Ardent and fearless bikers on their powerful two-wheeled beauties seem to mock natural obstacles. Cyclists take off from a run-up onto almost vertical rocky slopes and find themselves on yet another summit. And so on: up, down, twice up, and, headlong, down again.
Seeing such a spectacle live takes your breath away. At times you even question some laws of Her Majesty Physics. You are lost in conjecture, you wonder, and meanwhile another mountain biker again conquers the altitude. You try to find an explanation - surely it is either the Swiss national team or stuntmen training. But no. It turns out these are computer-savvy friends who went out to relax after a week of sitting in front of monitors. This is their hobby.
The word "hobby" is very common and frequently used in Switzerland. Every proper Swiss chooses it regardless of the interests of his neighbor or work colleague. However, almost everyone is united by one thing - the mountains. There are many of them here, and therefore there are simply countless pastimes associated with these volcanic formations reaching several thousand meters in height. In winter, the mountain slopes are simply swarming with skiers. Besides them, there are young idlers, elderly people, adults with children on snowmobiles, and nimble teenagers on snowboards. The most suitable conditions have been created for winter amateur and professional sports. You can easily climb to the very top of any mountain equipped for recreation using mountain railways (funiculars) or a cable car.
If you want to take a winding drive along mountain slopes in your own car, that is no problem. There is also a special road for this. Resort owners always provide intermediate stops - perhaps someone no longer wants to go to the very top of the mountain but would like to have a bite at a small restaurant and enjoy nature not at an altitude of 1,655 meters but a little lower - 998 meters, for example. If you wish, you can also spend the night in a small private hotel built of logs and cheerfully decorated with all kinds of weavings made of fir branches with cones and other "candelabra" invented by the owners.
The service at the resorts is simply extraordinary. Booklets with the names of the most attractive places await you at the foot of the mountains - at the stations of mountain railways and cable cars. Take, for example, Mount Beaten, which as a resort has a special quality medal. In Switzerland it is also known as a "family-friendly resort." The route to the top of Beaten is divided into two main parts. For the first eight minutes, a funicular passing through a tunnel pulls you along the rails. Then for 14 minutes at a height of 20-30 meters you ride in a cable car cabin. The sight is, of course, indescribable. In a few words, the main view consists of dozens of mountain peaks around, each more beautiful than the other. All of them are covered with incredibly white snow. Do not believe laundry detergent advertisements. There is nothing whiter in the world than the snow on the mountain summits! That is probably why birds fly somewhere below, so as not to go blind.
By the way, regarding eyesight. If you go on vacation to the snowy mountains without sunglasses, this can be compared to a blind person at a silent film screening: you were there, but you did not understand anything anyway.
Let us return to the service. At the top of Beaten, a lovely cozy restaurant built in the local Swiss style awaits you. It is a completely wooden, squat, one-story structure with a wide red roof. The establishment certainly has an extremely wide open veranda. On it stand about two dozen stylized wooden tables, at which tourists leisurely sip dry wine or beer. They are in no hurry. You can hear speech in German, French, Italian, Spanish, English, and even Russian. Such linguistic abundance is not uncommon here. People deliberately come from neighboring countries to the resort where they feel most comfortable. The half-asleep atmosphere on the veranda is also explained by the fact that many, turning their faces to the direct rays of the winter sun, are simply sunbathing. Their complexion becomes tanned from these sunbaths. Such a tan lasts quite a long time. It is by this feature that one can distinguish regulars from newcomers among the visitors.
In the middle of the restaurant, everything is also made of wood. On the walls hang roe deer heads and little goats with horns, antique guns, and bio-fireplaces are nestled in the corners. A responsive waitress in national attire will promptly bring you the menu and, if necessary, briefly explain what each dish consists of. The specialty here is melted cheese poured onto a wide plate and lightly fried small potatoes. An obligatory accompaniment to this dish will be white dry wine. The fairy-tale, warm, and cozy atmosphere you immerse yourself in creates very favorable conditions for making acquaintances and continuing romantic relationships (even if you are from different countries). And also for restoring once-damaged relationships between spouses or close people.
Meanwhile, new tourists and "hobbyists" continue to arrive at the top of Beaten. A special pastime for those who decide to invigorate themselves with an extra dose of adrenaline is paragliding. There are dozens soaring in the sky. There is also a flight school - "Flugschule." Experienced instructors will help you understand the intricacies and details of the glider construction and learn to fly. But not from the first lesson. They will simply exhaust you with instruction. If you do not pay due attention to the theory, the instructor has the right to forbid you to fly on your own. They simply will not let you take off. But if you really, really want to fly from the first try, that is not a problem. You pull just $100 out of your wide trousers, and you, together with an instructor, soar into the sky and circle there to spite your enemies and gravity.
With the start of the summer season in Switzerland, yacht club owners "come alive." The deep, transparent lakes, spread widely in the intermountain hollows, also have their "fans." On Saturday and Sunday, in the country of banks, business elites, and "Toblerone" chocolate, all highways are filled with cars with trailers carrying watercraft of various classes. Do not doubt that this pleasure is also not cheap. However, the rental system is well developed here. A family that cannot afford to buy a yacht is quite capable of renting one for a day or two. A weekend on the water is a common thing here. Also common here is compliance with nature conservation rules. Therefore, it is no coincidence that advertising booklets are full of phrases like: "enjoyment of unspoiled nature" or "hospitality of pristine flora and fauna."
At the sight of a strikingly clean lake, our man, not out of malice, but just out of ignorance, will immediately begin unpacking spinning rods, fishing rods, bottom lines, and a mass of other tackle that certainly guarantee a generous catch. And he will not be mistaken in his expectations. There is quite a lot of fish here. But there is one "but." Fishing is allowed only to owners of a special license. In spring, for lake fishing it will cost 50 euros, for river fishing - 40. For the summer and autumn seasons, the rates change slightly. If you are caught fishing without a license, you will pay a fine of 200 euros. If you catch a trout less than 24 centimeters and do not release it immediately, the punishment is the same. So choose.