To ensure you know where you are, the Swiss did put their national flag on the Railway station in Basel. It is North in Switzerland and actually there are three stations. The Swiss station for travelling over Switzerland, and next to it in the Franch Station (Bâle) where you cross the border from Switzerland to enter France. And just to make it more complicated the Gernan Station is also there. Switzerland is a country of boundaries.
In the South you find the Italian area. The main border station is Chiasso and that takes you to Italy. In the West you can cross the border to Austria. I did that once by car as I was in Liechtenstein and visited Feldkirch which was the next town in Austria. I also had to cross a border to get to Liechtenstein, although that border only exists on the map and is no problem to cross.
Yes Switzerland is a country with many boundaries It is not just a matter of finding your way to a town, but often to a country. It seems when Europe was made, they had a piece of land left in the middle. They also had a bit of a language mixture so they called it Switzerland with its four languages (French, German, Italian, Romansch) and a few hundred dialects according to where you live.
RDP Saturday: Boundary
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
Pat, many of the things you mentioned I’ve never spent much time thinking about, although I’ve known about the Cantons, and languages for years. Lots to think on in the post. Thanks.
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I have become probably more Swiss than British after living here so long. We certainly have a Kantonal spirit.
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I didn’t know about the dialects.
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Swiss German is a dialect in itself, but accordzto what part of the country you live, it can vary.. I speak Solothurn German which is very similar to the Bernese dialect, but not quite.
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That’s very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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Many years ago when I was a teenager I read a book called “The Vine Clad Hill” it concerned a 17 year old girl travelling to Switzerland with wealthy relatives. I was always fascinated by the descriptions of the Swiss countryside, going through the Gotthard Pass and changing trains at Basel to go to Bellinzona. This was when I learned there were Italian speakers in Switzerland. If I were still young I would make that journey.
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We also have many descendants of Italian families that came to Switzerland to work in. the 20th Century.
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I remember running into some Swiss German-speaking people in Germany when I was stationed there in the US Army. It was, um, interesting, and we somehow managed to get by in their German dialect and my weak, poor conversational German learned at university in America.
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It is sometitmes even a problem for the Swiss to understand some of the dialects.
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Interesting! I can report that I visited Charleston, South Carolina once and a news stand fellow in the hotel where I was staying spoke in a dialect I found barely understandable. It happens!
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