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.