Larry wrote:
BrianH wrote in news:d40f0$47dcc922$544bb5cd$13325
@news.hispeed.ch:

[snipped]
When Werner came back from Thun last time, a few years ago, I was looking
through the pictures from the streets and told him it looked fake! There
wasn't even a single piece of paper in the gutters. Near the last picture,
I went, "AHA! I see one!". There was a piece of paper in the street
behind the friends he was taking a picture of....but there was a little old
lady poised over it about to pick it up...(c; Thun has got to be one of
the cleanest cities on the planet. The views are simply amazingly
beautiful. I want to go sailing on the Thunersee!

Because of the mountains on either shore the wind is
generally N/S along the lake, it's certainly quite a
backdrop, especially to the south with the Eiger, Mönch and
Jungfrau mountains hanging there. I used to race from the
Interlaken end (I live in Bern). Now I'm retired I take off
for the Med, living aboard for the summers.

But you might be disappointed with the present cleanliness
of Switzerland, it's no longer quite how Werner tells it,
unfortunately.

Do they really stop at a stopligiht and shut the engines off where you
live? They do that in Thun, then restart to go. I still think he was
joking.

Well, some do, and all the signs fixed on the traffic lights
request you do so, but just as many people don't. An
enormous influx of foreigners has internationalized the
mentality - meaning there is no longer the strict discipline
that Werner epitomized. There are pros and cons to that
(mainly cons, I'm afraid).

Best, BrianH.