Plus, star architect Mario Botta just unveiled a striking mountaintop restaurant that's already the talk of the Alps ... luxury with a Swiss twist – think traditional valley architecture ...

A view of glacial melt in the Swiss Alps. Image: NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. The European Alps cover over 600 miles ...

The Swiss Alps provide masterful views at any time of ... You'll hike from Männlichen to the Kleine Scheidegg near the Lauterbrunnen Valley. It'll take around two hours to get back up the trail.

The impressive north wall of the High Alps, centred on the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau peaks, is a superlative scenic feature, complemented on the southern side of the Alpine divide by spectacular peaks ...