Why the famous “Hollywood” sign should consider a vacation home in Switzerland.

The unearthly mountain scenery of the Alps has long attracted film-makers. One of the most visually stunning Swiss settings is in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, where Bond (played by George Lazenbee) travels undercover to the mountaintop lair of the villain Blofeld (Telly Savalas), arriving by helicopter at a sparkling, silver-and-glass structure that looks like a flying saucer perched high on an ice-covered peak. The scene was shot at the actual summit of the Schilthorn, where the revolving restaurant called the Piz Gloria has stunning 360 degree vistas of Europe’s highest mountains. Permission to film was granted on condition the producers refurbished the restaurant’s interior and build a helipad, which they did for the then-impressive sum of £60,000 (about US$1.2 million in modern terms). Today, the peak can be reached by cable-car from Mürren, and the space-age restaurant offers Bond-themed meals and excerpts from the movie in the downstairs cinema.

The Alps also had starring roles in the adventure film The Eiger Sanction (1975), the historical drama Chaplin (1992), where several scenes were shot in Charlie Chaplin’s actual estate in Vevey, and kitsch comedies such as The Revenge of the Pink Panther (1975), partly shot in the exclusive ski resort of Gstaad. But perhaps the most imaginative use of Alpine scenery was Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, where Switzerland doubled for the Wookie planet of Kashyyyk. In some ways, it was a logical choice: Anyone today taking a cable car or cog railway to the highest reaches of the Alps feels they have been transported to another world. (One Hollywood footnote: the famous 1937 version of Heidi, starring Shirley Temple, was actually shot in the San Bernadino Mountains in California – but its success inspired thousands to visit the Swiss Alps anyway).

Listen to the Story: Switzerland on Camera

No Double Dipping.

Fondue is far more than a popular treat for tourists in Switzerland—it’s a serious business, with every step of the dish’s consumption enveloped in ritual and tradition.

The classic version of the national dish is, of course, cheese fondue, which originated in the French-speaking countryside around Geneva in the 1700s. It is prepared in an earthenware pot, called a caquelon, whose interior is rubbed with a clove of garlic. Heated on a small paraffin burner, cheeses are melted and blended in the caquelon. Each region of Switzerland uses a different mix of cheese—Gruyère, Emmenthal, and raclette are most popular—flavored with an alcoholic beverage (most commonly, white wine or kirsch, although some use beer). Into this bubbling, semi-liquid mass, diners dip an array of tasty objects on long forks. Cubes of bread are traditional, but many use chunks of boiled potato or vegetables, garnished with chives, fresh pepper, diced garlic, or raw mushrooms.

Naturally, there are strict rules of behavior. There is no “double-dipping.” And if the bread falls off your fork into the pot, a penalty must be paid. Men must buy a bottle of wine for the table, and women must kiss the man on their left (one reason, perhaps, for fondue’s ongoing popularity). But however the meal unfolds, every bite is mouth-watering.

In the 1950s, Swiss chefs began to experiment with radical variations. Today, there is meat fondue (fondue borguignonne), where diners dip red meat into boiling oil to sear the exterior to delicious effect. For dessert, there’s chocolate fondue, where pieces of fruit, often marinated in Cointreau, are enveloped in melted chocolate (strawberry is lethally good). But cheese fondue remains most common in restaurants.

For the Swiss, the final ritual is to peel up the layer of hardened cheese at the bottom of the pot, which has become like a rich cracker. Known as la religieuse (French for “the nun”), it’s a delicious end to a high-cholesterol feast.

On a vacation to Switzerland, any traveler will be amazed by the views of majestic mountains, quaint villages and modern cities. Enjoy the breathtaking views of one of Europe’s most picturesque countries, Switzerland!

Zürich today is such an efficient, orderly, and civilized city that it comes as a surprise to learn that it was the birthplace of history’s most anarchic artistic movement: Dada. In 1916, artists flocked to neutral Switzerland to escape the horrors of World War I. A group of expats started the Cabaret Voltaire (named after the 18th-century thinker whose book Candide mocked the idiocy of society).

Located in the back room of a tavern, the club featured wild, atonal music, comical dancing, and absurd satirical songs that stood as “anti-art”—a form of controlled madness that reflected the general insanity of the world at war. Among the pioneers were Hugo Bell, a German writer and theater director; his lover, dancer Emmy Hennings; Romanian poet Tristan Tzara; and French artist Hans Arp. (The radical expat community in Zürich at the time also included Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, who lived around the corner from the tavern, and famed Irish writer James Joyce, who was working on his masterpiece, Ulysses).

The name for the movement was selected by stabbing a knife at random into a French dictionary, coming up with dada (hobby-horse), which evokes a child’s first stumbling words. The movement’s works included absurd visual collages where men’s heads might be exchanged for anvils or Mona Lisa given a clown’s red nose, gibberish plays, and Marcel Duchamp’s provocative Fountain sculpture, a porcelain urinal, which caused a scandal when it was submitted to an arts competition signed R. Mutt.

Dada’s chaos reflected the growing disillusion of Europeans at the war’s meaningless slaughter, and it gained huge underground popularity for its ability to shatter any rules or preconceived ideas about art. Its members attacked everyone, even themselves: “Dada is anti-Dada,” they often declared. Many of the original participants moved from Zürich to Paris in the early 1920s, leading to the birth of Surrealism and the work of Salvador Dali. As late as the 1970s, Dada’s principles influenced punk rock.

Today, the memory of Cabaret Voltaire lingers in Zürich. The tavern where Dada was born was saved from demolition in the 1990s and renovated as a trendy arts center, now called the Spiegelgasse, where exhibitions of paintings and avant-garde theatrical works can still be seen.

Few mountains have exerted such a magnetic attraction as the Matterhorn, the 14,690-foot-high crag that is as much a symbol of Switzerland as the Eiffel Tower is of France. But as any visitor to the “Climber’s Cemetery” in Zermatt can attest, the mountain’s allure can have deadly consequences.

Over 500 alpinists have lost their lives on the Matterhorn in the last 150 years. The peak first began to mesmerize climbers in the 1850s, when the English were pioneering the sport of mountaineering. In 1861, a 20-year-old magazine illustrator named Edward Whymper started trying to tackle the Matterhorn’s southwestern face, attempting eight times without success. In 1865, Whymper changed tactics, deciding to try the mountain’s famous eastern face, which looks like a sheer cliff to the naked eye. On July 13, he set off with a team of seven, including three English friends and three guides. After a punishing climb, the group made it to the summit on the morning of the 14th, beating a rival Italian group by a few days. But then disaster struck. On the descent, one of the safety ropes broke and four men plunged to their deaths. Only Whymper and two Swiss guides. The Times of London denounced all mountaineers as “dilettantes of suicide,” and Queen Victoria considered banning British citizens from climbing.

Later in life, Whymper went on to many other famous climbing successes, from South America to Greenland, but he was forever haunted by the deadly Matterhorn. Today, despite the danger, hundreds of climbers every year try to emulate Whymper’s 1865 success by conquering the astonishing peak.

The Swiss Answer to Robin Hood.

The legend of William Tell, the Swiss answer to Robin Hood, is retold throughout Switzerland, but it receives its most spectacular airing at Interlaken, the beautifully situated travel hub of the Alps.

In an open-air theater outside the town, surrounded by lush forests and mountain scenery, the play William Tell by Friedrich Schiller has been performed every summer since 1912, with 180 actors, 20 live horses, and a herd of cows on stage to provide rustic flavor. It’s the ideal setting to enjoy a story that dates back to the Middle Ages, when Switzerland was ruled by arrogant Austrian invaders.

According to the legend, in the town of Altdorf, a ruthless sheriff named Hermann Gessler put his hat on a pole in the main square and insisted that all Swiss should bow before it when they passed. William Tell, a freedom-loving farmer who was famous as a marksman with a crossbow, refused. Gessler ordered Tell to shoot an apple from his son’s head. If he succeeded, both would go free, but if he missed, both he and his son would be executed. Tell, of course, safely split the apple, but Gessler asked him why he had a second crossbow bolt in his quiver. “Had I injured my son,” Tell said proudly, “this second shaft would not have missed your heart.” The marksman was promptly arrested, but he escaped on the way to prison. Evading Austrian troops, Tell made his way back to Altdorf and shot Gessler dead, inspiring a widespread rebellion that led to the formation of the Swiss Confederacy in 1353, the basis of the modern country.

Over the centuries, William Tell has become a Swiss symbol of resistance to oppression, and his story has inspired dozens of retellings by European authors, with the 1804 Schiller play the most popular. Modern historians have questioned whether Tell was a real figure or a poetic invention, but under the stars in Interlaken, it hardly seems to matter—Tell’s adventures are as gripping now as they were six centuries ago.

Wonder if Switzerland is your kind of travel destination? Just take one look at a photograph of the Swiss Alps and never wonder again. With stunning views and the most gorgeous scenic mountains in the world at your fingertips, your travels around Switzerland will surely be breathtaking.

Switzerland is the land of a summer and winter sports paradise. Get your adrenaline fix in the winter months while participating in bob sledding, ice diving and out-of-bounds ski touring. Visit in the summer months and remain just as active. Bundle up for an underground caving tour or if you prefer to stay on land, rent a mountain bike or a segway and take in the beautiful sites around the Swiss National Park. Whether your visit takes place in the summer months or you happen to vacation when the snow is falling, your thirst for adventure will be filled.

A complex country of cultural diversity, with more than four languages spoken, Switzerland’s list of enchanting towns is endless. If you desire not the activities but the food and the festivities, you are in the right spot. Rather than indulging in the adventures of the outdoors, your itinerary will take you to the remotest villages where the finest of wines can be sampled and the distinct culture absorbed.

Prepare yourself for this remarkable journey where stunning views of the snow-capped Alps overlook the compact villages and elegant cities; where idyllic villages snuggle along lakes and rivers; and where, standing tall, lay the most beautiful mountains in the world.

Don’t wait a minute longer… Book this unforgettable experience to Switzerland today with Globus.

Once a year in June, Basel, Switzerland hosts the “Art Basel”, an International Art Festival, featuring a range of artwork, consisting of contemporary and modern styles. With more than 2,500 artists and 300 galleries, the exhibition includes sculptures, paintings, photographs, installations, drawings and video works.

While the sculptures, paintings, and photographs have all made equal contribution to this art show, film has become the trademark of the festival as this was the first art show to create an ideal setting for film. Not only have internationally renowned artists produced feature films here but young talents have been given the opportunity to feature their talent as well.

With over 60,000 attend the show; artists young and undiscovered as well as established and renowned are given the opportunity to show off their work. This is a time for the global art-world to come together in Switzerland, which includes artists, art dealers, art collectors, curators, and other art enthusiasts, and to respond to the talent on display.

Travel to one of the most cultured cities in the world during the Art Basel Festival in Basel, Switzerland.

In celebration of some unique aspect of a community, festivals serve to not only provide entertainment but to direct focus on the cultural significance of that particular community. Along with honoring some cultural significance, festivals take place to celebrate seasonal change, religion, tradition, and history. Festivals are celebrations that provide a sense of belonging for social, religious, and geographical groups.

Many festivals hold fascinating links to history. Whether it is the dance, custom, art, or culture, the correlation to the past provides us with a sense of unity. In fact, in past times, festivals took place solely for storytelling. Stories were told by the elderly in an effort to transfer certain knowledge onto the next generation. Historic feasts provided a time for families to come together which provided a means for unity.

Although the term “festival” was used to refer mainly to religious celebrations in the past, the festivals of today center more on art, film, dance, and music. Though many still have religious origins, many others serve to mark a significant aspect of the culture inside the community, including food and beer celebrations.

If you enjoy being surrounded by unique people, original talent, and an array of art; focused on the significance of culture within a community, summer festivals are just your forte.

So travel with us as we explore some of the unique festivals happening around the world this summer. Put your dancing shoes on at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in Scotland or become fascinated with original talent at the Art Basel Festival in Switzerland. Even chose to sample all the clam chowder you can get your hands on during the New England clam chowder contest at the Boston Chowderfest. The festivals are endless and the fun never ending. Get ready for the festivities to begin!

Operating year round, the Glacier Express is one of the world’s most scenic mountain railroad lines. The trip from the southern Swiss Italian border town of Zermatt to St. Moritz in the east takes seven and a half hours and covers about 250 miles. And it is some of the most glorious time you will ever spend with your camera.

Originally a winter conveyance between the two legendary ski areas, it is now most popular with sightseers. Crossing 291 bridges and entering 91 tunnels, it is a masterpiece of railroad engineering. Running past the lakes and pasturelands of central Switzerland, the highlight is the crossing of the Oberalp Pass at 6,500 feet. Large windows can open to smell the fresh mountain air or get an unencumbered view of the meadows, valleys and picturesque villages.