Swiss Watching trivia, No 2: Neighbours
August 2, 2010, 4 Comments
Neighbours
Switzerland has five neighbours, all but one members of the European Union. Its longest border (734km) is with Italy to the south, its shortest with the Principality of Liechtenstein, a mere 41km. North is Germany, half-jokingly referred to as the ‘Big Canton’, west is France and to the east Austria, the traditional arch-enemy that is now the butt of most Swiss jokes. Switzerland’s current borders date from 1815, when Napoleon’s defeat meant that Geneva, Neuchâtel and Valais all rejoined the Swiss state as full cantons.
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4 Comments on "Swiss Watching trivia, No 2: Neighbours"
There seems to be little error here: “its shortest with the Principality of Liechtenstein, a mere 165km” – even 165km seemed to me a little long for the border with Liechtenstein, so I looked up http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweiz#Geographie and according to this article, the border of 165km is with Austria; only 41km with Liechtenstein.
Thanks Patrick. That’s what happens when I write something after work and misread my notes. Duly corrected.
🙂 – by the way, as a Swiss (who likes practising his mediocre English and tries to avoid “Swinglish”…) I greatly enjoyed your book (living near Solothurn, I bought it at Stauffacher’s in Bern) and think it’s 99% accurate 🙂
Glad you like the book, though I wonder what the 1% inaccuracy is 🙂
Maybe I’ll see you at the Stauffacher event on 8 September: details on the Events page of this blog.