Switzerland
Punch your ticket to heaven
Switzerland is an astonishing country with mountains towering over the skies and beautiful lakes, rivers, and forests. Some say the mountains reach the heaven and they are a wonderful place to be and explore. The pasture and valleys are full of amazing forests, beautiful lakes and river, and wondrous animals that roam freely and jauntily.
A place that reaches heaven
Climate
Switzerland, as you can see, has a fairly cold climate and if you plan on skiing here is very cold. It can also get warm during our summers. It is much like the climate in wisconsin but a little colder.
Pastetli
Pastetli is a Swiss Meat Pie. Sometimes it is made in a heart shape and can be filled with veal and mushroom filling inside of pastry.
Teigwaren
Teigwaren is a type of a noodle. Often times it can have many colors and is made with potatoes.
Zoph
Zoph is a braided bread. You can braid with either two or four pieces together. It is served most of the time on special occasions such as Sundays for breakfast.
Government of Switzerland
Type of government in Switzerland is a Federal Parlimentary Republic that is different than most countries because of direct representation. Didier Burkhalter is the President of the Federal Council. There are 26 cantons. The money or type of current is the Swiss Franc. Switzerland has a Gross domestic product (GDP0 of $632.2 Billion based on 2012 results.
Language of Switzerland
There are four languages spoken in Switzerland; German, French, Italian and Romansh. The first three have equal status for the country as the official language. The majority of Switzerland around its biggest city Zurich speak Swiss German. Five helpful phrases of Swiss German are; Good morning (guete morge), Thank you (Dangge), Pleased to meet you (Froit mi), Hello (Gruezi), Good bye (Uf Widerluege).
Transportation of Switzerland
Switzerland is located in the center of Europe and can be easily reached by its international airport in Zurich. In addition to cars many people will take the train across the country. For instance to go from Zurich to Geneva it is 173 miles, from Zurich to Basel is 53 miles, from Zurich to Lucerne is 32 miles and from Zurich to Bern its capital city is 77 miles. You can see that the country is not that big and you can drive through it very quickly. The whole country is slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey.
Major Cities of Switzerland
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and is closer to the German side. The extended areas is about 1.8 million people and 360,000 live in the city. The next city on the French side is Geneva and it is by Lake Geneva which is the largest lake. They speak French there. About 185,000 people live there. In Basel Switzerland it is north in the country and has about 195,000 people which makes it third largest. Bern is the fifth largest city with 137,000 people and they speak Swiss German there. Lucerne is a beautiful city that is in the Swiss Alps near Mount Pilatus and has 76,000 people that live there.