The Unexpected Switzerland

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What first pops into your mind when you think about Switzerland? 

You may think of skiing in the Alps, followed by some hot cheese fondue. Maybe you first thing is chocolate, cows and Heidi running down a green meadow. People carrying army knifes with any possible application (yes, there are gourmet army knifes just to cut food and open wine and beer bottles, in case you were wondering!). Or maybe what you think of is luxury - expensive watches and lots of private bank accounts. And bankers, obviously - lot's and lot's of bankers. 

Well, I'm not going to write about what you already know. There's so much more to Switzerland than the cheese, army knifes and watches! 

The Lakes

A View from Lausanne on Lac Leman (unofficially known as "Lake Geneva")

Switzerland encompasses a huge diversity of landscapes on only little more than 41,200 km2, ranging from 195 m to 4,634m above sea level. No wonder that, besides for having some of the greatest mountain scenery Worldwide it also houses a surprising amount of lakes. There are more than 1,500 lakes spread across the country, although only 16 of them are larger than 10 km2 (being Lac Léman the largest one).  

Wherever you are, you will surely not be far from a lake. During summer, Switzerland's lakes are flooded with sailing boats that go out to enjoy the late afternoon and watch the sunset on the quiet water. When I first moved here, I wondered why someone would own a boat in Switzerland when you couldn't get anywhere with it. But now I've learned that for the swiss it's not about going somewhere, but about enjoying quality of life - which includes drinking wine on a sailing boat watching the sun set behind the mountains. You can be sure that taking a sailing course this summer is on my bucket list... 

No wonder that Allinghi, Switzerland's yacht racing team, is the two-time winner of the America's Cup, the most prestigious trophy in sailing! 

The Wines

Lavaux Region and its Vineyards kissed by the afternoon sun 

When thinking about Switzerland, very few minds (if any) will picture a country of wine. Lying in the shadow of its neighbors, France and Italy, swiss wine is almost inexistent outside of the country. Although annual production can reach 150 million bottles, only about 2/100 are exported. Putting this into perspective: with a population of 7 million people, each person would consume 21 bottles of swiss wine per year. This turns Switzerland one of the top wine consuming countries Worldwide!

The country houses around 20,000 winegrowers many of which have small productions that serve personal use. It's not rare to meet people who own a little vineyard in the back of their house, specially in Canton Vaud. 

Switzerland may have several wine growing areas, but my favorite one is Lavaux Vineyards  which besides from producing high quality white wine, it offers one of the greatest views of Lac Léman and the Alps. 

The Cheese

A whole variety of cheese

Ok, cheese might be nothing new to you about Switzerland. But when you google swiss cheese, you get more than 3 million imagines, out of which most of them are of the cheese with the holes in it. Yes, that's a swiss cheese. It's called Emmentaler. But this is only one of the more than 450 varieties of cheese this country has to offer!

Other swiss cheese you may have come across in supermarkets worldwide are Raclette cheese, Gruyère and Appenzeller. Most of the cheese is made out of cow milk, but you can also find it made of goat milk or sheep milk. Every region has its own local cheese. One of my favorites from the canton Vaud is Tomme Fleurette, which is made out of raw milk (a real speciality). Swiss cheese range all prices imaginable and can be filled or topped with fine herbs, mushroom mousse, pepper, or truffles (among many others). And believe me, the truffle one - delicious!

Did you know about these facts on Switzerland?

Which were / are your preconceptions about Switzerland?

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