Destination: SWITZERLAND

Switzerland is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It has borders with France to the west, Italy to the south, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east and Germany to the north. The climate is temperate, but varies with altitude. Switzerland has cold, cloudy, rainy/snowy winters and cool to warm, cloudy, humid summers with occasional showers.

Switzerland is known for its mountains (Alps in south, Jura in northwest) but it also has a central plateau of rolling hills, plains, and large lakes. The highest point is Dufourspitze at 4,634 m while Lake Maggiore is only 195 m above sea level.

DESTINATION SWITZERLAND: Bern, Geneva, Zurich,

Destination: BERN, SWITZERLAND

Bern (also Berne - the official French and English spelling), the capital of Switzerland, is a small- to medium-sized city with a population of about 130,000. It sits on peninsula formed by the meandering turns of the river Aare.

The remarkable design coherence of the Berne's old town has earned it a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It features 4 miles of arcaded walkways along streets decked out with fountains and clock-towers.

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Destination: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Geneva, Switzerland is one of the world's major centers of international diplomacy, having served as the site of the initial headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross before that. Although the United Nations is now headquartered in New York, the organization still retains a large presence in Geneva at the Palais des Nations and many of its sister/child organizations such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF have their world headquarters here.

Geneva is officially a French-speaking city, although with the large international presence English takes a close second. Spanish, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic speakers abound, and of course you will also occasionally hear Swiss German, and Italian.

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Destination: ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland, with a population of some 364,500 in the city proper and close to 1 million in the greater metropolitan area. Zurich is on Lake Zurich, where the lake meets the Limmat River, in the north of Switzerland. Contrary to popular belief, Zurich is not the capital of Switzerland (that would be Bern), just the largest city.

Zurich has long been known as a clean and efficient city, but additionally has been quite a fascinating city for the last ten years. This has a lot to do with the liberalization of the culture, party and gastronomy sector and a much more cosmopolitan and hybrid population. Zurich is also known for banking.

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Zurich, Switzerland