Word: r
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...centuries the Swiss kept Rütli Meadow to themselves, and this breathtakingly beautiful greensward, ringed by towering mountains, is still not easy to get to. In 1291, men from three cantons laid the foundations of the Swiss federation there by taking an oath to resist foreign oppressors. Despite this historical significance, there are no roads anywhere near Rütli. But 700 years later, the Swiss, at long last, opened a hiking trail. Known as the Swiss Path, it meanders for more than 30 km around Lake Uri and through the forests and alpine meadows that...
Aside from being the cradle of the federation, this is also William Tell country: near Rütli is the town of Altdorf, where the legendary peasant farmer is reputed to have shot an apple from his son's head and then despatched the Austrian bailiff who forced him to do it. All around is the mountain scenery that inspired Rossini's operatic homage to the Tell legend. It is breathtakingly beautiful, yet remains largely unknown outside Switzerland. (See 50 essential travel tips...
Sections of the path can be accessed by vintage steamers that ply Lake Uri and adjoining Lake Lucerne. The most scenic stretch is the 8 km between Rütli and the hamlet of Bauen, erstwhile home of a monk who composed the music for the Swiss national anthem. The path winds upwards past fields filled with wildflowers and butterflies, sloping steeply to the placid waters of the lake. Then it emerges from the woodland, and a panorama unfolds of lofty peaks around the Gotthard Pass. The only sounds are of wind, running water and birdsong...
...crest of the hill above Rütli there is an extravagant oddity: an ornate Victorian pile that was a grand hotel and is now headquarters of the World Government of the Age of Enlightenment, founded in 1976 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Beyond it lies a meadow framed by a mountain that looks like a location from The Sound of Music, suggesting that the Maharishi picked a good place from which to usher in his new epoch of "natural law" and "world consciousness...
...book, Inside Egypt, John R. Bradley observes, "Egyptians are the most patriotic people in the Arab world." But, he adds, "I have never come across a local who does not despise his president to one degree or another." The police state that has kept Hosni Mubarak in power for three decades does not tolerate much expression of political opposition, and that may help explain why many Egyptians get more openly riled up for a soccer match than they do for a national election. Soccer provides an outlet for emotion, both positive and negative, that so many Egyptians so desperately crave...