Tag Archives: Switzerland

Bellinzona and Lugano – Swiss “Italian” beauties : A Photo Blog

Tourism, Travel, ,

After finishing our trip to Locarno, we arrived in Bellinzona. This town is the capital of Ticino, the Italian canton(state) of Switzerland. This small little town of 18,000 people is pretty charming, with its tree lined streets and the city center.

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The church is in the city center and is surrounded by restaurants, open-air cafes and shops.

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The tree leaves were turning yellow and it was great fun walking through the city.

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The most famous tourist attractions in Bellinzona are the Castles. Three castles – Castelgrande, Montebello, Sasso Corbaro – dot the landscape of the town and are part of the UNESCO World Heritage list. We decided to visit one of the castles, the Castelgrande.  The picture below is taken from this placem, and includes the other two castles.  

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Below is a picture from inside the Castelgrande.

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We finished our trip here and set off for our final destination of the day- Lugano. The trip to Lugano from Bellinzona takes about 30 minutes.  Lugano is close to the Italian border(Milan is less than hour from Lugano) and is situated on the banks of Lake Lugano. (Trivia – a Lake is called “See” in German, “Lac” in French and “Lago” in Italian). It is surrounded by several mountains, that provide great views of the town, the lake and the alpine scenaries. Boating in the lake is a popular activity here.

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 The Lugano cathedral is one of the most most famous landmarks.

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The train station is on a hill and we walked downhill towards the lake. On the way, we got another view of the cathedral.

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As we arrived in the city Plaza, we could see that the place was bustling with activity.  The sight of people playing chess in the Plaza was quite interesting.

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The view of the lake was awesome, despite the fact that it was cloudy. We walked around the lake enjoying the sites and sounds.

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Soon after, we were tired of walking and found some place to sit and enjoy the lake views.

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After enjoying the views, we had dinner and the famous Italian Gelatos before heading back to our homes. A nice journey with some good moments.

Will be back soon with my next trave”b”logue 🙂

Heidi, Girl of the Alps

Popular Culture, Travel, , ,

Heidi is one of my favorite characters from cartoon movies(the other being “Tom & Jerry”).  I first watched the animation series ” Heidi, Girl fo the Alps” sometime in the year 2000(when it was played in the Cartoon Network in India). The series tells the story of a 5 year old Swiss girl who lives with her grandfather in the Alps after she loses her parents. The storyline, the mountain backdrop and some great work by the director made the series a very endearing one.  One of the things that I came to know after watching Heidi is that the cows in Switzerland have big bells tied around their necks and when they graze, they produce a sound similar to wind chimes. And during one of my recent trips, I experienced this myself.

Two days back,as my friends and I were planning  a weekend trip to Davos( where the annual World Economic Forum meets), I stumbled upon several interesting information related to Heidi.  According to the story, Heidi lived in a village called Maienfeld close to Davos and this is not a fictional place. In fact, the village of Maienfeld is a big tourist destination for families with kids, especially for Japanese tourists. The reason is not difficult to understand. The animation series ” Heidi, Girl of the Alps”  was created in Japan and became a big hit there. Subsequently it’s popularity spread all over the world.(For some reason, it did not become popular in the US).  The story of Heidi proves that there is no language or cultural barrier for a story well told. I am enclosing a video clip fromYoutube which shows the opening of the movie “Heidi” in several languages.

If you have seen Heidi before, this clip would have taken you on a trip down memory lane and if haven’t seen it, I highly recommend watching it.

Switzerland’s ‘Watch Valley’

Tourism, , ,

The first thing that comes to our mind when we talk about the Hi-tech industry in US is – “Silicon Valley”.  Switzerland has something similar:it has the “Watch Valley”. It is quite quite easy to understand why. Swiss watches are popular all over the world and the Swiss watch and clock industry is the country’s third largest exporter(after machine and chemical industries). Some of world’s top  watch  brands like Rolex,Tissot, Swatch, Omega and Rado (to name a few) are from Switzerland. Swiss watches come in different sizes and catering to different ec3008469318_22afae0001onomic groups, with watches as inexpensive as a few tens of francs to some costing several millions(with gold and precious stones in them).

According to the “Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry”, there are about 600 watch making companies in Switzerland(down from 1600 in 1970) with the average number of employees per company at about 70. Most of these  companies are located in the “Watch Valley”, the geographical region along the Jura mountains in the western region bordering France. This covers a distance of about 200 miles from Geneva to Basel and has mountains, valleys and 3 major lakes – Lake Bienne, Lake Neuchatel,Lake Leman.

One fascinating piece of history is that the Swiss watch industry has it’s origins in the Christian Protestant reformist movement. In the  16th century, John Calvin and Martin Luther broke from the Roman Catholic Church and formed the Protestant movements. Martin Luther was based in Germany whereas Calvin was based in Geneva,Switzerland. Calvin’s theological system was called Calvinism and he banned the wearing of Jewellery. This forced the goldsmiths and other jewellers of Geneva to turn to watchmaking. Slowly, this industry grew and expanded into the Jura mountain region to become what is now known as the “Watch Valley”.

In the 1970’s, the Swiss watch industry went through a crisis following the invention of the quartz technology. This crisis resulted in the reduction in the size of the industry, but it survived and came out stronger. The industry adopted newer technologies and is now the leading player in the global watch industry, with exports worth 17 billion CHF in 2008.

Switzerland Tourism has recognized the “Watch Valley” as an official destination and UNESCO has recognised two towns – Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds” as World Heritage sites. So, when you plan to visit Switzerland, check out the “Watch Valley” as well. And don’t forget to bring a French dictionary/translator with you(this is the French speaking part of Switzerland).

More information can be found below.

Watch Valley –   www.watchvalley.ch/e/home

Federation of Swiss Watch Industry – www.fhs.ch/en/

Image Credit : char1iej