One week in Switzerland (May/June)

copying from another post... what i like:
Historical museums, art museums, ethnographic museums, medieaval towns (with and without citywall walks), medieval castles, modern buildings (Calatrava), lakes, underground lakes and waterfalls, vineyards, scenic mountain railways.

First of all, have a look at http://www.myswitzerland.com/en.cfm/home and the many links you will find there (in order to get the museum's list, press first on destinations, then on 200 top attractions).

It is perfectly possible to sleep in Zurich and do visit most parts of Switzerland in day trips. But if you want to go in the high mountains, wou will spend a lot of time in trains and buses and not so much time in the nature. I would rather make excursions of 2-3 days from Zurich. As publci transport is rather expensive in Switzerland, study carefully the sites about Swiss Pass, Swiss Fllexipass and Swiss half fare card: http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/Tickets.16.0.html?&L=2#s_h_f_c

Medieval towns:
Murten, with city walls around the whole center
Berne, with city gates, gothic cathedral, many museums, etc. UNESCO world heritage site
Gruyeres, very small, with castle and cheese diary (can be visited),
Fribourg, similar to Berne, but much smaller and less "pure"
Neuchatel, very, very small medieval centre, with castle and cathedral
Lucerne, partly well preserved city walls, covered wooden bridge, baroque churches, but many modern buildings between
Basel, gothic cathedral overlooking the Rhine river, marvellouos municipal building, many museums
Schaffhausen, medieval castle
Stein am Rhein, small medieval quarter with painted houses.
There are many other tiny medieval towns like La Neuveville, Laufenburg, etc. Have a look at www.myswitzerland com

Budget hotels:
http://www.bnb.ch/
http://www.hotelformule1.com/gb/reservation/liste_hotels.shtml
http://www.etaphotel.com/gb/home/index.shtml
http://www.hrs.de/?client=en__NEXT
http://www.swissbackpackers.ch/
http://www.youthhostel.ch/home.html?&L=1
http://www.city-backpacker.ch/
http://www.x-tra.ch/mainscreen.php?nextpic=alt_bett&findnav=1
http://www.youthhostel.ch/index.php?id=47&user_hostels_pi1location=all&user_hostels_pi1bez=ZRH&cHash=0f6b2d2c9c
http://www.rotefabrik.ch/de/home/

too many options, you'll need to cut back on something ;-)

given that one of Calatrava's offices is located in Zürich, there are surprisingly few buildings designed by him around in Switzerland, most obvious certainly the extension of the Zürich Stadelhofen station, one of his early works. if I'm not mistaken, his rebuilding of the Luzern train station dates back even further (note the nearby cultural centre by Jean Nouvel, too). there's another major project by Calatrava in St. Gallen, the Pfalzkeller emergency center, however I've no idea about its accessibility to 'tourists'.

lots of interesting contemporary architecture in Basel, among others, quite a number of Herzog/deMeuron here (e.g. the Schaulager exhibition building. and the Fondation Beyeler by Renzo Piano is one excellent piece of museum architecture (art is fine, too ;-) ).

another fairly new museum: Klee Zentrum in Bern, designed by Piano, too. there's so much more, e.g. the buildings by Peter Zumthor (mainly Graubünden area, e.g. the Therme Vals ), who has a different approach to contemporary architecture etcetc.

drop a line if you need more ideas...

further, if I understand correctly, the Barbier Mueller museum , a private foundation in Geneva, has a pretty outstanding collection of ethnographic exhibits, yet note that it's strictly excluding items from the Americas (for which there's a branch in Barcelona).