Berne

The city of Berne or Bern is the Bundesstadt(federal city, de facto capital) of Switzerland and, with 128,041 people (agglomeration: 344,000), the fifth most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich, Geneva, Basel and Lausanne).
Most of Berne's residents speak German, or more specifically, Bernese German, which is a high-Alemannic dialect.
Berne also functions as the capital of the Canton of Berne, the second most populous of Switzerland's cantons.
Illustrious Bernese include the reformer Albrecht von Haller, the poet Albert Bitzius and the painters Hans Fries, Ferdinand Hodler and Paul Klee. The German-born physicist Albert Einstein worked out his theory of relativity while employed as a clerk at the Berne patent office. A culturally important person was Mani Matter, a songwriter performing in Bernese German.

Flight above the alps

Swiss Chocolate

Switzerland's chocolates, together with its timepieces and machinery, have earned an international reputation for high quality.Chocolate came to Europe in the 16th century. By the 17th century it was produced in Switzerland. In the 18th century chocolate was only produced in a few areas, such as the Ticino.
From the 19th century until the the First World War and throughout the second world war the Swiss chocolate industry was very export orientated. After the Second World War Switzerland began to outsource production due to commercial restrictions.
Today most Swiss chocolate is consumed by the Swiss themselves (54% in 2000), and Switzerland has the highest per capita rate of chocolate consumption world wide (11.6 kg per capita per annum).
In 2004 148,270 tonnes of chocolate were produced in Switzerland. 53% of this was exported (20% to Germany, 11% to France and Great Britain and 13% to North America). The gross income of the Swiss chocolate industry in 2004 was 1,365 million CHF (814 million from the local market, 551 million from exports).

Zürich

Zürich is the largest city of Switzerland (at the end of 2007; population of urban area is 1,007,972) and capital of canton of Zürich.The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre (the political capital of Switzerland being Bern), and is widely considered to be one of the world's global cities. According to several surveys from 2006 to 2008, Zürich was named the city with the "best quality of life" in the world.The city is situated where the river Limmat issues from the north-western end of Lake Zürich, about 30 km north of the Alps. Zürich is surrounded by wooded hills including (from the north) the Gubrist, the Hönggerberg, the Käferberg, the Zürichberg, the Adlisberg and the Oettlisberg on the eastern shore; and the Uetliberg (part of the Albis range) on the western shore. The river Sihl meets with the Limmat at the end of Platzspitz, which borders the Swiss National Museum (Landesmuseum). The geographic (and historic) center of the city is the Lindenhof a small natural hill on the left bank of the river Limmat, about 700 meters north of where the river issues from Lake Zürich. Today the incorporated city stretches somewhat beyond its natural hydrographic confines given by its hills and includes some neighborhoods to the northeast in the Glattal (valley of the river Glatt).

Folk Music

In Switzerland there is a courious onstrument called alphorn, or sometimes called alpenhorn.It is like a trompet made of wood.The alphorn is seen mainly in montainious regions.The Yodeling (How is called this kind of tipic swiss music) isn't very popular on Switzerland, but is very caracteristical of the montain people of this country.The melody of folk music vary between regions.In the southern alps the melody is more songlike, but of more limited range.In pastoral areas are floating and wide- ranging.
The Alpine folk culture is characterized by very expressive dances. Small musical ensembles can be found in the more mountainous areas, particularly in the French speaking part of Switzerland.

Swiss Alps

The Swiss Alps are the central portion of the Alps mountain range.They cover 61% of Switzerland surface making it the second most alpin country, only behind Austria.The major destinations for skiing and other winter sports are located in: Valais, Bernese, Oberland and Graubünden.
The most visited places are:
Davos
Grindelwald
St. Moritz
Zermatt (all year round ski resort)
Other large winter resorts are:
Adelboden
Crans Montana
Engelberg
Flims
Gstaad
Klosters
Saas Fee (all year round ski resort)
Verbier
Wengen.

General Informations

Switzerland is a coutry located in western Europe with 7,5 million people and an area of 41,285 km².Is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called "Cantons".Berne is the capital of the country, but there are more 2 very important cities: Geneva and Zürich.Switzerland is one of the richess countries of the whole world.
It's borded by Germany, France, Italy, Autria and Liechtenstein, has a long history of neutrality - It hasn't been at war aince 1815 - and hosts many international organizations, including the Red Cross, The World Trade Organization and one of the U.N's two European offices.Switzerland is multilingual and has four national languages: German, Italian, French and Romansh.The establishment of Switzerland is traditionally dated to August 1, 1929 ; the first of August is the national holiday.