From 1967’s Magical Mystery Tour TV Movie. The song was allegedly inspired as a result of the strange appearnce & disparance of a man on Primrose Hill in London, witnessed by McCartney. The film was shot in the south of France,minus the other Beatles
Did You Know…
Qatar is sometimes called the “Olympic paradise” in the world. In this Arab country you can feel the Olympic atmosphere: many children competing in athletics, tennis, football, volleyball, basketball, karate, gymnastics and judo. Cylist legend Eddy Merckx said, “Qatar as a country pushes for sport. No other country in the world is doing what Qatar is doing for sport – especially for kids. As a child, sport is a great school of life. It shows you that just talent is not enough – you also have to work very hard. If you’re a lawyer, you stay a lawyer for life. As a sportsman or sportswomen, you have to start every season at the beginning again. It’s hard to become the best, but it’s even more difficult to stay the best year after year.” Certainly, Qatar – it is about the size of Hawaii- has one of the best sporting systems outside of the industrialized world.
The Arab athlete Saif Saaeef Shaheen won the gold medal in the 3,000m steeplechase at the 2003 World Athletics Championships in Paris, France. There were celebrations for Qatar, after he won the gold medal. Saif Saaeef Shaheen wrote history for Qatar becoming the first Qatari to win a world championship in the Olympic sport.
Qatar qualified for the 2007 Handball World Championship. It was the third time that Qatar had qualified for a World Cup. Under the direction of Ekrem Jaganjac, Qatar`s national coach, the Qatari team defeated Australia 36-22. “In Qatar, there are no outstanding players, but there are many enthusiastic young ones, and I concentrate all my work on them”, said Jaganjac, who was a member of the enlarged Yugoslav team for the Summer Olympics in 1972.
Doha was scheduled to host the FIFA World Youth Championship in 1995.
Ahmed Ibraheem was the first runner to represent Qatar at an Olympic track event when he competed in the 10,000 metres and 5,000 metres at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad in Seoul (South Korea) in 1988.
The Qatari football team finished sixth at the Olympic Games in Barcelona (Spain). In the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Football Tournament 16 men`s teams competed in four rounds (preliminaries, quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals). Under the brilliant leadership Mubarak Nooralla, Qatar defeated Egypt (African champion) 1-0 in the first round. Qatar represented Asia in the quarters finals, but was eliminated by Poland, one of the best teams of Europe. The Olympic players were Ahmed Khalil Saleh, Hamad Al-Atteya, Rashid Shami Suwaid, Zamel Essa Al-Kuwari, A-Nasser Ali Al-Obaidly, Waleef Bukhit Maayof, Mubarak Nooralla, Juman Salem Johar, Mahmoud Yaseen Souf, Fahad Mohd Al-Kuwari, Adel Mulla Al-Mulla, Mohd Al Mohannadi and A-Aziz Hassan Jaloof.
Doha -the country`s capital and largest city- is one of the most modern sporting cities in the world. It has many sports facilities.The Khalifa International Stadium is the nation`s largest stadium. It is one of the most beautiful and modern stadiums in the world. Doha is also the home of the Hamad Aquatic Centre.
This Asian country organized the 1999 Handball World Junior Championship. There were 17 teams: Denmark, Sweden, Egypt, France, Yugoslavia, Spain, Russia, Greece, Tunisia, Portugal, Croatia, Qatar, Brazil, Israel, Norway, Hungary and New Zealand.
Doha hosted the Asian Games in December 2006. The opening ceremony on 1 December was held at the Khalifa International Stadium before a crowd of more than 50,000. At the 2006 Asian Games, Sheik Mohammed Bin Hamad Al -Thani, a Qatari horseman, did the honors of carrying the Olympic flame and lighting the torch. A record number of 45 countries and territories participated in the event. The Olympic village was home to 10,500 sportspeople.The competitive programme included 39 sport events: archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, bodybuilding, bowling, kayak, chess, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, handball, field hockey, judo, kabaddi, karate, rowing, rugby, sailing, sepaktakraw, shooting, softball, squash, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, triathlon, tennis, volleyball, beach volleyball, water polo, weightlifting, wushu and wrestling. These Asian Games will be remembered for its excellent organization and hospitality. The success of the Asian Games was result of the combined efforts of the Qatari government and the organizing committee (Doha Asian Games Organizing Committee). The Asian Games are the second largest international sporting event after the Summer Olympic Games.
The Qatari athlete Musa Obaid Amer finished fourth in the 3,000m steeplechase at the Olympic Games in Athens, the capital city of Greece.
Qatar won the second place at the 1981 FIFA World Youth Cup in Sydney (Australia). Qatar`s qualification for the finals was one of the greatest surprises.
Talal Mansoor made history at the 1994 Asian Games by winning three gold medals (100m, 200m and 4×400m relay).
The Asian Cup, the continent`s top football tournament, was held in Qatar in 1988.
Doha is officially bidding for the 2016 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. As chairman of the Doha Bid Committee, Hassan Ali Bin Ali said: “A lot has already changed in Qatar and in particular Doha, in the last 50 years. If we were granted the opportunity to stage the Olympics and Paralympics in 2016, it would not only allow us to further develop the city’s infrastructure but also to use the power of peaceful sporting competition to create understanding, hope and change that could unite the entire region with the rest of the world. Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Doha would bring the Olympic flame to the Arabic-speaking world for the first time, extending the Olympic ideals to millions of new hearts and minds”.
Andres Sebastian Soria Quintana is one of the most talented footballers from Qatar. He came to Doha from Uruguay as a footballer professional and got Qatari nationality just in the time for the 2006 Asian Games. He was born on November 8, 1983 in Paysandu, Uruguay (South America). He is symbol of multiethnic Qatar.
Said Asaad is one of the greatest weightlifters in Qatari sports history. He won a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Australia. Like Mohammed Sulaiman (track and field), Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (shooting), Jaber Salem (weightlifting), Talal Mansoor (athletics), he is one of the country`s most respected personages.
Qatar is the home of the ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence. It is one of the world`s leading elite sports institutions.The Academy has four departments: Sports, QESA (Quality Management ,Education and Social Affairs), IT (Information Technology) and Administration. These centers provide accommodations, coaching training facilities, Olympic studies and medical care for students from Qatar and the Third World. The Academy also participates in international sports exchanges and has signed official sports exchange agreements with Third World countries. This center is one of the most beautiful sports installations in the world. Andreas Bleicher, Sports director at ASPIRE, said: “We have always looked to position ASPIRE as an international academy whose primary focus in sports in Qatar. A major part of our approach has been to evaluate talent at on early stage and look to bring out the best in our young sportspeople. This intense, local focus has been matched by a global process of talent identification”.
The Qatari team won four gold, five silver and eight bronze medals during the Asian Games held in South Korea in 2002.
Mohammed Sulaiman became the first Qatari sportspeople to win an Olympic medal at the Olympic Games in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. His achievement was greeted with joyful celebrations in the country. He also participated in athletics in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta (USA). He was one of the best Arab and international runners of the 20th century.
Qatar was one of the 160 countries who participated at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Republic of Korea. It participated in one sport: track and field. Some of the athletes were: Saad Mubarak (4×100m relay ), Talal Mansoor (100m), Faraj Marzouq (4×100m relay), Ismael Mohammed (800m), Mohammed Ahmed (1,500m), Ahmed Ibraheem (10,000m and 5,000m) and Rashid Marzouq (110m hurdles).
Mubarak Hassan Shami, one of athletics greatest performers, won a silver medal in the marathon at the IAAF World Championship in Japan in 2007.
The Qatari delegation competed in the 2007 Arab Games held in Cairo (Egypt), and won 14 gold, 13 silver and 13 bronze medals.
The Qatar Sports Club is considered one of the most beautiful and modern clubs in the world.
From 2000 to 2007, a large number of famous athletes visited Qatar. They included: Diego Armando Maradona (football), Haile Gebrselassie (track and field) and Nadia Comaneci (gymnastics).
The Qatari athlete Ibraheem Ismael was finalist in the 400m at the 1992 Olympics.
The Doha IAAF World Super Tour 2007 was the largest sports even in Qatar after the Doha Asian Games in 2006 and the FIFA World Youth Championship in 1995.
Khalfan Ibrahim Khalfan Al Khalfan is one of the most honourable athletes at present. In 2006, he was named Football Player of the Year by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). He was born on February 18, 1988 in Doha.
Hassan Ali Bin Ali (chairman of the Doha Bid Committee) is an ardent supporter of the Olympic ideal and work hard on the promotion of the Olympic movement in Qatar.
The World Table Tennis Championship took place from March 1st to 7th 2004 in Qatar.
Qatar made its Olympic debut at the Games of the XXIII Olympiad in Los Angeles (California,USA) in 1984. It qualified 27 sportspeople in three sports: athletics, football and shooting.
The Qatari basketball team, with star players such as Hashim Zaidan Zaidan, Seleem Abdulla, Daoud Mousa Daoud and Erfan Ali Saeed , beat out the powerful South Korea team to win bronze medal in the 23rd Asian Championship that were held in Doha.
The state of Qatar won 6 medals at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing (China), which counted with the participation of 6,122 athletes from 37 countries. Overall, Qatar ranked eight, after the People`s Republic of China, South Korea, Japan, North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia.
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Many people see the effects and understand the benefits of lifting weights to strengthen and build their skeletal muscles. The more you work a given muscle with proper nutrition, the bigger and/or denser that muscle gets, just look at any bodybuilder or fitness model. Also, the more you work a muscle or a set of muscles, the more calories you will burn causing a reduction in body fat percentage. Again, just look at bodybuilders or marathon runners for good examples. Although people tend to focus on the “mirror” muscles, or the muscles that you can physically see when you look in the mirror, many tend to overlook other muscles that you can’t see, but are much more important. Fortunately, most of these muscles are also improved when one works on the “mirror” muscles. These overlooked muscles include the diaphragm, the internal abdominals, and probably the most important one is the heart. So how do you target the heart to strengthen it and what are the benefits of doing so?
First, let’s get a direction in mind so we know where we are going. I am going to use and extreme example to describe the goals that we all should aim for in strengthening our hearts. Then I will get into the benefits of each of these areas. By focusing on something beyond where we want to get to, we will be sure to achieve our goals. Just like martial artist who demonstrate their skill by breaking a board by aiming for a spot behind the board, we will focus on levels beyond what we need for our fitness levels.
The extreme example is none other than the living cyclist legend, Lance Armstrong. Although he doesn’t hold the record in all the levels I will be describing, he probably has the strongest cardio system out there overall. Lance is the 5 time winner of the Tour de France. He has reigned over this grueling race for half a decade because of many factors. Most importantly for him, his lactate threshold is at a heart-rate of 178 beats per minute (bpm). This means that he can exercise at a level where his heart rate gets up to that point before lactic acid begins to enter the muscles which then causes fatigue. Most people don’t even workout on the treadmill at a heart-rate higher than 130-140. Combine this with the fact that his resting heart-rate is 32 to 34 bpm, almost half of the average person’s resting heart-rate and you can see why he can peddle at a much higher spin rate than most people without fatiguing. For a healthy heart, a lower resting heart-rate means a lower heart-rate when exercising at similar exertion levels compared to others. In other words, if I went jogging with Lance, his heart-rate would be much lower than mine even though we would be feeling the same amount of exertion. (Of course, my perceived exertion level may be higher than his.)
VO2max is the standard measure of aerobic fitness based on the body’s ability to take up oxygen. This is a measure of how the lungs can take oxygen out of the air we breathe in and put it into the blood stream and how the muscles then are able to take it out of the blood and utilize it for their needs. Lance’s level of 83.8 ml/kg/min is much higher than the average person whose levels measure in between 40-50 ml/kg/min. The average male endurance athlete usually has levels near 70 ml/kg/min. This is important, because the higher this number is, the fewer times the heart has to pump to get oxygenated blood to the muscles. If his blood had lower levels of oxygen, his heart would have to pump more often to get more blood to the muscles. Also, Lance’s heart is 30% larger than the average heart again allowing his heart to beat fewer times to push the needed blood through the body. This would be similar to someone with larger muscles being able to squeeze something harder than someone with smaller muscles.
Because of Lance’s training, he has strengthened his heart to accomplish all of this plus allow him to workout at a maximum heart rate of 201bpm. The average healthy 30 year old male should be very careful about working out at heart rates approaching 190bpm. An average healthy 50 year old male should only workout at a heart rate of 170 bpm under direct supervision of a physician.
Just like your skeletal muscles where you strengthen them by lifting heavier weights or pressing against bigger resistance, you have to strengthen your heart by exercising it against greater resistance. You wouldn’t start out trying to lift 500 lbs in the gym and you shouldn’t try to maximize your heart rate right from the start either. So let’s get into how you train to strengthen your heart.
The general belief is that you need to do cardio exercises such as running, cycling, or walking to work the heart. This is true, but it is not the only way to get your heart rate up.
When you increase the load on your muscles through resistance (weight training) or through increased frequency of use (running), the muscle requires more oxygen to perform its functions properly. It is the hearts responsibility to move the blood through the body to transport the oxygen from the lungs to the muscles and return the used oxygen (which has been combined with carbon to form carbon monoxide) back to the lungs to be expelled from the body. This is one way to increase the resistance against the heart. Another way is strictly through weight training. When you contract a muscle, it forces blood out of the muscle. The heart then has to push harder to get the blood back into that muscle after it relaxes. Jet pilots use this process to keep from blacking out in mid flight. They practice on contracting their neck muscles in such a way to keep blood in the head when they experience increased gravity forces. The harder and faster that you squeeze a muscle, the harder and faster your heart has to pump to get the blood back into the muscles.
This is very important in the strengthening of your heart. You need to increase how hard your heart has to work to have strength gains. If you did a bicep curl with just a bubble gum wrapper you wouldn’t see improvement in the strength or size of your bicep. The same concept implies to your heart. You aren’t going to strengthen your heart if you don’t require it to force more blood through your body. So when you work harder, either by running faster, peddling faster, or lifting heavier weights, more blood is returned to your heart causing more resistance for your heart to push it back through your body. This means that it is more important for you to work harder, or at a higher intensity, than it is for you to workout longer. The stronger your heart gets, the more blood it can pump with less effort. So how hard should you workout or at what intensity level? A fitness professional can help you determine what heart rate will be the best for you to target. But if you don’t have a heart rate monitor there is a simple way to determine how hard you should be working out. I will describe this when I talk about starting a workout program.
Benefits
The increase working capacity of the heart is just one of the benefits to strengthening your heart. Others include preventing heart disease (the leading cause of death in men and women) and stroke. The increased exercise will also cause the lowering of your blood pressure, the raising of your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels (Healthy cholesterol) and the lowering of your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels (Lazy cholesterol). Other benefits from exercising to strengthen your heart include the prevention or reduction of obesity, increase in mental health, and lower body fat percentages. The increase in blood flow will also bring more nutrients that the muscles need to at least maintain or grow allowing them to function better for better daily activity. It also helps in removing waste from your muscles, such as lactic acid that I described earlier when talking about Lance. Not only does this also improve the performance of your muscles, it reduces soreness after workouts.
Exercise
As I discussed earlier, both cardio workouts as well as weight training workouts help strengthen the heart. If you are new to weight training, start with machines and learn the proper way to set them up to avoid injury. Most gyms will have someone on staff to help you do this. Use a weight that is heavy enough to feel the resistance but light enough not to fatigue the muscle in 20 repetitions to start with. Once you get used to the movement, usually after a few times of trying it out, you can then increase the weight so that when you reach that twentieth repetition you feel that you couldn’t do one more. When this weight becomes easier add in another set until you are doing at least 3 sets of 18 reps. Whenever you feel that you can do 3 or 4 more after the last rep of the last set without resting, increase the weight the next time you workout. You will need to rest the muscles you worked for 48 hours so they can recover and repair themselves allowing them to grow stronger. You should notice that you are breathing heavier during and right after each set. This means that you are working the heart harder to get the blood back in those muscles. If you don’t experience heavier breathing, then try using more weight the next time.
When starting a cardio routine, your goal is to get at least 20 minutes at a higher intensity during your workout. At first, you may need to do light cardio for only 10 minutes. I have had clients who could only go for 5 minutes before needing a break. They soon were able to build that up 10, 15, and then up to 20 minutes. After you are used to 20 minutes, you can increase your time up to 45-60 minutes. There is no real need to go longer than 60 minutes unless you are training for a long run such as a 10K, 20K or marathon. Ideally, you should do 40 minutes of moderate to heavy intensity four days per week.
In order to workout at a moderate to heavy intensity, you need to know how it feels at those levels. Here are some basic guidelines to follow to determine how intense your workout is for you. Remember, your fitness level will determine how fast are hard you have to go to get to these levels. In other words, it will take a faster pace for Lance Armstrong to get to a moderate intensity than it will for the 65 year old obese person just starting out. If you feel weak or dizzy, slow down or stop, and of course, consult a physician if you have any health problems before you begin.
Intensity Levels Defined
Very low level of intensity – You are able to sing without difficulty.
Low level of intensity – You are able to talk without much difficulty.
Moderate level of intensity – You can talk with a little difficulty.
Heavy level of intensity – You can almost not talk at all.
Very high level of intensity – You can’t talk at all. This level is not recommended for beginners. You should only workout at this level after being on a program for a few months.
You do not need to maintain the exact same level of intensity throughout your workout. At times you can push a little harder and slow down at others. This is commonly referred to as interval training. It is beneficial to workout both at a constant rate as well as doing interval training. The fluctuation of your heart rate helps train it to recover faster and studies have shown a greater fat loss during interval training. Also, your mind is more active and the exercise isn’t as monotonous which helps to prevent boredom. If you can’t dedicate a full 30-40 minutes at one moment during the day, you can split that up into 10 and 20 minute segments throughout the day.
Get out there and do it!
Now you know the benefits of a stronger heart, you know how to strengthen your heart, there is just one more thing for you to do. Get out there and work it. Have fun doing it and you not only get the benefit of a healthier heart, you also get the benefits of the good feeling that you did when you were playing like when you were a kid!
Read the sports section of any newspaper lately and you will no doubt see the headlines dealing with Lance Armstrong’s alleged use of EPO. Apparently, he is accused of testing positive for having used the substance to enhance his performance during several Tour de France cycle races. Actually, the use of EPO in endurance exercise is nothing new and it has been recognized as an ergogenic or performance enhancing substance for several years. This article aims to provide some basic information on EPO, its mechanism of operation and the dangers involved with its use by athletes.
What is EPO?
EPO is an abbreviation for erthropoetin. Contrary to many of the articles currently in the media, erythropoietin is not a drug – it is a peptide hormone produced naturally in the body, manufactured and released from the kidney. The role of EPO is to stimulate bone marrow to manufacture more erythrocytes (red blood cells). This has the effect of increasing the hematocrit – the percentage of blood by volume composed of erythrocytes. Special oxygen sensitive cells in the kidney are able to determine the concentration of oxygen in the blood, and this is the suspected mechanism for its release into the blood stream.
A good example of EPO’s working is the effect of increased altitude on blood oxygen concentration. As altitude progressively increases, atmospheric pressure decreases. Therefore the amount of air at altitude decreases, decreasing the available oxygen (nitrogen, carbon dioxide too) needed for respiration. The kidney cells detect this decrease in oxygen and release EPO into the bloodstream to stimulate the production of more erythrocytes. Erythrocytes contain a protein called hemoglobin, which via the blood circulatory system transports oxygen from the lungs to other parts of the body and to a lesser degree carries carbon dioxide back to the lungs where it is exhaled.
Why do athletes use EPO?
Actually, the main use of administrating exogenous sources (not produced within the body) of EPO in humans is to treat patients suffering from anemia, especially those with kidney failure and those undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. However, with the recent great increase in genetic engineering technology, synthetic or recombinant EPO (rEPO) has become readily available and has come to be abused by athletes – especially endurance athletes. The theoretical logic for its use as an ergogenic aid in athletes is this: if you increase the oxygen-carrying ability of the blood (erythrocytes) above normal levels, then it follows that the muscles will receive more oxygen and be able to perform better and generate more power for longer periods of time, thereby significantly improving performance.
This logic explains why some endurance athletes train at altitude or participate in the forbidden practice of “blood doping” as a means of boosting the number of erythrocytes. Blood doping involves drawing blood from an athlete to induce anemia, waiting a few weeks to allow erythropoietin to restore the hematocrit to normal levels (~ 45% men, ~ 42% women), and then reinfusing the athlete’s stored blood thereby boosting the erythrocyte density. Administration of rEPO is capable of producing performance benefits comparable to blood doping and significantly better results than several weeks or months of altitude training. An athlete may boost their hematocrit levels 3-4% within 4 weeks with rEPO use. As a result of this ergogenic effect, several athletic governing bodies have frowned upon blood doping and rEPO use, as they are essentially methods of cheating.
How do you test for EPO abuse in athletes?
Testing athletes suspected of rEPO abuse is complicated and may in large part explain athletes like Lance Armstrong’s predicament. Although there are some protocols for the detection of rEPO, unfortunately at this time it is difficult to perform these tests with a very high degree of accuracy. rEPO has very slight biochemical differences to EPO produced within the body and is detectable in urine, but its half-life is so short, it is usually undetectable within 12 hours of administration. Another method of detection is to measure the athlete’s pre-competition hematocrit and percentage blood composed of reticulocytes (immature erythrocytes). Sports governing bodies like the International Cycling Union have placed a ceiling on athlete pre-competition hematocrit values at 50% (that is 50% of the blood volume is erythrocytes) and reticulocyte values at 2.4%. Reticulocytes begin to appear in the blood immediately after a rEPO dose and then later mature into erythrocytes. The value of 50% is “theoretically” proposed as the maximal hematocrit that can be achieved though natural physical conditioning means.
This method of setting a ceiling value is somewhat flawed however, as it may discriminate against the very few exceptional athletes (Lance Armstrong included) having a naturally higher training-induced hematocrit. In other words, it may be difficult to discriminate between a superior athlete with a genetically higher hematocit that may have boosted their levels “naturally” by performing altitude training and one that received the unfair advantage from simply taking several doses of rEPO. In the future, it is likely that rEPO and anabolic steroid hormone manufacturers will be required to attach an identifying chemical “tag” to their products to assist with detection.
What are the dangers associated with uncontrolled EPO abuse?
As with most ergogenic substances, there is usually a downside associated with their use. Although its recent track record is relatively clean, the health risks associated with its uncontrolled rEPO use have in some instances proven deadly. There is a strong link between the deaths of several Dutch cyclists and their apparent use of rEPO in the early 1980’s. The explanation for the deaths is suspected as an excessive proliferation of erythrocytes, producing a condition known as polycythemia.
As the hematocrit increases, the other main component of blood called plasma decreases. Plasma is the liquid portion of blood, and under normal conditions forms about 55% per unit volume. In a condition such as polycythemia, the blood becomes thicker – almost sludgy, making it increasingly difficult for the heart to pump blood though the body. Again is unclear of the exact cause of the deaths but it is likely that heart attacks were responsible. The increased viscosity of the blood also increases blood pressure and the risk of a clotting incident like a stroke. Just as the temptation exists for the use of any performance-enhancing product, there is the associated temptation to experiment with ever increasing doses, so the risks associated with rEPO use by the inexperienced user are quite real.
In conclusion, this article has aimed to provide some basic information on EPO and it effects on exercise and sport performance. Although there are some disadvantages associated with its use, it is probably the most effective ergogenic substance available today for endurance events. The benefits of rEPO on endurance-type exercise are comparable to the effects of anabolic steroids in events that rely heavily on strength and power. The future usefulness of EPO remains to be seen; but as science and technology advance, it is likely that rEPO may be replaced by less detectable and more effective substances such as recombinant hemoglobin and possibly even injectable genes.
Switzerland is known as The Land of the Alps, and rightfully so. Bordered by France, Germany, Italy and Austria, Switzerland offers the most breathtaking views of the panoramic Alps. Though small, it is also one of the richest countries in the world, which is why there is no wonder many tourists dream of a Swiss vacation. There are plenty of Switzerland tourist attractions, too, although there are five you should definitely stop to see.
1. The Chillon Castle – Located on the shore of Lake Geneva, the Chillon Castle is one of the most famous castles in Switzerland. Consisting of 100 buildings, it dates back to the 11th century and is the former residence of the Savoy nobility. It also has three courtyards and four great halls which offer magnificent views of the lake beyond.
2. Zermatt – Although there are many beautiful ski resorts in Switzerland, Zermatt stands out as one of the top Switzerland tourist attractions because it is located at the foot of the Matterhorn, the most famous peak of the Swiss Alps. Even if you’re not into skiing, you can still enjoy the view while dining at a gourmet restaurant or shopping around the town.
3. Geneva Jet D’eau – This fountain in the heart of one of Switzerland’s major cities is one of the tallest fountains in the world, projecting water up to 140 meters high. Built in 1891, it is also considered one of the symbols of the city of Geneva.
While in Geneva, you might want to see other tourist spots, too, particularly the museums. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum is one of the most popular museums in Switzerland, and is definitely worth a visit, along with the Cathedral de St. Pierre and other historical buildings.
4. Swiss National Park – Although you cannot pitch a tent and spend the night at Swiss National Park, you can certainly appreciate the different views of the Alps as you go hiking, which is why it is one of the Switzerland tourist attractions worth seeing. It is also Switzerland’s only national park, covering almost half the area of the entire country. It is a sanctuary for various wildlife such as elks, marmots and eagles, as well.
5. Swiss Transport Museum – Located in Lucerne, the Swiss Transport Museum is home to an exhibit of locomotives, ships, aircraft, automobile and other modes of transport and communication. It also houses an extensive collection of the works of Hans Erni, a Swiss painter and sculptor. You’re sure to enjoy the Planetarium and the IMAX theatre, too.
Indeed, Switzerland has many sights waiting to be discovered. Aside from visiting Switzerland tourist attractions, don’t forget to immerse yourself in the country’s rich culture, too by participating in festivals or simply mingling with the Swiss. You’re sure to have a wonderful time and many golden memories to take home with you.
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