Language in Switzerland is interesting. As I mentioned in my previous post, there are four official languages which include German; however, the German spoken in Lucerne is “Swiss German,” which is an Alemannic dialect. It is only spoken, not written, and it is not a formal language. So, the TV news, for example, is spoken in conventional German.
In school, the Swiss also learn French and English, so they are potentially trilingual—quite impressive! It comes in handy with France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria to the east. Italy is south of Switzerland, and Italian is one of Switzerland’s four official languages; however, Italian isn’t taught in the schools. I guess they figure three languages is enough!
Industry in Switzerland focuses on exporting chemical products, health and pharmaceutical goods, engine parts, and wood, in addition to those weapons and tanks I mentioned in my first post. They also export dairy products, including some of the best cheese and chocolate in the world.
Do you know why Swiss chocolate is so good? It’s because their cows are free range, grass-fed cows, and their grass grows very well, resulting in the best-quality milk. That’s why all those cows you see roaming around in Switzerland are raised for dairy, not meat. As a result, meat in Switzerland is very expensive, because it is imported.
As for that excellent chocolate, I sampled quite a bit while I was in Switzerland, and I brought back a lot of it.
Back to Lucerne, it is a beautiful city of 82,000 people situated on Lake Lucerne and the river Reuss. Many buildings are painted with gorgeous frescos, so if you don’t look up during your exploration, you will miss a lot!
(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)
Next up: SWITZERLAND & NORTHERN ITALY #3: ON THE ROAD TO BERN
Elaine-iaK's Travels: A Traveler's Tales of People, Places, Photos, Pools... and CHOCOLATE! 