As we zoomed down the metro line, the puzzle unfolded with the first clue we were given: watch for the fox’s green paw print on the rail track. Later, during our half-day adventure chasing the “fox”, we had to figure out a series of other clues: a barometer showing a thieving alligator, a particular sewer […]
Lausanne’s Olympic Museum – a great family day out
In 1915, the Olympic headquarters moved from Paris to Lausanne, a peaceful stable place at a time when war was tearing Europe apart. It is still there today, on the shimmering shores of Lake Geneva. Today’s picturesquely set modern International Olympic Committee (IOC) building contains a fascinating Olympic museum, spread over three levels, packed with detailed […]
Spring weather set to bring heavy traffic over May’s long weekends
When sunshine combines with public holidays, Swiss roads grind to a crawl. May has three weekends extended by public holidays: Ascension (10 May), Pentecost (20 and 21 May) and Corpus Christi (31 May). All three are likely to bring freeway frustration. Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) warns drivers to expect delays on the A2, particularly […]
Some Swiss train fares to fall in June
This week, ch-direct, an association of public transport providers that sets ticket prices, announced there would be no ticket price rises in 2019. Instead the prices of some tickets will fall slightly on 1 June 2018. The price small cuts on standard fares in June relate to the shift from 8.0% to 7.7% VAT at […]
Going underground – Touring Switzerland’s oldest salt mine
There is a reason why the Swiss excel at digging tunnels: they have been doing it for a very long time. In 1680, tunnels were dug into the Vaud Alps near Bex to get at salt buried there more than 200 million years earlier. According to legend, a young shepherd noticed his goats preferred to […]
Chaplin’s World – enter the home and life of a comic genius
Film legend Charlie Chaplin spent 24 years living in the Manoir de Ban, a grand old mansion above Vevey in Switzerland. In 2016, his charming former home and grounds were cleverly and artfully transformed into Chaplin’s World and opened to the public. Wandering through the rooms of the mansion it is easy to imagine you’ve been […]
Geneva to Zurich for half the price of a Swiss train
Switzerland’s transport authority (OFT) recently gave Domo Swiss Express SA, a Zurich-based bus company, a green light to run three routes across Switzerland. The first will run from Zurich to Lugano, via Basel and Luzern, the second from St. Gallen to Geneva airport, via Zurich and Bienne, and the third from Chur to Sion, via […]
CERN tours – go on, expand your universe
Would you like to take a tour of the universe, and also get a glimpse of the smallest subatomic particles currently known to humankind? At CERN, the world’s largest scientific research complex, physicists and engineers from 80 countries send protons racing around a 27-km. race track at nearly the speed of light, then smash them […]
The Rhaetian Railway – probably Switzerland’s best train journey
Rounding another curve on the Bernina Express, sometimes we glimpse something – an ancient stone hut, a cliff naturally carved with a quizzical face, a shimmering snow-covered village – then wonder later if it was really there. Sitting comfortably in our train car with panoramic windows is a little like being on a slow-motion toboggan, […]
FILM: OTTO BLOOM – a man whose life runs in reverse
12 January 2018. THE DEATH AND LIFE OF OTTO BLOOM **** Australia has a fine culture of exceptional films. As in this fascinating tale of a dazed young man found by the police and brought to a clinic. His strange story – that of a man who goes through time in reverse, from the future […]
