10 Things You Least Wanted To Know About Switzerland

10. Rivers running through cities. A bridge with curved pillars every mile. Cobbled streets that go nowhere and everywhere. Church with huge clock. Tall buildings with spires. The occasional castle with a torture chamber. All checked. Now I can start narrating stories that begin "You know that time when I was backpacking across Western Europe ...."

9. After days of eating Fondue, Raclette and Pizzas, you realize that white rice is actually ambrozia.

8. That piece of cloth that looked like a shoe-wipe is not a shoe-wipe, but designer wear. That price tag of 49 swiss francs is actually 49 swiss francs and is officially outright robbery.

7. Vegas makes money with casinos. Paris makes money with museums. Bangalore makes money with computers. Switzerland makes money with cows wearing bells and banks without rules.

6. The California state motto of "Eureka" is inspired by Archimedes. New Hampshire gets it's motto of "Live Free or Die" from a famous American Revolutionary. Zurich gets its motto from the famous thamizh saying "thottadhukellam kaasu".

5. Have "shopping issues" ?? Worried if significant-half will run riot shopping ?? Fear not. Provide SH directions to Bahnofstrasse - where the sheer number of shops make it look like North Usman Road, but price tags make it the Champs Elysee of Zurich. The only affordable thing found (and was immediately bought) on Bahnofstrasse: Roasted Peanuts.

4. All the statues found on main downtown streets feature nude gods and godesses. Either the medieval sculptors were less imaginative with fashion or there was no fear of censorship.

3. Daily breakfast together at the hotel buffet. Daily lunch on in-room service. Daily Dinner at the Airport food court. This has to the most romantic swiss trip imaginable. By a margin as wide as Sehwag's bat.

2. If there was a 11th commandment, it would read "Don't indulge in Swiss Chocolates". A simple plan of eating a single bar is usually followed by a few hours of empty staring at the bulging gut with enormous volumes of guilt and a dozen wrappers at your feet. Sinful.

1. Engineers are polite. Waiters are polite. Managers are polite. CIOs are polite. Drivers are polite. Co-passengers are polite. Dogs are polite. Everyone is so polite that one would think Poornam Viswanadhan was a dada from korukkupet.