Switzerland

bandit wrote:

Tony_H wrote:Anyway.....Switzerland.

Who can tell me anything useful about the following resorts, the ski areas, etc:

Laax
Engelberg
Adelboden
Davos/Klosters

Well, I have been to Englelberg and Davos/Klosters. What would you like to know? It all depends on what you consider useful I guess!

Everything in terms of the ski areas; difficulty, access to pistes, variety, etc etc.

Please )

bandit wrote:
Yes, there are doom mongers and miserable sods everywhere ;-) I still maintain that it has value for Rose, because there are a huge number of links within the site.

The misery is funny and the whining about how everything under the sun was better where ever they came from is pretty much standard for a particular type of ex-pat and is also funny. It's just that most or many of the posts on topics like employment or permits are just plain wrong, in fact a huge number don't even seem to understand how Switzerland is governed and regulated let alone get the detail right :roll: I've not really followed the links and my assumption they're of a similarly low quality could well be wrong. It's just the Internet in a microcosm, lot's of plausible looking information which turns out to be wrong )

As to if there's a better source, I'm not sure. Some of the federal sites are very good on their particular subject matter and often have translations into a couple of languages.

ise wrote:
As to if there's a better source, I'm not sure. Some of the federal sites are very good on their particular subject matter and often have translations into a couple of languages.

Well, since folks faced with the possibility of relocating to Switzerland usually ask the same initial questions, I maintain that englishforum.ch would be a useful resource for Rose.

ise wrote:
It's just that most or many of the posts on topics like employment or permits are just plain wrong, in fact a huge number don't even seem to understand how Switzerland is governed and regulated let alone get the detail right

I believe that many folks outside of Switzerland now have a better understanding of "how" Switzerland is governed since the right wing SVP came to power, and the structure of Swiss Federalism was explained. Most Swiss voters, voted for the SVP, and the party keeps on producing proposals for getting nasty foreigners out of the country, which keeps them in the foreign press. That in turn encourages this sort of stuff:
http://www.ag.ch/kantonspolizei/de/pub/aktuelles/medienmitteilungen.php?controller=Mitteilung&MitteilungsId=5672&navId=Medienmitteilungen

bandit wrote:I believe that many folks outside of Switzerland now have a better understanding of "how" Switzerland is governed since the right wing SVP came to power, and the structure of Swiss Federalism was explained. Most Swiss voters, voted for the SVP,

The SVP aren't in power and most people didn't vote for them. They've 62 seats out of a possible 200 in the federal parliament. That's the largest single grouping certainly but they're outnumbered. They gained about 29% of the vote so the other 71% of the country didn't vote for the SVP. This isn't a two (or three) party democracy like the UK, many parties represent the 71% of mainstream centre/centre-left opinion there's just that one on the far right which gives them that large block. Neither is it Italy and governemt posts and policy aren't dictated by the largest single block, that's why the SVP only have two federal council seats. In cantonal elections they got around 23% of the vote IIRC. Incidentally, the SVP are now, like most right wing parties, falling out with each other so they may well have peaked electorally. The Federal Council doesn't wield much power and has small budgets so it's not as important as a central government in other European countries.

Anyone got any advice on the resorts mentioned above, rather than all this political balls?

Tony_H wrote:Anyone got any advice on the resorts mentioned above, rather than all this political balls?

It's the political balls, that sees the loonies feel justified in abusing foreigners. Interestingly we received verbal abuse from a shopkeeper in one of the resorts on your list, and each time we shopped whilst in that resort we were treated to "Oh, so you don't speak german???" Nope we don't speak it, but we understand enough to know when the locals are talking about us not to us!

bandit wrote:

Tony_H wrote:Anyone got any advice on the resorts mentioned above, rather than all this political balls?

It's the political balls, that sees the loonies feel justified in abusing foreigners. Interestingly we received verbal abuse from a shopkeeper in one of the resorts on your list, and each time we shopped whilst in that resort we were treated to "Oh, so you don't speak german???" Nope we don't speak it, but we understand enough to know when the locals are talking about us not to us!

Interesting. I find that making an effort in German not only impresses them but also surprises them, as they believe all English people only to speak English and do it slowly and loudly.

Now, come on, please - give me some info on those resorts. I am considering them as possible venues for next season, and would like to know more about them in terms of the ski areas, convenince in resort, etc.
Thanks