Crystalz

Everyone: I need your insight into visiting Geneva (a must) and other cities in Switzerland in December. My friend and I are trying to do a Christmas Market tour but for personal reasons (genealogy) I especially want to at least start in Geneva. My relatives are Swiss German and I wanted to visit this area especially. I am interested in the Christmas customs, churches, and history. Is there usually too much snow to travel from city to city by train.Can 70 yr olds (good health)manage this by themselves? What are your suggestions? Thank you so much. Crystal

swandav2000

Hi Crystalz,

I hope I can help --

I spent Christmas 2004 in Gstaad, Switzerland, and I was surprised that there wasn't a lot of holiday decoratons on display. I found out later that the Swiss see Christmas as a time for family gatherings and personal time, not for public displays. So if you're looking for German- or Austrian-type Christmas markets, you won't find many of them in Switzerland. You can find holiday decorations and markets in Zurich, Luzern, and Basel, but not in the sweet mountain villages.

I also visited the Christmas market in Montreux (not far from Geneva), I found it to be full of plastic faux-chalet pre-fab buildings selling accessories, clothing, and wine. I don't think I'd want to go back.

You say your relatives are Swiss German, then you say you must visit Geneva for family geneaology -- but do you know that Geneva is in the French speaking portion of the country?

If you are planning to go for this Christmas, you may find the resorts already sold out. I reserved my rooms in Gstaad about six months ahead of time.

Finally, yes, you can traverse the country by train, even in the winter. You can find rail schedules at www.rail.ch. You can also send your luggage ahead so you don't have to lug it on the train; it's about 10 chf per bag for 48 hours service and 20 chf for fast-bag service.

Good luck!

s

suze

Only a few tiny bits I can help with. There likely won't be snow at lake-level (Geneva, Lausanne, Vevey, Montreux, etc.). It could happen but is not usual.

As mentioned already above, Geneva is the French-speaking region of Switzerland, not German-speaking.

You can read about Montreux's Christmas Market on the website www.montreux.ch. I have friends who live there, and while they consider it somewhat 'tacky' they do enjoy the party atmosphere of it.

Cicerone

I am also confused about the reference to being Swiss German but wanting to go to Geneva which is on the French side. In any event, I used to live in Zurich and while I would not go for the Christmas markets, which are nothing to write home about compared to Vienna or places in Germany, I think Zurich is gorgeous at Christmas. There is virtually a tree on every corner, and the city is beautifully lit and decorated. There are mulled wine stalls out on the streets most weekends as well, which at least seem to make the Christmas markets more interesting...

For a good Christmas market near Zurich, you could go for a day or a weekend to Colmar just over the border in France. You can get to Colmar from Zurich by train in an hour or so, you could also rent a car and have a bit more flexibility to explore the lovely countryside (albeit a little bit brown in December). Colmar is a quaint French village with a very good Christmas market and is also known for its antiques.

Zurich is also quite close by train to Basel which is very interesting (good cathedral) and to Stein am Rhein which has a lovely good old town with painted houses. Zurich is about an hour by train from St Gallen which has a beautiful baroque cathedral (hard to find in Switzerland), a very nice old town and a magnificent abbey library attached to the church (opening hours are erratic, plan your day for an open day here). Zurich is also close to Einsiedeln which has a huge baroque cathedral, a famous Black Madonna, and was one of the stops on the Way of St James for pilgrims from the middle ages going to Santiago de Compostella in Spain, this may be of interest to you. Einsiedeln is about 2 hours by train from Zurich.

There are of course mountain areas around Zurich which have village churches and even monestaries. One in particvular is the Benedictine convent in Mustair, which has beautfil murals. This is a bit isloated as it is very far east almost in Austria, but in winter woudl be quite lovely. If by any chance your ancestors are from this region (Romansch) then this would be a great trip, IMO. Its about 3.5 hours by train from Zurich, but if you stayed a few days in the beautiful Engadinde region (St Mortiz, Pontresina or a lovely village like Guarda, the trip wold be shorter. (Its about 1.5 horus from Guarda,and is a spectacular ride over the mountains.)

For evening entertainment in Zurich, you should find Christmas concerts and other musical events. There are usually choral and chamber concerts in the evenings at the following churches: St Peters, Augustinkirche, the Grossmunster and the Fraumunster. These are either free or a nominal price. Sometimes they even have full orchestral evening performances which are more expensive but really wonderful. http://www.zuerich.com. You can also search for concerts and other events, also look at www.whatsonwhen.com for listings. (I can see from the zuerich website that on December 14 and 15 there is a choral performance of a Brazilian Christmas mass at the Wasserkirche, the Water Church, in the old town which is a lovely church and would be an interesting evening.

If you like opera, the season beings in November, and the Zurich Opera House is a little jewel. Take a look at http://www.opernhaus.ch/d/index.php, click in the upper middle of the page for English. You can also get ballet tickets.

Finally, since you are Swiss German, then you really have to go to the Conelli Christmas circus. The Swiss are circus-crazy. It is in German but really that does not matter, you will be able to appreciate it regardless of language. The website is http://www.circus-conelli.ch, and is in German, but your hotel should be able to arrange tickets or you may be able to figure out how to buy on line. If you are interested try to book ASAP as this is very popular.

There is really never too much snow to travel by train, even in the higher Alp regions where they get a ton of snow. The Swiss are used to dealing with huge amounts of snow. As noted above, at lower elevations like in Geneva, Zurich, etc you will rarely find snow that sticks around long on the ground, it will fall and melt. (They don't get much snow at all in the Lake Geneva area, it is more of a micro climate with more temperate temps.) Ask someone about "snow days" at school, and you will get a puzzled look or a laugh in reply, they don't cancel school because of snow, they all get there somehow....

Two 70 year olds can get around fine on their own, IMO. Just bring warm clothing and money. Go to rail.ch for train schedules, train service in Switzerland is wonderful, albeit not cheap (look into rail passes and senior citizen discounts). Do you have a hotel budget?

Geneva is lovely as well and is a whole 'nother trip; Lausanne in particular has a very nice cathedral as does Geneva itself. How long do you have? Can you arrange your air ticket to fly into Geneva and out of Zurich? This would allow you to maximize your time.

If you want to do research into your ancestors/relatives, most everything will be in German (or French if you are looking on the French side, or even Italian if you are actually from the Tocino region in the south). A place to start would be the Geimende, or town hall, in the town or city where your relatives are from (on the French side you want the Hotel de ville, if you are talking about the Tocino region in the south, I would have to look that up). You can usually find an English-speaking person in the Geimende, except in the very smallest towns, but that may not help you much with the actual records, which will be in German/French or possibly Italian. A local university may also have records.

I agree with the above that if you want really good Christmas markets you need to go elsewhere than Switzerland. Vienna, Frankfurt and other German towns are good. Colmar which I have mentioned would be a good choice if you wanted to just make a short hop on a trip otherwise to Switzerland.

Cicerone

Sorry, to correct my own post, the town of Einsiedeln is about an hour by train from Zurich.