Word for the Travel Wise (06/20/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Lots of things going down in Switzerland these days and judging from their events calendar a lot of it deals with the sound of music. If festivals are your thing, Europe your destination of choice and Switzerland on your radar you may want to book your last-minute flight, say right now. Starting Friday, June 23 three music fests will be kicking off: Openair Frauenfeld, JazzAscona, and the St. Galler Festspiele, classic muzik festival. All of them sound quite promising and run throughout the weekend. If you can try making it a triple-header of musical sounds.

Today’s word is a Romansh word used in Switzerland:

allegra – hello

German is the most widely spoken language in Switzerland of the four national languages which also include; Italian, French, and Romansh. The Romansh language has a total of 50,000-70,000 speakers. It is a Romance lang and not truly a single language, but a group of closely-related languages or dialects. Depending on which region you’re traveling you may never need to use the Romansh language, but it never hurts to know. Head over to Websters Online Dictionary for decent size list of common Romansh words and their English equivalents or watch Romansh TV online at Radio e Televisiun Rumantscha. Lastly, check into Wiki for additional links and historical facts.

Cool Capitals

by Erik Olsen on

A lot of Flash interfaces for travel sites are too heavy and very confusing. Flash designers are often more self-involved with the design of a site rather than the functionality. I came across a site this morning that surprised me by its usefulness. Called coolcapitals, the site’s reach is limited as they only cover a few European cities including Amsterdam, Antwerp, Vienna and Zurich, and I hope they decide to expand, because the site is very informative.

So you click into one of the capitals and you find information on fashion, food, nightlife, hotels, etc. The interface is cute, with little people walking around and blocky little 8-bit buildings. Very cool.

Cool Photo

by Erik Olsen on

I guess I could have saved this photo for my photo of the day, but the fact is, I couldn’t resist. this shot comes frmo Geneva and shows a street after what appears to have been a rather brutal sleet storm. Needless to say, that day was a real ball shrinker.

Matterhorn Panos

by Erik Olsen on

My interest in panoramic photos never ebbs, and I am always on the lookout for
new work being done. This morning I came across a site featuring a very beautiful series of panoramic pictures from
the Matterhorn in Switzerland. There are actually many more panos here than those of the Matterhorn, but those are
the most impressive of the bunch.

Late Snow Skiing

by Neil Woodburn on

Spring is here and the ski season is winding down.  As the weather warms up and resorts go
offline one by one, dedicated skiers continue searching for un-seasonal storms, lone slopes facing away from the sun,
remote resorts chilled by late winter winds or any other place where weather anomalies help keep the season running
just a little bit longer.

Rebecca Abrams of The Guardian, has uncovered one such place; the Swiss town of
Chandolin.  Located 2,000 meters above sea level,
this relatively unknown town of only 50 people is the “highest inhabited village in Europe.”  Long
after snow melts elsewhere, skiers are still merrily swooping down the area’s 75 kilometers of slopes.  And
they are doing it in relative isolation according to Abrams who reports that very few skiers make it this far off the
beaten path—despite Chandolin being only two hours from Geneva. This is what I found particularly
appealing.  Chandolin is not a swanky, ski-bunny resort, but rather an unpretentious, low key haven of quaint
chalets and quite village life.  Screw ski season, I want to visit in the summertime.