Swiss bliss

WHAT is life if not for the occasional moments that make you stop and say - that was just magic. For a holidaymaker in Switzerland, this moment could occur when you've just stepped out of a highway rest stop after a quick lunch, and the cloudy drizzle has given way to postcard-perfect views of snow-capped mountains against blue skies, lit by a soft winter sunlight.

These mountains will stay in the background of every town you visit as you ride your coach across picturesque Swiss landscapes - it's as if they're following you from the German-speaking regions, to the ones that speak French, all the way to the Italian or even Romansh-speaking territories. These are the country's four official languages, divided unequally among its eight million inhabitants.

Our journey begins in one of Switzerland's more famous cities - Lucerne, home of the iconic wooden Chapel Bridge, which spans diagonally across the Reuss River. It's the oldest covered bridge in Europe, with paintings inside that date as far back as the 17th Century. Most of the originals were destroyed in a fire in 1993, but a few still exist today.