaker, the participants produce their own ‘Mutschli’ cheese, which are then left to mature for two to three months under the supervision of the cheesemaker.” 
 

Say ‘cheese’: This could be you in a Swiss workshop. Image by Christoph Schütz from Pixabay

Attend Fasnacht

You have just missed it, but mark your calendars for next year, so you can attend Basel’s famous ‘Fasnacht’ carvnival.

While this is not the only carnival in Switzerland — many other cities and regions have one as well — Basel’s event is the largest of its kind in the country and is enshrined in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

Though the Swiss, including the residents of Basel, are typically well-behaved, during the three days of Fasnacht, they actually go wild!

READ ALSO: What you should know about Switzerland’s largest carnival

Learn wood carving

A school in the canton of Ticino offers wood sculpting courses for beginners, so chip away!

Working with a chisel and other appropriate tools, your sculptures will, literally, take shape.

As the school explains it, “the work can be figurative or abstract.”
 
In other words, let your imagination be your guide.
 
Take a ferry across one of Switzerland’s lakes
 
Switzerland has about1,500 lakes, many of which can be crossed by boat.
 
The two largest bodies of water, Lake Geneva and Lake Constance (Bodensee), have regular ferries that connect Switzerland with France (for Lake Geneva) as well as with Germany and Austria (for Constance).
 
The rides are not only relaxing, but also offer breathtaking views of the surrounding areas.

Stay at a funky hotel
 
If you are not a fan of conventional hotels, Switzerland also has some other lodging possibilities — ranging from castles to inns dug deep into the rocky mountain sides.

Sure, you can always stay at a ‘regular’ hotel, but then you will miss on what could be not only an extraordinary, but also a unique ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience.

This article will whet your appetite for these funky accommodations:
 
READ ALSO: 10 of Switzerland’s most unforgettable hotel experiences 
 
 Visit CERN
 
Stepping into The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) site in Geneva is a ‘must’ for anyone interested in the mysteries of the universe.
 
Visiting the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, which is the home of the famous Large Hadron Collider, is hands-down one of the coolest (though probably the nerdiest too) things you can do in Switzerland.

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LIVING IN SWITZERLAND

FACT OR FICTION: Does Switzerland really exist?

You may think, 'of course it does, I am sitting here right now'. But trying to convince doubters on social media that Switzerland is real may be a challenge.

FACT OR FICTION: Does Switzerland really exist?

We have already had the “Switzerland versus Sweden debate” and have proven that they are, in fact, two different countries.

We don’t know whether the same thing is happening over in Sweden, but here we have an online “community of people dedicated to proving that Switzerland does not exist”. 

And it is not just a handful of rogue individuals who have nothing better to do than bash the tiny (non-existent) nation.

Thousands of people have taken time to post “proof” on Reddit’s “Switzerland is Fake” thread that the Alpine country is just too good to be true; instead, the picturesque mountains, lakes, and castles have been “photoshopped” in what could be the largest conspiracy since the moon landing.

“They are putting AI generated fake cities in front of their fake mountains,” one person said, backing his claim by a photo.

Among other “fake” images of Switzerland is one showing a man “caught” spreading artificial snow on a miniature version of the Alps. 

And then, when an (allegedly) Swiss person tried to prove his existence, online doubters “unmasked” him as an impostor.

What certainly doesn’t help to dissuade this community, is a very real Swiss Miniature Park in Lugano, where the whole of Switzerland is displayed in a tiny version.

Is it all a scam? Photo: Swissminiatur media

It only feeds into the disbelivers’ arguments that everything about the country is fake.

‘Abolish Switzerland’

While the Reddit community’s insistence that Switzerland doesn’t exist is (hopefully) tongue-in-cheek, real attempts to “erase” the country from the world’s map have actually been made – some more successfully than others.

In 2009, the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi submitted a proposal to the United Nations to abolish Switzerland and divide it up along linguistic lines, giving parts of the country to Germany, France and Italy.

The motion was thrown out – officially because it violates the UN Charter, which states that no member country can threaten the existence of another – and unofficially, because the idea was, well, crazy.

But wait – there is more

In much more recent times, in March 2024, shortly before his trip to Europe, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken published a map that put Sweden where Switzerland should be – and Switzerland was nowhere to be found.

The error was quickly noticed and the relevant post deleted from social media – but not before users saw how the US had rendered Switzerland non-existent.

So does Switzerland really exist?

Unless and until proven otherwise by scientists (or Sweden), Switzerland is a real country – just take our word for it.

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