Swiss Driving Tour #6

My favorite book these days is "The Best Drives in Switzerland". We had clear blue sky and temperatures in the mid-60s to enjoy our 8 city tour in the French-speaking part of Switzerland: Riggisberg, Schwarzsee (the lake was actually frozen, but sadly no one was playing hockey), Fribourg (an old town with lots of charm and great views) , Bulle, Romont, Payerne, Avenches (home of the largest Roman amphitheater in Switzerland) and our favorite Murten, the best-preserved example of a fortified medieval Swiss village - check out the battle panorama. Thanks to the great weather and perfect location, we were able to see the Alps in all their snow-covered beauty almost the entire day. See our pictures of Fribourg, Murten and what it looks like in other parts of Switzerland here.

Neuf-Brisach (FR) and Breisach (D)

We stumbled onto a great french web-site that had photos of city fortresses and discovered Neuf-Brisach. Only 45 minutes from Basel, it was a great find. We got a map from the tourist office that guided us through the history and high-lights of the construction and military reasoning of the ramparts (defensive wall) and other defensive features. Just across the Rhine is her German sister-city: Breisach. It also has a interesting history and a great walking tour, but sadly 85% of the city was destroyed in 1945 so most of it has been rebuilt. See our photos from both the French and German sides of the Rhine.

Dusseldorf and the 1/2 Timber Roads

Dusseldorf is just 25 miles north of Cologne so we deicided to take a short side trip to take a look. Unfortunately, we didn't research the city before we got there so we didn't have a specific destination. However, we did take a nice stroll around the altstadt (old city) and enjoyed the view along the Rhine River. Afterwards we decided to take in a few towns on one of Germany's many framework roads: Dillenburg, Herborn and Wetzlar. Since most of the large, famous cities in Germany were destroyed during the war they do not have original old-style structures like some of these smaller towns - they are a delight to visit. See the pictures of Dusseldorf here, and 1/2 timber towns here.

Koln (Cologne), Germany

Cologne is famous for three things: its church, the fragrance made famous there, and its beer. Let's take them one at a time: 1) the Cologne Cathedral is considered one of the best known architectural monuments in Germany, it was the world's tallest building for 4 years (1880-1884) and has 580 steps to get to the top. 2) aue du cologne was invented by Johann Maria Farina in the 1700s and was named after the city it was invented in - Farina is considered the oldest fragrance company in the world! 3) Cologne has more breweries than any other city in Germany, but they only brew one type of beer: Kolsch. This beer is served in 0.2dl glasses and is usually served from a tap. We visited 4 of the 20+ breweries in the city: Fruh, Gaffel, Pfaffen and Sion. Cologne was actually founded by the Romans in 50AD and also has interesting WWII history. Take a look at the pictures here!

Fasnacht 2008

Good times at the Basel "Fasnacht" (Carnival). This year we decided to attend the Morgenstreich at 4am on Monday to get started (see videos). Yes, a bit early, but well worth it. In the afternoon, we attended another parade so we could enjoy the music and costumes of the participants. The carnival atmosphere is everywhere in the city. Confetti, drums, flutes, costumes, parades, and floats just to name a few. Lasting from 4am Monday until 4am Thursday, it’s a huge party, and considered to be one of the best carnival celebrations in Europe. See all of our Fasnacht pictures from the last three years here.

Parade of Fire

On Sunday night we attended Cheinbäse (a Fasnacht tradition of bonfires dating back to the 16th century) in Liestal Switzerland - just 10 miles from Basel. Since 1869 people have been carrying burning bundles of pinewood in a parade and in more recent decades they have started carrying bonfire carts with flames up to 5 stories high. Amazingly, the flames were only feet away from the people and surrounding buildings and lasted for 1 1/2 hours. We enjoyed this bazaar activity along with thousands of other spectators and an army of fire fighters. Check out the videos and pictures to see how crazy this event really is.

Cradle of the Confederation

We have a terrific book of Swiss driving tours, and this week we took Tour 12: Cradle of the Confederation. We visited 5 cities: Burglen, Brunnen, Schwyz, Einsiedeln and Rapperswil. Burglen is the birthplace of William Tell (all these years I thought it was just a fairy tale). They recreate ol' Bill shooting the apple off of his son's head every summer for bus loads of tourists! Brunnen has some terrific scenery - it's located at the junction of two lakes and has dramatic snow-covered mountains in every direction. Schwyz is the birthplace of Switzerland and holds the official documents that brought three cantons together to form an alliance in 1291. Einsiedeln is the birthplace of Paracelsus and the location of a famous Benedictine Abbey - one of the most important baroque buildings in Europe! Rapperswil is on Lake Zurich and has a terrific castle housing a Polish museum and beautiful old city streets. We snaked our way through at least a dozen tunnels and each time we emerged it was a surprise of either grey fog or bright sunshine and clear blue skies. See the pictures - Burglen, Brunnen, Schwyz, Einsiedeln and Rapperswil.