Switzerland

The Alpine confederation where a medieval sandstone city on a river loop became the seat of a modern federal state, a banking metropolis quietly began the Swiss Reformation, and a lake town of painted houses and covered wooden bridges helped invent Alpine tourism. Read Bern at your own pace, its kilometres of covered arcades and Renaissance fountains running from the Zytglogge clock tower to the tallest church spire in the country, the bears in their riverside park and the Federal Palace above the Aare. Wander Zurich where the River Limmat leaves its lake, from the founding hill of the Lindenhof and the twin-towered minster where Zwingli preached reform to the street of gold and the reborn factory quarter of Zurich-West. Cross the Chapel Bridge in Lucerne beneath its water tower, climb the wall of nine towers, and stand before the dying lion carved for the guards who fell in Paris. Some of the most tour-packaged heritage in Europe, and all of it better on your own clock, lingering under an arcade or on a wooden bridge as long as you like.