Author & Photographer: George Mitchell
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Why Is One Country more Beautiful than Another?
A Quora poster asked this question but seemed to imply that s/he thought Switzerland was more beautiful. We lived in the Europe for 7 years and loved Switzerland. We have also lived and travelled extensively in Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. Thanks to all these experiences, here are our thoughts about this question.
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What do you think about Switzerland being more beautiful? Click the Comments link and explain why or why not?
1 Is Switzerland more beautiful?
Why do you feel Switzerland is beautiful? Is it because of all the tourist propaganda? Is it because you prefer mountain scenery in a compact country? Is it because you associate the Alps solely with Switzerland? The country with the largest percentage of the Alps is… Austria.
No the above photo is not in Switzerland, in spite of the alpenhorn performance! The country with the second largest percentage of the Alps is Italy! They happened to be called Dolomites (Dolomiti) but they are still the Alps. With an area of 52 km², Alpe di Siusi is the largest high-altitude Alp (alpine meadow) in Europe. It is preserved like a national park — no cars (except for the locals), minimal development, great hiking, and spectacular karst scenery. It is well known to Europeans.
By contrast, Switzerland is very urbanized with manicured alps (the word alp actually means meadows not mountains). Cute villages dot the landscape.
Painted and carved wood architecture adorned with flowers is the quintessential feature of Switzerland. That is what makes it picture postcard quaint.
Their strong desire for cleanliness and strict protection of the environment are other unique features of Switzerland. We remember driving through the countryside and there was a stoppage on the highway. Every driver turned their car off to minimize pollution! It’s the law.
2 Unfair Comparison
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It is difficult to compare a tiny country to either Canada or the USA. All of Western Europe can fit into Eastern Canada! Needless to say, large countries cannot be totally mountainous or totally scenic.
3 Diversity of Natural Beauty
Switzerland offers primarily two types of beauty: alpine mountains and quaint villages. Nor does Switzerland have the massive rivers and forest areas of North America.
I love mountains also. Corinne loves coastal scenery. If you love nature then you love all types of geography. The United States offers coastal scenery, desert scenery, geothermal scenery, and volcanic scenery. We both really love the red rock formations, hoodoos, and canyons of Southwest USA.
New Zealand is a combination of the uncommercialized Canadian Rockies with volcanoes and thermal areas that rival Yellowstone NP plus turquoise waters surrounding rugged coastlines. Well it is the South Pacific.
4 A Fairer Comparison
A fairer comparison would be Switzerland and the Rocky Mountains. The five contiguous parks of the Canadian Rockies are half the size of Switzerland. However, they have only three towns (villages) with 13,000 people. The rest of the Canadian Rockies is undeveloped wilderness. By contrast, Switzerland has 8.7 million people with lots of traffic and much less true wilderness.
5 The Icefield Parkway
From Lake Louise village to the town of Jasper, the Icefield Parkway provides 232 km (144 mi) of easy access to rugged Rockies, gorgeous glaciers and turquoise lakes — all from the luxury of your car.
There are not many roads in North America (or the world) that are this spectacular for this long a distance with minimal human development and commercialization. The Icefield Parkway is THE Quintessential Road Trip of Canada, if not North America. Switzerland does not have the wealth of large, spectacular turquoise lakes that can be found along the Icefield Parkway and elsewhere.
6 Wide Open Views
The Swiss Alps have beautiful mountain vistas, gorgeous glaciers, and glacial green lakes and rivers. To get away from any visible human development, you have to hike to see beautiful views like (Lake) Oberhornsee above.
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What we really love about Switzerland are the wide open views you can see whether you are in the villages, at the top of the cable cars, or on glorious hikes.
This is in part a result of deforestation to provide pasture land for farming. The result is that you can see stunning views in every direction. How can you not enjoy it.
What we really love about New Zealand are the wide open views. Like Switzerland this is in part a result of deforestation to provide pasture land for farming. The result is that driving from A to B is just as exciting as getting to destination B.
7 Wilderness vs Highly Developed
Switzerland has some tiny national parks but most of the landscape is occupied by roads, villages and ski resorts. Yes, you can go hiking from village to village — which is great if you are an urban hiker. You do not need to carry a tent.
The Southern Alps of NZ are similar to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Currently, NZ is a very pastoral country with minimal commercialization. It is developed in terms of farming but that adds to the beauty rather than detracts.
We took a Swiss friend hiking to Canada’s Glacier National Park in British Columbia (BC). A young NJ hiker asked to come a long with us as we climbed Abbot Ridge, Corinne’s favourite hike period in all of the USA or Canada. BTW, BC’s Glacier NP is not in the Rockies. It is in Selkirk and Purcell Ranges to the west of the Rockies.
When we got to the top, our NJ hiker said he has been to the Alps and the Himalayas but comes every summer to the Canadian Rockies. Then he added they are way better than the Alps, which irked our patriotic Swiss friend. He explained that in the Alps you get to the top and all you see are villages or other human development. On Abbott Ridge we had a 360º view and all we saw were more mountains, glaciers and rivers. That also sums up the difference between Switzerland and North America.
In conclusion, the Swiss mountain scenery is not that different from the Rockies or Southern Alps scenery. It’s a draw. They are all fantastic. We feel it is the quaint villages and wide open views that make Switzerland unique.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHICH
