AmericameetsSwitzerland

I've been living in Switzerland for six months now. A year ago Laura and I had first started dating and I came to Switzerland to check it out. See what this place was all about, and visit Laura. Here are three things that relay surprised me. Number one. When I 1st came it was early Spring. Lara was telling me how great the snow was. She was like you definitely need to bring your snowboard. So I bring my snowboarding in all the other gear. And the plane lands in zurich. And I get off the plane look around and it's all green grass birds singing no snow anywhere to be seen. And I'm like this girl just catfish me with her country. I don't know what I expected maybe some snow some people skiing and some reindeer. At least that's what's going on in the picture books. Reindeers really? Cows yeah but reindeer? As it turns out there are a lot of valleys in Switzerland that do not get a lot of snow. Grass does not grow a lot in the Winter but it stays pretty green. If you want to know you just go up. It's pretty crazy. Fairies like A-line on one side of the line there is green grass and on the other side there is snow. Just cross over that line and you can go Skiing. There are actually gone to us that when you get on it's all green grass and when you get off there is like 2' of snow It's pretty crazy. I guess everywhere I've lived before It's either cold or snowy or its warm the elevation doesn't make that much difference. So that actually kind of surprised me. Number two. Before I came to Switzerland I had been told that Europeans follow American politics but I had no idea. The Swiss follow American politics news all of that like it is the next episode of the bachelor. Not only to the Swiss follow American politics and they're also more than happy to give you their opinion on American politics. If you tell somebody you are an American 9 times out of 10 the 1st thing they're going to say is what you think about trump. It's like Hey I just left America I don't wanna hear about trump every day. Sam setting in my German class next to this guy from Somalia Now classes in session and we're supposed to be doing our work. And I'm like what the heck. I see this video and it is Nancy Pelosi ripping up at Donald Trump's speech. This guy is from Somalia he doesn't even speak English like why do you even care. Do you even know these people are. If you're an American out there just know before the next time you Throw a tantrum because some store won't let you buy 400 mountain dews. Switzerland is watching you. Number 3 in the US it is residential building code That all residential Exterior doors can be unlocked without a key. So they have some sort of knobs some sort of latch something like that. But in Switzerland your exterior doors require a key till unlock Them from the outside and from the inside it's pretty much identical on both sides. Now you're thinking this guy needs to get a hobby but hang in there. So I was a paramedic in the US so this is one of those things that is beat into your head You have to pay attention to the scene around you so you don't get trapped In somebody's House with a crazy guy with a batt. So it's just one of those things that I started noticing going and that of houses what kind of lock was on that door could That door be locked behind me. So when I came to Switzerland that's one of the 1st things I noticed. Is that I could be locked in every house. And that's kind of weird. And if you think about it there are a lot of ramifications for that. If there is a fire and the door is locked and the key is placed somewhere where you can't find it or your kid can't reach it somebody could get locked inside of a burning house. And that is pretty surprising to me. The only reason I can think of would be if you are trying to lock somebody into the house. Help me

I am pretty excited. So pretty much ever since I can remember I've been on the water. Either with a kayak a Canoe or something. As a little toddler my parents would take us out flat water paddling on lakes and stuff in New Hampshire. I absolutely loved it. And then growing up I got my 1st Canoe. I don't even know if it was technically my Canoe but in my mind it was my Canoe. I think somebody gave it to us because it was crushed by snow falling off the roof. So we patched it together with bondo We paddled that thing around it was awesome. Growing up a relative gave me a little tiny sunfish sailboat. So I was sailing a that all the time and absolutely loved it. And then when I moved away from home I got into white water kayaking. For the last little bit I haven't really been on the water that much. But then coming to Switzerland the lakes here are absolutely amazing. Just crystal clear water and the views with the absolutley absolutely beautiful. So I've been like scheming away. How can I get back on the water? So I've been looking at different boats I've been looking at sailboats but you have to take a special class. I don't wanna do that. I've been looking at canoes and kayaks and finally I found one that I like. So today we're going to go check it out. Now I've got a little problem. So we have our little van but no trailer and no roof rack. The Canoe is definitely not going to fit on the inside. So I've got to figure out how to move this Canoe around. So here's my solution at least until I get a roof rack. So the Van has Built-in mounting points for an actual roof rack. But I don't have any metal and I don't have a roof rack as I said. So I just took bolts and used those attachment points who is 2 sheets of plywood. Glued it together and bolted it on the roof. Hey maybe it will work. But then it rained on my plywood. But they look pretty strong still. We will see.

For more information about Klontalersee check out the link below. https://www.kloental.com/ So unfortunately my plywood roof rack has not aged so well. It's been rained on and snowed on the glue joints have come undone and it is starting to disintegrate. Fortunately, the new roof rack just came in. Here it is. I think it is a little bit better than the plywood roof rack. Hopefully, my roof rack won't fly off and kill someone. Now we just need to go canoeing. It didn't take long for Laura to get this whole canoeing thing figured out. last week was all rainy but this weekend it cleared up so we came up to Klontalersee. So the canoe is much faster than I expected. Which is nice. But without that keel, it does tend to get blown around a little bit and it does not track at all. We came up here today to paddle around check it out and do a little bit of grilling. Klontalersee is a small lake in eastern Switzerland. This lake was originally a natural lake created by a landslide, but sometime in the early 1900s a dam was built and now the lake is used for hydroelectric. Random side note. this lake was once used to produce ice back in the days before refrigerators. This is probably one of my favorite lakes in Switzerland just because the mountains shoot up right from the water and go straight up and they are ridiculously tall. It's hard to grasp the scale of these suckers in the video but let's give you a little bit of scale. The lake sits at 2769Ft above sea level and the top of that mountain 9517ft. Which is a lot taller than the lake but still it is hard for us to wrap our minds around that. from the lake to the top of that mountain is a 6748ft elevation gain in under a mile. Just to make it even crazier. If you imagine our canoe is sitting at sea level and you took the tallest mountain in the eastern USA witch is MT Mitchel. Cut it out from where it starts at the ocean and carried it over to Switzerland and set it on this lake like the lake was the ocean. Mt Mitchel would still be 65ft shorter . it is an amazing place. You don't need a canoe or kayak to check it out there are multiple hiking trails around the lake and plenty of places to picnic along the bank. If I only had a few days to visit Switzerland Klontallersee would be pretty high on my list of places to visit. I would recommend checking it out.

Every year thousands of Swiss farmer's walk near cows from their Winter pastures in The Valley to The mountains to spend the summer. This is a tradition that has been going on for hundreds of years even before Switzerland was a country. But why? Today one of the local farmers invited me to help a bring cows from this Valley up into the mountains. I was like yeah that sounds pretty cool. So I was given a special shirt And told to bring some earplugs. The shirt is a traditional herds men's shirt. Everybody today is wearing white. But other traditional colors are blue or green. And generally they have some sort of embroidery. This one has some flowers and the name of a town. Which is actually the name of the town right behind me here. It also has a pretty sweet hood. Oh yeah. It didn't take me long to figure out what the air plugs were for. Earlier that morning the farmer had switched out the cows normal Bells for these massive Bells. And they are super loud. We leave the farm and head right down through the center of the city. The older cows that have made this trip multiple times a lead the way followed by the younger cows leaving the very youngest cows in the very back. But where are we going and why are we going there. About 35% of Switzerland's farmland is high up on the mountains in what is considered the Alpine. So it make sense to have your cows graze this steep hard to access mountain sides and leave the valleys for growing crops and harvesting hay. But there's a problem. In the summer these pastors are generally pretty warm. But in the Winter it's like the North Pole. And cows don't like the North Pole. So farmers started bringing their cows to the mountains in the summer and bringing them back down to the relatively warm valleys in the Winter. And here we have the reason that farmers bring their cows up to the mountains in the summer and walk them back down to the valleys in the fall. But these are not just any old cows. These are dairy cows. Meaning they have to be milked twice A-day 7 days a week no breaks. It's just simply way too far to walk back-and-forth twice A-day to milk your cows. So the farmers and everybody else working with the cows would move up to the Alps And would stay there throughout the summer. So traditionally This is not just another days with some cows walking by your house this is saying good bye to a large portion of your community As they leave for the summer. Nowadays with modern fencing and milk machine there are not as many people needed to take care of these cows but even to day people will be living up on the mountain with these cows. And now we have a nother problem. We have farmers way up on the mountain milking their cows twice A-day with no one to drink the milk. Nowadays we have trucks cable cars and helicopters getting the milk down the mountain is no big deal. But back in the day that was no easy task. So if you can't carry it down the mountain and you can't drink it all what do you do? You make it into cheese. Switzerland's one true love. After a little over 3 hours of walking we reached the pastures where these cows will be spending the summer. We remove the enormous Bells and it's Time for me to head home. If you enjoyed this video hit that like button and leave a comment. It helps you to know that this video is worth watching. And if you would like to see more videos by us just he had that subscribe button. Thanks for watching.

The ticket was actually for going 8km over but they subtracted 5km making it 83kph in a 80. More information on Swiss speeding fines https://www.ch.ch/en/driving-over-speed-limit/ Hello everybody today we are talking about driving in Switzerland. Driving here is amazing. Except for one thing Swiss speeding cameras. These speeding cameras are called blitzes and they are literally everywhere. Like around every corner everywhere. Before moving to Switzerland I considered myself a fairly decent driver. I generally kept the speed limit. And I'd never gotten a ticket for anything Well actually once I got a ticket for running a red light. It was early morning and I had not drunk any coffee. I'm not even sure that I was really awake. It was well deserved. But I'd never gotten anything speeding-related. Not even a warning. Then after living in Switzerland For just 9 months I've gotten 2 speeding tickets and another just came in the mail. In my defense when I moved to Switzerland I did get a new car. 1.6 l inline 4 cylinder. 0 to 60 9.9 seconds. Of course with a Van like that you're gonna get speeding tickets but exactly how fast was I going. Ticket number 1. I don't know what came over me but I guess I just want to let her hair down and see what she could really do. Just let her go a little bit. Sure enough, a Blitzer got me. Going 2.5 miles an hour over the speed limit. That's right 2.5 miles an hour over the speed limit and I got a ticket. But then to make it even worse the swiss blitzer people subtract 3 km off of your total speed to make up for discrepancies in their equipment. So I got a ticket in the mail for going point 62 mph over the speed limit. Ticket number 2 I got in my Van going uphill with a Canoe on my Roof. I was like man I've got a power-up this Hill because I've got a Canoe on my roof. My Van is really powerful but sometimes it struggles on the hills. And I was focusing on powering up this Hill and they blitzer got me. 5.6 mph over the speed limit I mean that is a little bit faster. Ticket number 3 I have it in my hand But I haven't opened it. And I'm not going to open it until the end of the video. Because once I open this ticket I'm not gonna want to record anymore I'm going to be done. So if it isn't clear by now I don't love blitzer's and I Don't really like the way they're used either. But this is Switzerland and I am not Swiss and I am living in somebody else's country. So I do need to be respectful of their laws and how they choose to handle speeders. So I don't mean to be rude disrespectful to Switzerland or anything like that but on the other hand, I do think people deserve a little bit of a warning. Fortunately, when I moved to Switzerland my wife sat me down had the Blitzer talk. But others are not so fortunate I was talking to one American couple in they told me. Their 1st week of driving in Switzerland it they got $700 in tickets and didn't realize it until they came in the mail weeks later. And that's the problem in Switzerland the blitzer' Are generally pretty well Hidden and they are generally a Gray color that doesn't stand out. And that's kind of the idea that you can't see them. But if you didn't realize That there were speeding cameras you could be driving around thinking everything Is good and be getting tickets the whole time. Now they do Flash but people like me who come from places without speeding cameras may not know what to look out for. In fact, the 1st time I got a ticket I didn't know until my wife who is sitting right next to me Was like you just got a ticket that was a speeding camera. I was like I just thought I got Papyracee. And this is a common thing that foreigners coming into Switzerland don't understand how strict the speed limit is and that if you speed at all you will get caught. One great example of this is that in 2016 and there was a speeding camera put up on 1 of the major highways leading From Switzerland to Italy. This is where a lot of people go back-and-forth. In 6 month. This speeding camera gave out 68000 tickets. Now that is roughly one ticket every 4 minutes for 6 months straight. This one speeding Camera alone mates witchland 8 million dollars in that 6 month period. And I don't know for sure which direction the's camera was facing whether it was facing towards the traffic coming from Italy are going to Italy. But I'm going to guess that it was the traffic coming from Italy. I mean it was deathly the traffic coming from Italy. This video has been kind of I heart video for me to make As I've said I don't really like blitzer's and I'm kind of pull towards Being kind of annoyed about it and just ranting about it. hg

I like the Swiss mobility website and app for hiking. website https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/hiking-in-switzerland.html google play app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.schweizmobil The Komoot app is very good as well. https://www.komoot.com/ google play app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.komoot.android And some others that may be helpfull. My Switzerland. https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/experiences/summer-autumn/hiking/32-most-enjoyable-hikes-search/ All trails. https://www.alltrails.com/switzerland Outdoor active. https://www.outdooractive.com/en/hikes/switzerland/hikes-in-switzerland/1412950/ Hello everybody it has been like really hot here in Switzerland. And then today a finely cooled down. It was like 18ﾟ today not to bad. So I am out hiking I'm going to go up to this ridge here and see if I can get a time lapse of the sunset. Sorry I am a little out of breath. And of course I'm running late like my normal self. So we will see if I'm too late. This little forest I'm walking through feels like something out of the Lord of the rings Away their rocks are with the trees wrapped around them it's really crazy cool. I just took a bunch of time taking pictures of rocks so hopefully I didn't miss my sunset. The clouds are turning pink behind me so we will see. So I made it up here for the sunset it is pretty freaking awesome. And this is one of the best parts about Switzerland. Switzerland has So much outdoor access. Like there are literally trails everywhere. I can get on a hiking trail behind my house And hike anywhere I want to in Switzerland. This is a map of where I am in Switzerland right now. And these little lines all around me are the hiking trails that I could go hiking on. It is crazy there are probably more hiking trails in Switzerland then there are roads. This is the single biggest reason that you should visit Switzerland. I mean and the hiking and the views are just incredible. If you visit Switzerland you've gotta go hiking. I guess you need some information on where to go And how to get there. I'll tag some links below that will give you that information. Have a good one.

Walking the cows to the alps. https://youtu.be/hLI21eL8D5w Hello everybody this Spring I made a video about walking cows to the Alps And if you haven't seen that video check it out the links in the description. this video is kind of part 2 I don't know a continuation of that story so throughout the summer those cows of state up in the Alps eating grass in producing milk and doing whatever cows do. meanwhile, the farmers have been filling their barns with hay getting ready for the Winter and now the days are starting to get a little bit cold The leaves are turning and it won't be long until there is snow in those higher elevations. so it is time to bring the cows home. When the cows were walked up to the Alps in the Spring and they had these giant Bells on. But then in the fall, it's traditional that the cows have the giant Bells along with other decorations. These Decorations are kind of a celebration and Thanksgiving for another good summer in the Alps. The types of decorations differ depending on where you're at and what the farmer chooses to put on his cows. Today the cows are wearing these headdresses and they're pretty crazy. Check them out. I mean somebody has got to have put a ton of work into these. There's one that's a log cabin there's a chicken And one cow is even wearing another cow. That cow has to carry 2 cows down the mountain. Many of the other cows are wearing flags. There are actually 3 different types of flags here the 1st one which pretty sure everybody recognizes. The solid white cross and that of course is the Swiss flag but there's another flag it's all red with a tiny white cross in 1 corner and that is the flag for Canton Schwyz. The last flag has to black crows in the center and that is the flag for Einsiedlen where the cows will spend the Winter. This tradition of walking the cows to the Alps in the Spring and then walking them back in the fall is something That is really cool about Switzerland. I mean I'm from the East Coast of the United States And there used to be a lot of little farms there. But then with modern transportation, those farms moved out to the Midwest Where it was much easier and cheaper to farm. And then just take a train or a truck and transport that food to anywhere else in the US. And now for many people growing up in the US you never see cows in a field A tractor driving down the road or even smell manure. And I think this is a little bit of a problem because you just go to this door and there's always food where you just buy it and go home. You never have to think about everything that went into producing that food. But the Swiss have fought pretty hard to keep their farms local and as a result, it's not uncommon to see a tractor driving down the road or some cows in a field Or even smell maneuver. And I think it's a good reminder of all of this smelly dirty work if it goes into making food so that we have food to eat. So if you're visiting Switzerland or even if you live in Switzerland and you're sitting In traffic behind some cows walking to the Alps Think this is pretty cool I should take some time to appreciate this.

Today we are going to go on a car train. On one of my 1st trips to switchel and we were driving around and Laura was like let's go on a car train. And I was like what is a car train. She said it's this train that you just drive up on it and it takes you through the mountain. I said what. I'm thinking you've got a load your car up on a train car and strap it down It's going to be a lot of work and a real pain. This sounds like it's going to suck. But then I had my 1st Car train experience. And let me tell you it's amazing. Instead of getting out of your car And strap it down and go to a passenger car You can simply just drive on to the train park your car and just sit here As your car drives along. It just got dark. I'm scared of the dark. These trains in Switzerland are a pretty genius way to solve some Transportation issues. If you didn't have these trains you'd have to drive all the way around the Alps are go over passes that are sometimes covered in snow. Now of course these trains aren't anything new they are all over the Alps and there's even one going across the English channel. But we don't really have anything like this in America at least that's what I thought. And it turns out you can go on vacation with your car on a train in America. Which I guess If you have separation anxiety or if you just really miss your car. But you can actually just put it on the train with you Take it along and then when you get off the train have your car with you. We are on the other side of the tunnel and you can see the mountains that we went through behind me. And it's kind of overcast over here. The weather on the other side of the tunnel was quite a bit better. It was like Sonny and blue skies. now it's overcast and cold. I think maybe we should go back to the other side.

The Awful German Language by Mark Twain Audio book. https://youtu.be/9s-qWFhwM9o While I was recently in the USA a whole bunch of people ask me. What do they speak in Switzerland and are you going to learn it? Well here's your answer. Here is a picture of Switzerland over the US. it is tiny. And in that tiny country, they actually have 4 different languages. French, Swiss-German, Italian, and Romansch. Swiss German is the most common language spoken by about 63% of swiss. And a spoken primarily along The northern part of Switzerland. Along with Germany and Austria both German-speaking countries. But it's also spoken in central Switzerland and a little bit in the South. The next language is French spoken by about 23% of the Swiss. And is primarily spoken along with France On the Western side of Switzerland. Next, we have a Italian which is spoken by about 8% of the Swiss. And is spoken on the Southern side of Switzerland like where Italy is. And the next language is Romanish. It is a pretty cool language that was Left Behind when the Romans occupied Switzerland. So it is a mix of from the Latin that the Romans spoke but also takes a lot of grammar from German. And also take some words from the languages spoken before the Romans. However, there are only about 40000 people that speak It makes up about 0.5% of the people in Switzerland

For more information about wolves in Switzerland. https://chwolf.org/ https://www.kora.ch/ The Castle Wartenstein Castle Burgweg, 7312 Pfäfers https://maps.app.goo.gl/bRP7SmQpZKjLR3tx6 We have already talked about bears, but what about bears? Are there Wolves in Switzerland and are they going to eat you? Today we are talking about wolves. As a kid I listened to this book called winning his spurs by GA Hennty. The book took place in the middle ages and the main character was n his way back from one of the crusades and he had to cross over the Alps. On his way over the Alps, he was chased down by wolves. He made it to some sort of house or shelter or something and was able to fight off the wolves for a time. And then somehow he survived. I think maybe an avalanche came and killed the wolves. I don't know. I haven't listened to the book in years. But that was pretty much the first thing I had heard about the alps. Ever since then the alps and wolves just kind of go together in my mind when I think about the alps I think about wolves. Today Raphi and I came up to this castle. We were hoping it was going to be up above the fog but it's in the fog. It is very dark. But the for adds a cool thing to this castle. Check it out. It is freezing cold but we are going to start a fire and cook some bratwurst. But are there wolves in the alps? Well at the time of the crusades there were definitely wolves in the alps and they would eat you up along with your cows and your sheep and whatever else they could get ahold of. And you know how the Swiss love their cows. So the wolves were hunted. This was a matter of survival for these farmers. You see a wolf doesn't always kill an animal just for food. Sometimes they will do these mass killings where they will kill a whole herd of sheep and just leave the bodys. This could be devastating for a farmer. These farmers viewed itas their duty to get rid of them. By 1900 there were very few wolves in the alps. the last wolf that came from Switzerland was shot in 1947. For many years there were no wolves in the alps. Until 1995. A few wolves wandered over the border from Italy. They made their grand entrance by kill 117 sheep and 2 goats. so yeah. The population has grown over the years. In 2012 Switzerland's first wolf pack was discovered. Now a few years later there are around 80 wolves living in Switzerland give or take a few. where are you? that thing is invisible. Arn't you supposed to have lights on that thing? where is it? it is right there. where? you just turned it off don't turn it off. I didn't turn it off. His drone thought it was landing and turned itself off like 100ft in the air. Is it ok? It didn't break it? the gimble. What's broken on it? the arm in the back. We later found out that this drone has a tendency to fall out of the sky when flying in cold weather. of course, the ice on the propellers probably didn't help. But back to the wolves. But here is the real question. Are they going to eat me? Well, it is very unlikely. you see, wolves are naturally very afraid of humans and they tend to stay as far away as possible. Also, the swiss wolves are very well fed. They eat anywhere from 300 to 500 livestock every year. since the wolf had returned to Switzerland there have been no attacks on humans. So the chance of you being attacked by a wolf in Switzerland is very slim. However, it is a big fury animal with big sharp teeth that kan bight very hard. You should not pet it.

Gotthard Pass https://goo.gl/maps/FyjfZwzLDHaXMzcM8 Bellinzona https://goo.gl/maps/ZaLBbeNNYdzyzj728 The swiss miniature park https://goo.gl/maps/yX4zwbDsJK1opQjP6 The restaurant Ristorante Vetta Monte Brè https://g.page/montebre?share 🎶Dwayne Parton https://soundcloud.com/dwayneparton/sweet-tea-and-tire-swings Today we're going to show you how to visit all of Switzerland in just one day. Switzerland is a tiny little country and You would think it wouldn't take long to see the whole thing. I mean just drive around for a couple of days by some chocolate eats and cheese And your set right. Here's the thing every Swiss city and every Valley is a little bit different making them unique in their own way. You can't really visit Zurich maybe lucerne hike up the Rigi get a picture of the Matterhorn and really get a feel for what Switzerland is really like. It would take you a great deal of time to really see Switzerland but fortunately, I'm going to show you how to see Switzerland in just one day. Okey so I know what you are thinking you are thinking Gotthart pass. That is the best way to see Switzerland in a day. No. We are still on our way to see Switzerland in a day. But the tunnel had so much traffic we decided to come over the pass. And it is cold up here there is snow. I even took of my Birkenstocks that's how cold it is. even the swiss are freezing. So we are on our way to see Switzerland in a day. We are now in Bellinzona and it has warmed up a little bit so I put my Birkenstocks back in of course. This city has got to be one of my favorite Swiss city's. The old city is really cool with all of the arches and everything and there are a bunch of castles but unfortunately, this is not the place to see Switzerland in one day. We have to go to Melide which is a little bit further and right on the Italian border. We are now at the swiss miniature park and this is how you see Switzerland in one day. this Park is a collection of module buildings from all over Switzerland making a tinier Switzerland inside of tiny Switzerland. obviously, you have are not really visiting Switzerland but this is about as close as you can get in one day and it -is way cheaper. you can walk around tinier Switzerland and see all of these places from an areal perspective. The detail is pretty crazy. Everything moves the cable cars the train the water wheels. Except for the plains don't fly which is disappointing. And the cars. the cars don't drive. and this one is a little bit scratched up and dirty which is not very swiss. to make up for these disappointments there were some giant turtles and some giant fish at least compared to everything there. I really enjoyed the swiss miniature park and you should definitely check it out I will tag a link in the description below. After visiting Switzerland in just one day we still had the energy to come up to this little restaurant and watch the sunset. it is an amazing place we are looking over Lugano and on into Italy. Is you are ever in the area check out this restaurant the view is amazing. thanks for watching our Video. Have a great day.

Correction: M13 was caught on a playground in 2012. This is the museum with M13. https://www.graubuenden.ch/en/explore-regions/valposchiavo/museo-poschiavino This the the museum with Switzerlands last bear. https://www.schmelzra.ch You know how when you visit a country for the very 1st time you tend to look a few things up see what that place is all about. One of those things that I like to look up is is there anything in this country that is going to eat me. Lights cannibals or lions Tigers and bears. Lions Tigers and bears. To Lauer and I had just started dating and I came to Switzerland for the very 1st time. And before I came I was doing a little bit of researching and I was researching bears. Are there bears in Switzerland and are they going to eat me. And this is how I ran into the story of M13 Switzerland's last bear. So this weekend Lauer and I decided to make a trip down to M13 home in Southern Switzerland. Historically the Brown bear has made its home in the Alps but as you can imagine a large bear-like this with big claws and big teeth Pose a lot of danger to humans so that the Brown bear has been hunted pretty much throughout history. And then with the invention of modern guns it became much easier to shoot a bear. So the bear population in Switzerland has continued to drop and then in 2012 there is only one bare living in Switzerland. And that of course was M13. M13 lived in this Swiss Valley and was quite well-loved by the Swiss population. However a start to become a little bit of a problem you see M13 is a wild bear and he is supposed to live in the woods But then he started to wander into more populated areas he broke into several houses and started to follow people. Different bear deterrent measures were used and nothing seemed to work. The hope was that in 2012 when you went in to hibernation he would forget some of his badd ways But then when he woke up in 2013 he was worse than ever. He was caught on a school playground Fears arose and it just seemed inevitable that at some point there was going to be interaction with a human and it was not going to be good. So the decision was made and M13 was shot. And end they stuffed him and they put him in this museum right behind me so to day we are going to pay him a visit. You know I've known about m13 for quite a while now and you might say I'm a bit of a fan. But then going into that museum and seeing him sitting there even though that display was really pretty and really well done Seeing him sitting there all stuffed and whatever was just a little bit sad. But you know M13 wasn't Switzerland's last bear he wasn't even a Swiss bear. He was in Italian bear. In fact, the M13 is a Code Italy gives to its bears. He was pardoned of an Italian program to reintroduce bears into Italy. He just happened to walk across the border and start living in Switzerland. We're gonna build the wall we have no choice. So if M13 wasn't Switzerland's last bear does Switzerland have a lass bear. So as it turns out the Swiss bear population has slowly been whittled down until there were just a few bears left and what is now the Swiss National Park. So we came up to the Swiss National Park to find Switzerland's last bear. This is my 1st time going to Swiss National Park and it's pretty amazing I mean most of Switzerland has cable cars and gondolas going up every mountain. But this place feels so much more remote Just back in this Valley its woods and mountains And a dirt road it's really quite cool. And it's because this place is so remote the last of the bears were able to hide out here. I mean going back a couple of 100 years hunting bears was a pretty impressive if you could bag a bear and you are really something else. So slowly the bears were hunted to extinction and tell there was one bear left and he was shot on this mountain right behind me. And then of course they stuffed him and they put him in this museum right behind me. You know I'm kind of noticing a trend here. So back to the original question are there any bears in Switzerland. Well yes and no. No there are no bears that live in Switzerland but yes there are actually quite a few bears they come and visit Switzerland for a very short time and then Leave. So it is possible that you could run into her barren Switzerland but it is pretty unlikely.

America has the 4th of July France has the 14th of July. But Switzerland's national holiday is on the 1st of August. So to celebrate the birth of Switzerland we decided to go back to the place it started 729 years ago. 729 years ago the Mongols were knocking on the door of the Holy Roman Empire. Scotland was fighting for its freedom. And the last to the crusaders were losing their footing in the holy land. But as these major world events were taking place in the Alps there was a smaller lesser-known group of people. These people were divided into 3 tribes all living along the edges of this Lake The tribes were Uri to the south Underwalden to the East and Schwyz to the West. In Switzerland of these tribes are referred to as the 3 forest cantons. Each of these 3 forest cantons was loosely connected to the Holy Roman Empire but They ruled for themselves made their own laws had their own judges and did as they please. But then along came the bag guys. The bag guys were the Habsburgs. And they came out of what is now Western Switzerland But at that time it was just called bag guy land. These bad guys had a well-organized military with nights and armor and other weaponry. Each of the 3 forest cantons couldn't resist the Habsburgs alone so they gave in to the Habsburg rule. According to legend, each Canton sent a representative this Meadow at the dead of night. They conspired against the Hapsburgs all swearing an oath that together They would fight so they could once again be free. And so Switzerland was born with 3 cantons coming together to fight off a common enemy. Now, this is all legend but there are some early writings and a historian called globi that say this not only happened but that William tell was one of the original oath takers. And if you don't know who William tell is William Tell is the crossbow wielding hero of Switzerland. Unfortunately, there's very little evidence that this oath called the rutli oath Ever even took place. The rutli oath wasn't written about tell over 200 years after it supposedly happened And the Swiss historian globe I hardly seem like a credible source. However, my wife insists that she learned all of her history from globi and that he is the real deal. OK so here is what we actually know about the history of Switzerland. The 3 cantons were overrun by the Habsburgs and they did come together Signing several contracts to fight together And agreeing on some other laws and things like that. The earliest of these contracts are considered to have been written in early August 1291. After uniting under these contracts the early Swiss drove out the Habsburg and along the way Became quite well known for their ferocity at war. Over the years more and more cantons Join the Original 3 and tell we have what is now modern Switzerland. Although there is no proof it is possible that the 1291 contract was made in the rutli Meadow. However, it is far more likely that there were other unwritten contracts that predates the 1291 contract. And it is quite possible that that contract was made in the rulli Meadow. Fortunately will probably never know what happened here. But as far as this which are concerned this is where Switzerland started 729. Everybody thank you for watching and a huge shout out to Laura. She broke her foot about a year ago And they put some screws in it when they fixed it. And now they just remove them 2 days ago and she still agreed To come up here with me and walk around. She's got a little bit of a limp here but she's doing great. If you wanna see more of our videos hit that subscribe button hit that like button we appreciate it.

Today we are going to climb this big rock right behind me. It's a little bit early in the morning here and I'm about to head up to Flims. But 1st I've got to go pick up some other guys. How's it going? This is a via ferrata this is how we're going to climb up this big rock. I'm going to tell you more about that in just a second but 1st we're gonna get somewhere where it is dry. The weather is kind of crapy. It's a pretty big drop. We are now partway up the via ferrata and the rain has cleared up a little bit. Were also under this little cave thing but check out how far down it is. But what exactly is a via Ferrata. Well, the best way to describe it is that it is kind of like a high angle ropes course. With these tiny little paths swinging bridges and all these letters and stuff. But strapped hundreds of feet up on these rock faces. But historically via ferrata wasn't always a sport. Originally these routes were made for a practical purpose. Most of them were made by militaries so that they could get their troops in hard to get to places. But not all of them were. Like this one here. This is via ferrata pinut. I don't really know how to say I'm sorry. This is the oldest via Ferrata in Switzerland in it was created somewhere around 1700. And believe it or not there was created by farmers. But why it did farmers create a via Ferrata. Well as it turns out halfway up this rock face there is a small Meadow called the pinut Meadow. And they would go up this cliff face to cut hay And then bring the hay back down to feed their cows. Apparently, they would cut down trees in strapped them on to the rocks somehow And then climb up the trees to get up here. They would climb up here through this cave and up into the Meadow. In the craziest thing about it is the hay from this Meadow is only enough to feed one cow for the Winter. Nobody really knows who originally climb this route or how they found a way up this rock face. It's just crazy to think that 300 years ago there was some farmer standing there with his wooden pitchfork thinking Yep I'm going to climate this 100 m rock face today and cut some hay. I've got some mad respect for whoever that was. We're now up in the Meadow and it's no longer used for Hey so the farmers no longer come up here. But the via Ferrata was turned into a tourist attraction Now he has these big metal staircases that you see And the safety cables. It's nothing like it originally was. And you to can Come to visit this you can rent the equipment you can hire a guide. And it's a lot of fun you should check it out. The views are amazing. And you didn't see any of those today. This sport of Via Ferrata has come a long way since the original routes were made. Now there are over 1000 routes in the Alps alone Many of which are made for sport and have no practical purpose at all. This route is really not typical via Ferrata. Normally they're a little bit more like climbing they don't have these big platforms that you see here. But almost every route has this steel safety cable. You attach yourself to this cable using a harness and a special tether designed specifically for via ferrata. From my understanding, the original route stopped at the Meadow. However, now the route goes all the way up to the top of the rock face. We have now made it to the top. The Sun is kind of barely peeking through. We were really hoping to get at least one decent view. But no. Thanks for watching our video I really appreciate it. What do you get there a giant stick you going to whack someone with that. This is not sponsored by those.