Austria
Austria, a small but beautiful central European country, boasts stunning cities like Vienna and Innsbruck and remarkable natural landscapes.
Small, fine, and exceptional. Switzerland might be underestimated, but it is at the top of the list of special countries in Europe.
The best way to show how small Switzerland actually is is to make a direct comparison: Sweden is about 10 times the size, Canada 243 times. Small indeed, but very expensive. Most people are aware of this, but before you travel there, you should be conscious of paying possibly 7-10 CHF for a coffee.
Okay small and expensive, one thing, but as I said, incredibly special. For example, the country has 4 official languages for 8.5 million inhabitants: These are (Swiss-) German, French, Italian and Romansh. The country is divided into 26 cantons, which are managed independently in many aspects. Strictly speaking, Switzerland has 26 independent police forces and 26 different school systems.
Another fun fact about Switzerland is that it is the only country in the world (besides the Vatican State) with a square flag. It is also governed by a direct democracy. Which means that all Swiss people vote on referendums 4 times a year.
Switzerland is known more for its nature than for its cities, but that does them an injustice. Due to the neutrality of Switzerland, they were largely spared from bombing during the world wars. So some cities are still characterized by their historic cityscape. The capital city: Bern, has an old city center from the 12. Century. It even has an UNESCO classification.
In addition, due to the country’s abundance of water, many cities are located on lakes or rivers.
Lucerne, for example, is built on 3 hills and two rivers. Or Zurich, the largest of the Swiss cities is located on a combination of lake and river.
70% percent of the country is mountains. Most of it is the alps, a smaller part the Jura Mountains. So on one hand, there are many mountains, and on the other, they are also high, with nearly 50 of them towering over 4000 meters. No wonder it has an incredibly beautiful mountain landscape. And where are mountains, there is also water. Switzerland is affectionately known as the water castle of Europe. Over 1500 Lakes and countless rivers and streams are the result of this.
To summarize: The nature in Switzerland is breathtaking and even though the country is not particularly large, you can always discover something new and you will certainly not get bored there.
In winter you can go skiing and experience snow dreams, in summer you can go hiking and swimming or explore the landscape by boat.
