Diary of a European traveler ⑩ most beautiful city in Alps and Switzerland
Early next morning, we left Milan, Italy, where we lived (we only stayed one night and didn't even get a glimpse of Milan), for Schilthorn in Swiss Alps.
A car enters Switzerland. The scenery of Switzerland is what I like most along way. On both sides of car window, low mountains are visible, green or green with a yellowish tinge, top of mountain in distance is covered with snow-white snow, shining brightly in sun, and nearby mountain slope is surrounded by white clouds, a clear stream flows, and people from a small village live by stream. The houses are mostly beautiful wooden houses scattered or clustered. Sometimes stream accumulates into a large lake, lake is blue and half surrounded by mountains, and our car will pass by lake, looking at colorful wooden houses between lake and mountains, it's really beautiful, raise your hand and casually take a picture in car, it's a beautiful picture.
Switzerland is permanently neutral. Why is it a permanently neutral country? According to Wang Dao, due to frequent conflicts and wars between neighboring countries Italy, Germany and Austria, they were finally tired of fighting like this, so they agreed with each other, and each country allocated a piece of land for division. between several countries. The condition is that newly created country must maintain status of a permanently neutral country. This is how Switzerland was born.
However, I have checked history of Switzerland and there is no information that can support Director Wang's claim that several countries allocated land for founding of Switzerland. The current territory of Switzerland was inhabited by Celts as early as 1000 BC. It was occupied by Roman Empire in 15 AD and was ruled by Roman Empire for hundreds of years. During this period, Rome actively developed Switzerland, building roads, canals and founding cities such as Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne and Winterthur. As a result, Roman culture and Latin became widespread, and economy began to develop rapidly. In third century AD, Roman Empire fell into decline. In 259 AD, a group of Germanic Alemanni invaded central Switzerland. In 406, a group of Burgundians from an East Germanic tribe crossed Rhine River and settled in western Switzerland and Lower Valais, gradually forming a French-speaking area later. In seventh century, Alemanni, who lived in southern Germany, immigrated in large numbers to north and east of Switzerland, and later formed a German-speaking area. The Romans and some Romanized Germans settled in south and later formed an Italic-speaking area. That's why there are four languages in Switzerland. But at this time there is no country yet.
Subsequently, Switzerland was successively divided into Frankish Empire and German Empire in course of wars and turbulent changes in Europe. Later it was ruled by Habsburg family for a long time. On August 1, 1291, three cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden secretly united in fight against Habsburg dynasty, which was beginning of founding of Switzerland. The Swiss government later declared 1 August as Swiss National Day.
In 1798, Napoleon I invaded Switzerland and turned it into "Helvetian Republic". In 1803, Switzerland was restored to Confederation. After fall of Napoleonic Empire, victorious European powers met in Vienna from 1 October 1814 to 9 June 1815. At meeting, it was decided that in order to prevent return of France, Switzerland was created as a permanently neutral country. , as well as Austria, Germany, Italy and other countries of buffer zone. Since then, Switzerland has remained neutral in all international wars and its land has not been affected by war. Switzerland's permanent neutrality has given it a peaceful development environment and flexible diplomatic space, and it has grown into one of wealthiest and most powerful countries in Europe.
Because Switzerland is a neutral country, its bank is known as most reliable bank in world and it is safe to place money in it. For three centuries, Swiss banks have always adhered to principle of permanent secrecy for depositors, and it is impossible to check deposits of depositors. Therefore, many corrupt officials in world invest their money here. Thus, Switzerland is also a financial center. It is said that if Laozi dies, even his son will not be able to take Laozi's savings. At that time, a large number of Jews kept their money here. Subsequently, many Jews were killed (and in process of killing Jews, Switzerland also played an indirect role in helping them). As a result, Switzerland embezzled a large amount of money from Jews. To this day, Switzerland still uses Jewish money. Hehe, that's really profitable, isn't it like killing someone for money? No wonder Switzerland is so wealthy, which may be one of reasons why it is so wealthy. Of course, it is not so easy to save money here, and a considerable amount of money is needed to open an account here. Therefore, anyone who has deposits in Switzerland is a rich person.
Recently, I saw on news that they say that someone in Switzerland offered to distribute money to all people, and each person would be given more than 10,000 Swiss francs a month for free, which is equivalent to tens of thousands of yuan (this shows how much this country is rich. But some people objected, fearing that this would affect enthusiasm of Swiss.
While admiring picturesque landscapes along way, time flies very quickly. In no time we are next to Schilthorn in Alps, which we will visit.
Located in central and southern Europe, Alps are highest mountain range in Europe, spanning six countries including France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The Alps are arc-shaped, 1,200 kilometers long, 130-260 kilometers wide, with an average height of about 3,000 meters, and a total area of about 220,000 square kilometers. Among them, 128 peaks over 4000 m high. The highest peak is Mont Blanc, 4810.45 m high, located at junction of France and Italy.
Hundreds of Alpine peaks can be visited in Switzerland, among which most famous peak of Jungfrau is located at an altitude of more than 4000 meters above sea level. And Schilthorn, which we will visit, is located at an altitude of only 2970 meters above sea level. Since it is not highest, why swim it? It turned out that there is a famous revolving restaurant on mountain called 007 Restaurant. And here is filming location of film 007.
It's almost there. The car headed towards Schilthorn along a meandering valley. I saw very neatly trimmed green pasture lawns on both sides, and in middle of lawn stands a beautiful brown wooden house, just like a house in Venice with a waterway when you go out into environment. Going further inside, gradually, jungle appears on both sides, and leaves have not completely fallen off. The yellow, dark green and dark red leaves look saturated in color, like an oil painting. On side of road, you can sometimes see several beautiful wooden houses of various shapes, and windows are full of flowers and plants. Small red flowers hang from windows. Although it is late autumn, they carry breath of spring. Being in this exotic mountain village and wild valley, it seems that you have entered a fabulous fairy tale world.
After driving along valley for about ten minutes, we came to foot of Schilthorn, and saw at foot of mountain a large, even green pasture, and several rural families were scattered on pasture. A small stream flows through village into distance beyond the mountain.
We took a huge cable car (which can accommodate dozens of people) and went upstairs. A little further under my feet I saw a large area of firs, and green branches were covered with snow frost. The nearby hillside has a large area of neatly manicured green pastures, as well as a patchwork of beautiful log cabins. On walls of some wooden houses there are signs: HOTEL. It can be seen that not only are there many tourists on Schilthorn, but also many tourists on these slopes at bottom of valley.
The cable car continued to rise. Gradually green lawns and trees and houses disappeared. I saw a snowy peak just passing by, and another higher snowy peak was rushing towards us. One by one we crossed peaks. up . Underfoot lies a blanket of snow and mist.
Despite fact that this is not highest Alpine peak, we climbed to top of mountain on three cable cars, that is, in total we climbed to top on four cable cars. This is first time I have experienced this when I go up cable car and change three times. In addition, we spent a lot of time on cable car. This shows that mountain we climbed is high enough.
We finally made it to top. At a very dangerous point on top, there is a round restaurant which is famous revolving restaurant 007. It was time to eat and my husband and I went to restaurant for dinner. The restaurant is round and outside window is full of dining tables and chairs. We sat down and ordered some exotic dishes including beef pizza, french fries, soup etc and taste was very good. The restaurant rotates slowly and you can enjoy scenery in all directions as you sit on it. We ate while admiring snowy scene outside window and sky maybe three feet above ground, haha. I said so, but in fact sky from outside does not seem low, but wider, higher and more open. Gradually, small snowflakes floated across sky, and foggy clouds appeared outside window. But after a while, out of nowhere, a ray of golden sunlight appeared in sky, and it looked much brighter.
We went to an open-air observation deck outside restaurant. The platform was covered with a thick layer of snow, and whistling cold wind was somehow wild, and it was difficult for us to keep our eyes open. Looking around, snow-capped peaks on all sides are like worshiping objects under our feet, white, in a very empty field of vision, standing in a very dangerous place for them to see, I feel that these “objects” have some strange beauty. Ten thousand peaks are all things, but I alone stand straight. It really feels like it's too cold at altitude, not to mention being next to snow in Alps is really a bit cold. We hurriedly took some photos, but facial expression was a bit strange, haha.
To go down mountain, you need to transfer to cable car three more times. A very steep mountain at foot, there are no traces of people, there is no road. I suddenly admired: how our cable car, several transfer stations and a revolving restaurant on top of mountain were built in such a steep and high place? What a miracle these builders are!
We continued to photograph peaks under cable car. Seeing thousands of peaks and snowy valleys under steep cable car, constantly changing patterns under my feet, I couldn't help but sigh:
A thousand peaks of crystal clear snow,
Wanhe ice jade.
Landscape endlesslyhandsome,
Just parting!
Finally, coming to foot of mountain, green lawns and wooden houses returned to our field of vision. The scene seen now is looking down, which is different from looking up scene seen earlier. Looking down, you can see a few thin white streams running through village at bottom of valley, and a few wooden houses on low lawn, same feeling as sitting in an airplane, small.
After looking at Alps, our car drove for about 20 minutes through picturesque landscapes, and our eyes suddenly opened. I saw in front of me a very beautiful city, a piece of Swiss houses, a golden sun slanting on lawn, a red maple standing at entrance to city, and several clean rivers flowing through village. surrounded by mountains. This is famous city of Interlaken in Switzerland.
We hurried to entrance to city, while there was still sun, and took pictures on a large lawn. Two little cows happily eat green grass on lawn, and paraglider descends from sky to lawn, making place leisurely and clean like heaven.
After taking pictures on lawn, we went towards city center, there were many exotic streets, and we went along them. I saw shops on both sides of street. Most of them sell watches, and of course clothes, fruits, Swiss Army knives, supermarkets and so on. Some stores have signs that say: Our employees speak Chinese.
Don't think that this is just a small town, but it is very rich. Just talking about Swiss watches is what all countries of world, especially Chinese tourists, are in a hurry to buy, how much profit it can bring them!
As for Swiss watches, they are really famous all over world. This place in Switzerland can have a lot of water and fog, but air is very fresh and clean, no dust, so it is very suitable for making precision instruments. The clock is, of course, one of them. Clocks are said to have been brought to Geneva by French and Italian refugees in 16th century, and by end of 18th century there were 1,000 craftsmen and thousands of apprentices in Switzerland. Since watch production in Geneva in 1587, company has maintained a leading position in global watch industry for more than 400 years.
According to Director Wang, first watch (a type of watch) was made by Patek Philippe in 1868. It all started with a conversation between a jeweler and a guy who piloted a plane. The man who flew plane tied a pocket watch to his wrist for easy looking at watch, which immediately inspired him, so he made first watch. Later, watches became popular. By time of First World War. Watches worn by French and pocket watches worn by Germans. Therefore, command made by French army was 3 seconds faster than command by German army. Therefore, France won. As a result, Germans began to wear watches.
I have no confirmation of his claim.
The Swiss have truly taken watchmaking craftsmanship and technology to pinnacle. For example, on a small watch face, in addition to calendar, you can make another day, a month and tell you when watch starts and winds up. It can also be hollowed out and embellished with diamonds. According to director Wang, thinner watch, more expensive it is because craftsmanship is complex. Those with a perpetual calendar are more expensive because there is no need to adjust calendar, error is extremely small, and for 200 years there will be no error. And more signs, higher price. The other is a fully automatic mechanical watch worn on wrist that can convert energy of human body into mechanical energy so that watch can be automatic. There is also a clock that can ask three times, that is, how many hours, minutes and seconds, and listen to its sound. Some of them are waterproof, drop resistant and so on. And Patek Philippe, best watch in world, if it has all of above features, then price is about 10 to 20 million.
An ordinary watch can cost tens of millions at every turn. Most watches range in price from tens of thousands to more than 100,000 yuan. The reason why men are so eager to buy watches is that, in addition to keeping track of time, they serve as a display of personality, a store of value, and an investment. I feel that tourists in this city are mostly Chinese. When I sleepgrew up, they really were from mainland, and they crowded into watch shop to find out or buy watches. There are two groups from Shaanxi. To encourage employees, company allowed employees to travel abroad. It looks like we Chinese are really getting rich. He made a great contribution to development of this small town in Switzerland.
It's getting dark soon. We had dinner at a restaurant owned by a Chinese, and then went to rest in a hotel in city. Some of them were in a good mood and went shopping. I'm tired, so let's stop shopping and go to bed early.
