A Humorous Guide to Switzerland

We have a saying that goes 'April, April, macht was er will' which basically means 'April, April, does how he pleases'. This popular saying pretty much summarizes the sudden changes in weather conditions in Switzerland that can take place in April . Indeed, April has had its moods also this year. It's the Easter weekend and most everyone hoped for good weather. These hopes were not unjustified since this spring has been amazingly sunny with record hours of sunshine in March. However, the Easter weekend had its own mind. Instead of sun and warmth we got rain, fog, clouds and SNOW. Snow covered rose - Sabine Ullmann  / pixelio.de The Ice Saints As a rule of thumb snow and frost in most parts of Switzerland are possible till the end of April or beginning of May. The so-called Ice Saints or Frost Saints ('Eisheiligen' in German) are five saints days in the middle of May that - according to popular belief and tradition - have an increased likelihood of...

Every year on April Fools Day, people in Switzerland play pranks on each other. We did this as children and still do it as adults. Also, most Swiss newspapers, radio stations and TV stations allow themselves a little April Fools prank. Much like the famous broadcast about spaghetti growing on trees in Switzerland and Italy  by BBC in 1957, the Swiss insert little made up news stories every on April 1st into their regular programs. When Fake News is to be expected In the last years those fake news stories included e.g. a story about the canton of Appenzell distributing money to its citizens, one about communities in the canton of Thurgau suing the Circus Knie for not giving more performances in their canton, and a story about a chapel wagon for prayer that was added to each train of the Rhätische Bahn. Swiss Radio DRS let their listeners vote on the best pranks of the year. An April Fools Day Riddle Now, I know I am not a newspaper and I cannot as easily hide an untruth in...

Spring has finally arrived in Switzerland . The last few days have been warm and sunny and nature has quickly reacted to the change in weather. In spring time , the leaves on trees are springing and early flowers blooming. On a stroll around town I stumbled upon some of the most common Swiss spring flowers and captured them with my camera. Enjoy! "Primel" aka Primroses "Blaue Krokus" aka Blue Crocus "Gelbe Krokus" aka Yellow Crocus "Gänseblümchen" aka Daisy © 2012 IRENE WYRSCH "A HUMOROUS GUIDE TO SWITZERLAND" ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Zurich by Antje Warmbrunn  / pixelio.de We did it! Zurich was ranked #2 of world's most livable cities by a  Travelers Digest  article in 2012. The website has gone inactive in 2015 but a more recent survey, the 2018  Mercer Quality of Living Survey  confirms this good ranking. Not surprisingly, the high quality of life and safety of Zurich were responsible for this appraisal of Switzerland's largest city. What made me laugh was the short remark at the beginning of the entry about Zurich: " Especially great for bankers who are addicted to chocolate "! If you actually consider visiting or moving to Zurich, you should not forget that Zurich is also world's most expensive city  but Switzerland generally provides above-average salaries! © 2012 IRENE WYRSCH "A HUMOROUS GUIDE TO SWITZERLAND" ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Coffee break - birgitH  / pixelio.de If you hear the term ' coffee nation ' you probably think of Colombia, Brazil or Ethiopia. Yet, it was none of these countries that was at the center of a report about worlds coffee trade and consumption  published by a Swiss television station. Instead, the involvement of Switzerland in coffee trade all over the world was highlighted. Remember, Switzerland is not even close to growing coffee beans, the climate is simply not warm enough. Yet, three quarter of worlds trade with coffee beans takes place in Switzerland. All the coffee beans exported from Switzerland value more than all chocolate and cheese exported from Switzerland together. If there's so much coffee coming through Switzerland you probably expect the Swiss to be a coffee drinking nation. And you are right. An average Swiss drinks 9kg of coffee a year! Only the Finnish and the Norwegians drink more coffee. I imagined that Swiss coffee consumption would go down...

No Thieves in Switzerland - Dieter Schütz  / pixelio.de Switzerland recently has had the honors to be included in the top 10 of world's safest travel destinations by Travelers Digest (the site has gone inactive in 2015) . Although it is definitely nice living in a safe country where street crime is almost non-existent, I was a bit bummed that Switzerland didn't make any of the more attractive top 10 lists. I mean who wouldn't want his country to feature one of the Top 10 Adventures for Thrill Seekers Top 10 Best Airports of the world Top 10 Best Cities to Live In Top 10 Best City Skylines Top 10 Best Places to Watch Sunsets Top 10 Best Wildlife Viewing Top 10 Countries with the Most Beautiful Women The alps, great paragliding locations, bobsledding, snowboarding or river rafting in Switzerland are not considered thrilling enough I guess. I would claim though that Zurich Airport is one of the nicest and most organized airports in Europe. It's tough to...

As in most countries of the world, birthdays are important social events in Switzerland. Usually, there is a big or small get-together where the birthday boy or girl (or man or woman) is celebrated and receives gifts. Depending on the creativity of your friends and family birthday gifts can range from awesome and useful to strange but nice to definitely-heading-straight-to-the-trash-can. But what would birthday gifts be without a birthday card? A friend has a birthday coming up and I already have a great gift ready. The only thing missing is a matching birthday card . I browsed through the cards they sell at the major retail stores like Migros , Coop and Manor. Nothing exciting to be found there. True, there are some nice cards and some are even classy but they all lacked a personal note. Preprinted birthday wishes are not exactly what I had in mind. Thus, I decided to dust off my crafting skills and make a nice birthday card myself. Armed with paper, scissors, pencils, glu...