We never originally planned to hang out in Switzerland so I never looked at what the place was like. Now having been here for a week I can safely say that the place is crazy compared to New Zealand. All the houses look the same, mountains don’t faze them at all and trains go everywhere. They love to build tunnels, even when there isn’t a hill… work that one out. Lots of times we have entered a tunnel and I couldn't actually see the hill. I reckon that the guy designing the road got bored… or maybe there is a law that every new road must have so many?!? The longest tunnel I’ve been through so far is about seven kilometres – don’t worry though you are not missing much.
The Swiss also seem to like to build things to prove to themselves that they can. One example of pointless construction here is a train leaving from Interlaken (the town that we’re staying in) which climbs above 3500 meters. As you can imagine we are talking about steep terrain here so the second half of the route is... you guessed it ... a tunnel. However for all that effort it doesn’t go anywhere except to the top of a mountain and I don’t even think that there is anything up there (if you don’t count the view). I guess they felt like a challenge.
Farming is totally different here. The farms are super small (where we are at least) and I’m pretty sure that our farming practices would take these guys to the cleaners but good on them for trying. We can’t all be great at raising sheep.
One thing that is not in question is how beautiful the mountains are here. They are easily comparable with the Southern Alps, not as jagged but still very steep and very cool.
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