Switzerland

This entry in Globe Trekker's ongoing series of travelogues features American guide Brianna Barnes, who takes viewers on a tour of the small, mountainous European nation of Switzerland. Visiting a number of cities and setting aside time for explorations on a steep mountain pass, Barnes first heads for Geneva—site of CERN's Large Hadron Collider—noting how this international city is a perfect host to the United Nations' European headquarters. Also on the itinerary are a tour of Charlie Chaplin's final home (where he lived for a quarter-century after self-imposed exile from the U.S.), a stop at an Albert Einstein museum in Bern, and a look at how cheese is made in Gruyere. Barnes also participates in the peculiar sport of clearing cow dung from pastures with something akin to a golf club, and learns some of the nuances behind politically-neutral Switzerland's self-defense during World War II. Last up is a trip to Zurich, where Barnes engages in a fascinating conversation with a bank executive whose (sometimes sensitive) job it is to locate survivors of foreigners who had secret and therefore unclaimed Swiss bank accounts. Likely to be popular with armchair travelers, this is highly recommended. Aud: P. (T. Keogh)