Images of Switzerland ~ The Jewel of Europe

[The Lawspeaker]

In today's episode, we'll be going over the turbulent history of Monteverdi, Switzerland's only car manufacturer that dreamed of creating mass-produced luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Apologies if my voice sounds a bit more nasal than usual, but I was in the midst of a very bad cold when recording this. Overall, though, I think it came out better than expected.

[PHDNM]

Seealpsee

[PHDNM]

Bern

[The Lawspeaker]

When you think of Swiss cheese, you think of holes. But Gruyère, which has a smooth texture, is the most produced and most consumed cheese within Switzerland. Gruyère cheese is a component of a classic Swiss fondue, along with European dishes like quiche and croque monsieur. The cheese has a long heritage. Records of cheesemaking go back to the 12th century in this region. Today, 30,000 tons of Gruyere are produced here each year.

[The Lawspeaker]

In the Swiss Jura:

[The Lawspeaker]

In the Emmental in the Swiss Hill Country in the canton of Berne.

In the US it's known as 'Swiss cheese'. Emmentaler has iconic holes in it, and it's also the world's largest cheese. We visited the Emmentaler Shaukaeserei in town of Affoltern in Emmental, east of Bern, to see how it's made. Eighty percent of the production of all Emmentaler AOP comes from this region, with 150 producers.

[The Lawspeaker]

More of the Emmental:









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[The Lawspeaker]

When it comes to transportation options and smart city planning, you can argue Zurich, Switzerland takes the top prize in the world. The city has deployed a number of polices and practices that make commuting, living and working in Zurich a pleasant experience whichever mode (or modes) of travel you use. For one, back in the mid-1990s, via a city decree referred to as "The Great Compromise", Zurich decided it keep their number of parking spaces fixed at current levels.

So on the rare occasion they need to justify building new parking spaces, they must find other areas within the city limits to eliminate parking. And as a bonus: many of the new spaces come in the form of underground garages, which allows for more car-free streets, plazas and shared space solutions. Secondly, Zurich has a very intricate series of over 4500 sensors throughout the city designed to monitor the number of cars entering its limits. When that number exceeds the level Zurich's streets can comfortably accommodate, all cars are halted on highways and main roads in to the city until congestion is relieved. Thus, traffic continually flows with little or no back-up in the city. When it comes to mass transit options, Zurich has a network of comfortable commuter trains, buses, and the magnificent gem of the city: its 15 line tram system.

Trams run everywhere frequently and are easy to hop on and off. The coordination of the lines is a wonder to behold as trams pull into circular hubs from all directions. It is an on-going dance of commuters: a synchronicity of transit. And it's the preferred way to travel in the city center. Business men in suits traveling to the richest banks in the world ride next to moms and skateboarders. That's only the beginning of some of the great things going on in Zurich. We haven't even touched on the bike mode share (6% and climbing) the amazing parks and rivers that have been cleaned up and filled with people socializing after work. The wonderful car-free/light pathways are filled with restaurants and tourists all times of the day. At least if you can never get to Zurich, you'll be able to experience a bit of what it is like via our Streetfilm. Note: statistics cited are from the Mobility and Transport Microcencus of 2010 by the Federal Government of Switzerland. The survey on the travel behavior is done every 5 years since 1974.

[The Lawspeaker]

Most images are of Switzerland:

In this little trip report/travelmentary I show my trip from Zurich to Milan in Trenitalia's first class. The train is an ETR 610 made by Alstom. Enjoy! There are two service classes onboard this train and I booked the highest called First Class in the standard fare. The train journey takes roughly 3 hours and 40 minutes with several stops along the way. Music: both from epidemicsound and my own compositions © 2020 travelmentary TV

[The Lawspeaker]