The landscape near Lucerne is unique: lakes surrounded by mountains, which again hide lakes in. A boat trip took us from Lucerne to Viznau train station, from where we went up the earliest European mountain railway to the Rigi mountain. Although not very tall, but Rigi mountain offers a gorgeous view from the steep Swiss Alps to the relatively flat Swiss Plateau. I was surprised that Switzerland was not completely surrounded by mountains, but can yet keep so many years out-of-wars. The last war in Swiss history was 1847, happened to locate near Lucerne.
Lucerne Lake:
Surrounding by mountains, Lucerne lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. The most striking thing to me is that the irregular Lucerne lake flow around Rigi mountain, together with other small lakes in the north and east of Rigi mountain, the lakes almost encircle the mountain.
From Lucerne we can take boat all the way along the lake and enjoy the view. Looking at Lucerne city when departing, and then the Mt Pilatus on the west direction. The water in Lucerne lake is extremely clear. If it was summer, people would want to jump into it.
Surrounding by mountains, Lucerne lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. The most striking thing to me is that the irregular Lucerne lake flow around Rigi mountain, together with other small lakes in the north and east of Rigi mountain, the lakes almost encircle the mountain.
From Lucerne we can take boat all the way along the lake and enjoy the view. Looking at Lucerne city when departing, and then the Mt Pilatus on the west direction. The water in Lucerne lake is extremely clear. If it was summer, people would want to jump into it.
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The earliest mountain train in Europe:
From the boat trip, we landed at Viznau, where we can take train almost all the way up to Rigi mountain. Rigi is not tall. The main summit, named Rigi Kulm, is only 1798 meters. But the Rigi railway is Europe's oldest mountain railways, which offers people to ski and sledge in winter, hiking and cycling in Summer.
The train ride uphill is quite interesting. If we suddenly move the sight from inside to outside, it almost looks like the mountains and lakes were inclined.
From the boat trip, we landed at Viznau, where we can take train almost all the way up to Rigi mountain. Rigi is not tall. The main summit, named Rigi Kulm, is only 1798 meters. But the Rigi railway is Europe's oldest mountain railways, which offers people to ski and sledge in winter, hiking and cycling in Summer.
The train ride uphill is quite interesting. If we suddenly move the sight from inside to outside, it almost looks like the mountains and lakes were inclined.
Wonderful bird-view from Rigi:
The view at the top of Rigi is wonderful, not only because that one can see the unique mountain(lake(mountain)lake)mountain geography, but also one can get a decent idea about the entire geography in Switzerland, because Rigi is between the two typical landforms of Swiss: the steep Swiss Alps and the relatively flat Swiss Plateau.
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| Left side: steep Swiss Alps; Right side: relatively flat Swiss Plateau. |
Famous as a neutral county, Switzerland luckily avoid the first and second world wars. The last battle in this country was in the 1847 Civil War, which happened to locate near Lucerne. Standing on the top of Rigi, looking towards northwest, we can see the place the last batter took place: Gisikon.
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| Northwest of Rigi: Gisikon, where had the last batter in Swiss |
The civil war was between the central government and seven Catholic cantons who want to be independent. Lucerne was one of the seven. After the battle of Gisikon in which 37 people died and ~100 wounded, Lucerne and other states surrendered. So the Gisikon became the last battle in Swiss history.
What makes Swiss Swiss?
After that, Switzerland kept peace for more than 150 years. The success of avoiding World War I and II might partially came from the luck of geometry such as the protection of mountains in the east side.
Switzerland was considered to form at 1291, when an article calming confederacy of three cantons (Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden) at where is now the central part of modern Switzerland. One year after the last civil war in 1847, the Swiss Confederation has been rewritten involving more federal states. Without a central kingdom, the cantons have been always relatively autonomous, and the 700 years confederacy history makes Switzerland the oldest surviving republics in the world.
The long history of Switzerland overturn my old understanding about how can an old country runs long without breaking apart. I thought it has to at least either have the same language, or has dictator government power to maintain the shape. For instance, because Emperor Qin (Qin Shi Huang, 260-210 BC) uniformed the Chinese words, in the following more than 2000 years, it is easier for the following Emperors to re-unified the land after the many times breaking apart in long history. Also when a country has a long “victory” of ruling a huge land, the following Emperors will consider it their responsibility and credit for retaking "lost land" and even expanding. The longer the history is, the greater the country was, the more likely the people living in the land recognize them a part of the nation and country (sometimes nationalism), and the country is more likely to last long.
But Switzerland has neither. As we mentioned earlier, no local Empires, no dictator central power. No uniformed one language. Instead, there are four official languages in the country: German (~63.5%); French (22.5%, mostly west part); Italian (8.1%, mostly south); and Romansh (only 0.5%, locally in the southeastern, Graubünden canton). Besides, now most of Swiss speak fluent English.
I would think the people who speak different languages, and without a central power goverment are very easily become loose sand. But Switzerland exists in this republic form for more than 700 years. There must be something makes Swiss people proud and therefore regard themselves a nation. What is it?
I believe it is Swiss people's political consciousness. Switzerland is the most close country to the "direct democracy". Although most of the country is actually semi-direct democracy, there are two cantons (Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus) keep the direct democracy. Most western modern countries use representative democracy. Switzerland is different, as Swiss citizen is very powerful, more than those citizens in countries with representative democracy. Swiss citizen can propose changes at the federal level, such as change of constitution, or ask for referendums on law. Yes, those type of referendum which causes a huge political earthquake in UK last Friday, Swiss people do it much much more often.
One of my colleagues had worked in Switzerland for several years, he told us many interesting stories about his living there. He commented on Swiss politics and people: everything takes long to change, because everyone has to involve to make decision; everyone is a police, because they all feel very responsible for the country. I think this responsive feeling comes from this semi-direct democracy. And this responsible consciousness is probably what make Swiss Swiss, and group them together.
In another hand, there is a distance between Switzerland and other EU countries. For instance, although all speaking German, Swiss German is more different with Austria German and German German. I have also heard European friends joking that "Switzerland is an island", meaning that Switzerland wants to keep independent and might even isolating (things like do not want to be in EU etc).
One thing surprised me is that Swiss people also insist to have gun ownership. Yep it is legal to own guns in Switzerland. It is super surprising to me, as I thought in country like Switzerland, people should feel safe enough and feel no need to have a gun. Maybe it was due to the similar reason as USA, people being super proud about independent and freedom, and feel alert about central powerful government. Some USA people hold Switzerland as an example saying that gun legal laws have no direct connection with crime, look how safe Switzerland is. But actually, the number of gun shooting in Switzerland is the second in the world, following the USA. Isn't this data clear enough?
I would say my overall impression on Switzerland is that it is a relative conservative country. Instead they are very cautious about changes. This might make them slow in development in a short term, for instance, it was very poor in medieval period. However in a longer age, its caution helped to avoid many mistakes such as involving into wars. That is how Swiss becomes a rich and peaceful country like now.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucerne#Geography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Plateau
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jura_Mountains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderbund_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Switzerland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland_as_a_federal_state
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy#Switzerland
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