Learn Switzerland before you go

10 phrases to learn

Capital letters show the stressed part. Tap the heart to practise a phrase later.

At the table

• Before eating, people wish each other 'En Guete' in German-speaking areas, 'Bon appétit' in the French-speaking west and 'Buon appetito' in Ticino.
• With fondue, use the long fork only to dip the bread and carry it to your plate, not to eat from. By tradition, whoever loses their bread in the pot buys a round of drinks or sings a song.
• White wine or black tea is usually drunk with fondue and raclette.
• Service is included in restaurant prices. Many people round up the bill or leave up to about 10 percent for good service, but it is not required.
• At a fondue, stir the pot in a figure of eight each time you dip, and do not scrape the bottom: the toasted crust, la religieuse, is lifted out and shared at the end.

Local tips

Dishes to try

• Cheese fondue (Fondue): Cheese melted with white wine and a little cornflour in a heavy pot called a caquelon, kept warm at the table. Everyone dips cubes of bread on long forks. A classic mix is 'moitié-moitié', half Gruyère and half Vacherin Fribourgeois.
• Raclette: A half wheel of cheese is heated until the cut face melts, and the soft cheese is scraped onto plates. The name comes from the French 'racler', to scrape. It is eaten with boiled potatoes in their skins, small pickled gherkins and pickled onions.
• Rösti: Coarsely grated potato, raw or boiled first, fried in butter into a flat golden cake. It began as a farmers' breakfast in the canton of Bern and is now served with many meals, often topped with a fried egg or cheese.
• Zurich-style sliced veal (Zürcher Geschnetzeltes): Thin strips of veal, quickly fried with onion, then simmered briefly in a sauce of white wine, cream and meat stock, often with mushrooms. It is traditionally served with rösti.
• Alpine herders' macaroni (Älplermagronen): Pasta and diced potatoes cooked together, then mixed with cream and cheese and topped with fried onions. It is traditionally served with apple sauce on the side, a sweet contrast to the rich cheese.
• Bircher muesli (Birchermüesli): Rolled oats soaked overnight, mixed with lots of freshly grated apple, lemon juice, nuts and a little cream or yoghurt. Today it is a Swiss breakfast, but its creator served it to his patients as a light evening meal.
• Capuns: Little parcels of Swiss chard leaves filled with a spätzle-style dough and pieces of air-dried meat, simmered in a mix of stock and milk and served with grated cheese. It is a favourite dish of the canton of Graubünden.
• Leeks and potatoes Vaud style (Papet vaudois): Leeks and potatoes gently stewed, often with a little cream and white wine, and served with a smoked cabbage sausage. The white and green of the dish are said to match the colours of the Vaud flag.

Cities to see

• Bern (capital): The Zytglogge clock tower, The Federal Palace, home of the Swiss parliament, The bears, its heraldic animal, kept by the river.
• Zurich: Banking and finance, The Grossmünster, where Zwingli preached, ETH Zurich, the technical university.
• Geneva: The International Committee of the Red Cross, The United Nations Office at Geneva, The Jet d'Eau fountain.
• Basel: Switzerland's oldest university, founded in 1460, Roche and Novartis, Art Basel.
• Lausanne: The International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Museum, The Gothic cathedral, consecrated in 1275, A metro in a city of only about 145,000 people.
• Lucerne: The Chapel Bridge and its Water Tower, The Lion Monument, Lake steamers.

Landmarks and the city map are on the Switzerland trip