Oh how I prepared for my first trip to this country, how carefully I studied the route - from Zurich in Lugano and back, almost all 26 cantons, as carelessly informed friends - they say, was going to drive through Lenin's places, will you advise where to spend the night, what to see . In that predefault time no one from my friends could help me even advice, I myself had to look for all the points of this cheese paradise . In the airport I asked for a cabriolet: how else would they laugh at me, but for my good luck, they were not found . The air conditioner of the eye-catching Mercedes could hardly cope with forty-degree heat, and very soon it became clear: the car brand determines the style of travel through the Swiss valleys and hills . Originally planned for the overnight stay "chalets", village houses with a view of the cows, before did not meet the expectations that the wheels themselves led to the "Excelsior" and "Eden" .

Somehow it did not work out well, another in this country, where on a bench near the Gothic Lausanne Cathedral of the pair sipped wealthy vagabonds "Moet" not the cheapest grade. Where the Geneva arrogant waiter left behind the English menu, and never returned to say goodbye. Where in the Saint Gotthard serpentine we buried ourselves in the tail of the column "Spanish-Suiz", no less, each with a driver in a muffler and antique glasses.

See the Chillon Castle from the hotel balcony, dine in a revolving restaurant on the top of Schilthorn, have fun at the February "concert of monsters" in Lucerne (where there is no hint of melancholy Venetian carnival, and the climate is better!) - all this, no doubt, is worth its money. There are quite a few such Swiss francs. But the costs return a hundredfold - and not only unforgettable impressions.

In St. Moritz, the town of the cloudless sky and the best ski slopes in the Alps, my car approached the Badrut Palace hotel itself . Having already returned home and occupied with the usual "retroshopping "- but did not miss something interesting? - I found out that this is the most expensive hotel of pathos Moritz . But it turned out that the cost of the room with an amazing view of the lake and mountains, with down duvets and handmade furniture is also a five-course dinner in a casual company with a family of some kind, then the English aristocrats! The head waiter, himself like a lord, with a fatherly smile, opened a box with ties of all possible colors in front of me: a dresscoat, oh, how could I not prepared myself! And next morning, escorting the dear guest, the manager presented me with a basket for the journey: chocolate, cheese, a bottle of brandy - the way through the pass to Lake Constance is not long. . Postcards for Christmas come so far, although I never went to St. -Moritz again . And when he was once again nearby last autumn, he traveled from French Evian to French Mulhouse without stopping, across Switzerland, past Nabokov's Vevey, past Pleštner's Bern, past the landscapes sung in the advertisement of Alpengold .

Lugano's all good once. All this must be seen, felt, enjoyed. All this should remain a fairy tale, "a dream come true," a dream that briefly turned into reality. However, our real life will never allow another.