As a member of the Swiss army, I can tell you that we have more than these two bunkers camouflaged as houses. I've been in several farm houses that you would never think that it's a bunker with full infrastructure and space for several hundred soldiers. I worked for two weeks straight underground in one with never seeing daylight. We had kitchen, offices, TV rooms and of course dorms and there was nothing from outside needed.
Amazing you can survive it without picking up some mental problems. Working underground for years in cramped space without seeing light can done numbers for most people's brain iirc.
Isn't Switzerland considered the best defended country in the world? Lots of civilian bunkers, all citizens have military training. Enough guns to arm the populace. Weak points built into all the roads leading into the country. Like bridges, tunnels, etc. All designed to be blown up to prevent invasion. Air defences in the mountains surrounding the country to shoot down missiles/jets/choppers.
I visited the Villa Rose today (6/11/2021) and hiked the whole Sentier de Toblerones from Bassins to Nyon. I put it on my ToDo list since I saw your video Tim and decided to do this the next time the Villa Rose had an open house. Thank you so much! The Villa Rose is run by volunteers and the inside was really well maintained. I was not expecting much but it was quite cool! Some things I learned: 1. The reason it was painted pink was that it was a popular colour at the time for suburban houses. 2. Q: Why was this fortification line (Toblerones and Villa Rose) built further east at Nyon and not at say Geneva? And why were the fortresses near the main road? A: From Geneva, the first natural boundary is the river Promenthouse. So they built the toblerones on the right side of the river, so that the tanks would have to go first downhill, cross the river and then go uphill where they are met with these toblerones(each of which weigh upto 14 tons). The reason these 2 forts(Villa Rose and Villa verte) are near the main road(and are hence disguised as houses) was that there was a bridge across the river near the main road and so these forts were necessary. 3. The buildings are basically just a lot of concrete and there isn't a lot of space inside, considering there were 16 people (8 working and 8 sleeping) and a further 8 outside the villa! 4. Each fort had 3 cannons and some machine guns pointed outside. Each fort aims one of these in the direction of the other forts to assist in the defense of the other by crossfire. 5. The windows where the cannons are not trapezoidal shaped but are basically cuboids over cuboids - this is to prevent bullet ricochets! 6. There is a tiny vertical hole at the windows near the cannons. This is so that the soliders can drop grenades on potential enemy soldiers who managed to get close to the cannons to manually try destroying them. 7. They have a really cool ventilation system which still works today, which circulates air from outside to inside while also maintaining lower air pressure inside, so that air would always find it easier to come in. The Sentier de Toblerones hike is really pretty in Fall (would recommend avoiding going through the nearby golf course tho). Highly recommend visiting the Villa Rose on one of its open days and donating to help them keep up the good work!
Army: we’d like to build some military fortifications. Local Council: they must be in keeping with the local surroundings. Army: I guess we can do that.
The Swiss have a much more capable defence these days. "OK, Switzerland, that's it. I'm invading you." "We understand, Mr President. I'm afraid we'll have to close your bank account, though." "On second thought, forget what I said."
An advertisement for sale of the house: "A bit older, with no parking space inside, but alarm is connected to good defense tools and this house have never been robbed out yet."
@@genstian Once a week there's a french mirage flying near the Mont Blanc in ordre to check for invasion swiss trooops along the border. The swiss could invade us in a week !
guess there live all exstasi etc in.-.- sorted out MKultra s etc. VERY glad hoffman book finally on german available!i ts more then time ALL the cruel hiddencrime make PUBLIC!!!and change societys into GOOD...
They stick out most of the time, but there’s a similar thing wear I live where the Nazi’s disguised concrete bunkers as houses. Unfortunately their disguises have all been stripped away by now
Visited Lindau a few years ago. I remember it was so quiet and everything was closed at 7pm or something like that. Very pretty to look at, but I was so bored in the evenings lol
Weirdly enough, the bunkers near Kreuzlingen and the German city of Konstanz don't feel hidden at all. You can find them quite easily if you take a walk around the neighborhood.
@@BuenavistaNZ Who the fuck visits Lindau? It’s not a tourist region, hole Germany isn’t. It’s a nice place to life at but not a nice place to make holidays (ok maybe if u camp at a river…)
If I were invading Switzerland and that Toblerone line was actually made out of Toblerone, I can see myself being stuck there for a few weeks rather than a few minutes.
65% of the swiss country is german, why would you insult us like that because of some nazis 80 years ago???? geeez, when will the former allies stop demonising being german...
@@Anonymuskid Ahem! . . . approximately 65% of the Swiss population is German speaking. Swiss are not Germans; Germans are not Swiss - unless they emigrated. The German-speaking Swiss are culturally very similar to Germans, but it is still distinct as is the dialect they speak.
Tim, I really appreciate your videos. Being an amputee, I no longer am able to walk and hike as easily as I used to Thanks to your videos, I can continue to see the world. Keep up the good work.
I use a virtual reality head set and google earth to revisit all my travells and holidays . Please don't think me a dick but you might find it kinda cool especially for checking future destinations out.
@@gammon1183 Yes! This is a great idea. A friend and I use Google Earth, along with Street View, and UA-cam to travel all over the place. I realize it's nowhere near being there in real-life, but being on a fixed income and disabled, it is way better than what our parents had.
I have fibromyalgia and also suffer from frequent migraines as well so i don't get out and about much any more, especially compared to how active i was as a teen/young adult, watching videos like this and using google earth is a lot of fun and helps me feel less trapped. Also, this whole comment thread is a breath of fresh air after reading some of the negative stuff above, hats off to you lot!
@@sanity._yl4568 I wish I lived in Switzerland, and no, it's not because of the bunkers and guns. It's because Switzerland is a functional country unlike my homeland...
@@sanity._yl4568 I was referring to the functional Government and low to non-existent levels of corruption... ye... my homeland has more in common with Belarus than Switzerland despite being nearly as mountainous. And, Yes, it's in Europe.
If you visit the Alps, take a look at cliffs, mountain sides, mountain huts. We have littered every single mountain with heavy artillery and bunkers. We're worse than moles.
@Uddipan Mondal if one power uses nukes, the others will too. And nukes wont be used until the very end, because the one who fires first a nuke dies second. And no one profits from attacking the swiss lol
The algorithm is finally starting to learn that some of us would rather click something totally new instead of just more of the stuff we've already seen!
@Pouty MacPotatohead To be fair...the swiss army in the valley area would have been defeated in less then a week if germany actually wated to invade. Only the south and east would have been somewhat safe until the germans at that time send in their own mountain huggers to clear them out.....the austrians and bavarians :D
1930s: Switzerland builds secret fortifications looking like Villas to not scare off tourists 2030s: Mallorca builds secret bars looking like fortifications to scare off tourists
There are so many fortification nerworks inside the mountains too. You'll be driving by a cliff and suddenly you realise there's a bunch of windows in the cliff. Some if them are being sold cause they need maintenance. I've heard of some being transformed into server farms (because stable temperatures inside mountains).
Actually those forts packed an even heavier punch! Anti-Tank guns of that era of construction where only 25-45mm in calibre, and the forts packed bigger guns! The AT gun where more of the flanking guns with big field guns being the main firepower. They usually also had multiple watercooled machineguns, those can shoot for days if fed. The soldiers in it also had racks of rifles and grenades to deal with closeby threats.
You can actually buy these forts for a fairly cheap price at auctions from time to time, a few years back one was sold for 25'000 i think, not sure about the price tho
I just discovered your channel, and I'm already a big fan. I grow up near all of those mountains at the shore of the lake of thoune. As I'm interested in history and as a former member of the famous Swiss army (I'm joking) I already know about all the fortresses up in the mountains. Some can never imagine what they had built there. However, honestly, I've never heard of those deadly military fortress near Nyon. This was entirely new to me. Thank you for making this video, keep up the good work.
This is why I love your channel, Tim. I would have never known about the things you go to see & record (ie. the volcano railway and the army destroying villas) keep it up!
This just brought a tear to my eye :') I used to live just up the road from there and spent a lot of time in Nyon and Gland. Seeing those images of downtown Nyon really brought beautiful memories flooding back, so thank you for that. P.S. - anyone scoffing at the idea that I could say that Nyon has a "downtown" area given how small it is, keep in mind that Nyon meets all the qualifications to be a city in Switzerland XD
"qualifies as a city in Switzerland" - that bar is pretty low. Klingnau is a city, because it was a medival city on the Aare and it has a city wall. Now a days, you can not find the municipality border and the neighboring municipalities have more population then the city. On the other hand: When you lay a city map of london over Zurich, you start to realize that Baden really is just a secondary center of the metropolitan area. Nothing wrong with that - it is just interesting how granular goverment is in switzerland and that a city in switzerland has a much smaller scale then an international city.
Thanks Tim. I am a really enjoying your channel and you have given me loads of excellent travel ideas. A note on tank blocks: they are not only designed to slow tanks down but also to cause them to expose their soft under bellies so they can be penetrated more easily.
We are glad to anounce that today's 'Hellooo' has a bonus 'Bonjour' and has been rated by experts to be an excelent vintage, with earthy notes and a hint of happy puppy.
@@nicholaswilson1851 Hmm. I think that depends on which definition of 'own' we're using. Trump certainly thought that he owned it, which is why I used that joke, while also implying that he was an unwanted guest.
Reminds me of that one trip we took to the swiss alps more than thirty yeras ago. My dad got out of the car to take pictures of the mountenous landscape, when suddenly a swiss soldier appeared out of nowhere and told my father that it was strictly forbidden to take pictures right here. It was only then that we realised that the mountain in front of us had a huge door right at its middle that was camouflaged as stone. You could only see the cut out line.
5:17 “Meanwhile, the Toblerone line is now a hiking route, and these days you can USUALLY walk the whole thing without being peppered by anti-tank guns” WAIT A SEC-
The most impressive one, which you can visit most of the year, is the one overlooking le Day and Vallorbe. A fake chalet that commanded all access to Switzerland through these areas. Their guns and cannons had an impressive scope from up there. Also, the Swiss weren't very scared of the French but more about Germans invading through a conquered France.
and it's not just the Swiss either. The Germans disguised an airbase in the Netherlands as a farming village, the aircraft hangars being barns complete with straw covered roofs and things like that, but with thick steel reinforced concrete walls.
Thank you Tim! I didn't even know I was curious about this, and then here you come along opening up a very interesting can of worms Very excellent video, and I appreciate that it didn't feel like any time was wasted at all. Cheers!
Very much so. All relevant bridges are fully prepared to be blown apart. It’s also part of the Swiss ‚Guerilla’ defense system. All Swiss army man own a gun, with a small pack of ammunition, ready to start the battle. And this is all not a joke, being an armed Swiss myself.
The Swiss Army does its exercices usually with life ammunition all over the year round. When you hike you should always look in advance for the official annoucments of military exercises and which mountain tracks could come under mortar or artillery fire. Its not reserved to military exercice grounds.
the Swiss army had one occasion, where miscommunication caused firing on neighboring country. In consequences, the ring of the toured was then not only labeled in degrees, but also name of the country the gun is pointing at.
My mom once was on holiday in Switzerland, said they driving along in the country side all Happy as Larry when the side of a mountain opened up and a jet came whooshing out then the mountain became a innocent looking mountain again. She was impressed.
I love how you comment on disabled access. It just shows how thoughtful you are and how you care about your audience, not just ad revenue alone. Though of course there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be compensated for a job well done.
When I was a kid visiting my relatives where my mom grew up in Zurich, my brother and I went for a hike with my dad and we came upon a pillbox in the woods along the train. Quite exciting for a 6 year old!
I used to live in Switzerland, and it never failed to surprise visitors when they saw our building's bomb shelter. It was extensive but we used it for storage.
When driving through the swiss alps and keep your eyes open, you see fortifications hidden almost everywhere... small vents sticking out of mountain sides, some hidden concrete entrances and so on
Switzerland has gun emplacements everywhere - look carefully at mountainsides flanking many major roads and you can see the dummy glassfibre covers of gun positions set into the rock faces. We supplied equipment to make a road tunnel near Thusis which had sub tunnels to the outer rock face for " ventilation " as stated on the plans.
The Dijle defence line in Belgium is quite a nice trek/ bike ride as well. Loads of bunkers and tank entrapment things still lying around around Leuven and Mechelen. Maybe an idea for a video?
I was talking about business travel with my brother and my grandad and mentioned a trip to Leuven, assuming they wouldn't know it. Turns out that grandad was there in WWII, as an army engineer, and remembered prepping the bridges for demolition in case of a retreat.
@bhaggen you re a schnitzel with this flag not swiss at all und we de eine bish de schäm di zu tiefscht di us schwizer us zs gä mit erä dütsche flagge du verräter.
@@Braun30 In English it is "glans" because ofc we aren't gonna use some french word without either fucking with the spelling or butchering the pronunciation....... or both.
A Swiss comedian Marie-Porchet includes that gag as part of her "Swiss geography lesson." Sorry about the lack of English subtitles. ua-cam.com/video/Pf7b01N5P7E/v-deo.html
5:02 Ha... "la belle ville de Gland !" as it's locally known... 😂 On the motorway from Lausanne to Geneva, there used to be a sign that indicated the distances to the towns of: "Aubonne, Gimel, Gland". They removed it, because everyone used to make fun of it... 🤣
@@Valecto Just to add a bit of explanation, in French the word "gland" can either mean "acorn", or "glans penis". It can also be a slang word for someone stupid or uneducated ("un glandu"/"une glandue") e.g.: "Ce mec, c'est vraiment un gland(u) !" ("This guy is really an idiot!") So "la belle ville (pleine) de glands" would imply a city full of idiots.
Imagine a burglar cracking open the garage door to then just stand in front of a massive gun
I imagine, 🤣😂🤣
"Say hello to my petite friend!"
Haha :D
Burglar: So sorry... can I be a bother and get a change of underwear please?
"This is America" starts playing.
As a member of the Swiss army, I can tell you that we have more than these two bunkers camouflaged as houses. I've been in several farm houses that you would never think that it's a bunker with full infrastructure and space for several hundred soldiers.
I worked for two weeks straight underground in one with never seeing daylight. We had kitchen, offices, TV rooms and of course dorms and there was nothing from outside needed.
Amazing you can survive it without picking up some mental problems.
Working underground for years in cramped space without seeing light can done numbers for most people's brain iirc.
@@mrdoormat6809 it was indeed challenging. We worked in three shifts day and night and it literally didn't matter anymore what time of the day it was
"nothing from the outside needed" - uh, except air?
@@skakdosmer The air outside might not be breathable during a war. It's possible they make their own, or have air in storage.
Isn't Switzerland considered the best defended country in the world? Lots of civilian bunkers, all citizens have military training. Enough guns to arm the populace. Weak points built into all the roads leading into the country. Like bridges, tunnels, etc. All designed to be blown up to prevent invasion. Air defences in the mountains surrounding the country to shoot down missiles/jets/choppers.
Proud of my Country! Never lost focus on what's really important for Switzerland, Tourists.
Fuck klaus schwaab
I thought the most important was Toblerone
@@12crenshaw for tourists as well
And gold
You're not alone
I visited the Villa Rose today (6/11/2021) and hiked the whole Sentier de Toblerones from Bassins to Nyon. I put it on my ToDo list since I saw your video Tim and decided to do this the next time the Villa Rose had an open house. Thank you so much!
The Villa Rose is run by volunteers and the inside was really well maintained. I was not expecting much but it was quite cool! Some things I learned:
1. The reason it was painted pink was that it was a popular colour at the time for suburban houses.
2. Q: Why was this fortification line (Toblerones and Villa Rose) built further east at Nyon and not at say Geneva? And why were the fortresses near the main road?
A: From Geneva, the first natural boundary is the river Promenthouse. So they built the toblerones on the right side of the river, so that the tanks would have to go first downhill, cross the river and then go uphill where they are met with these toblerones(each of which weigh upto 14 tons). The reason these 2 forts(Villa Rose and Villa verte) are near the main road(and are hence disguised as houses) was that there was a bridge across the river near the main road and so these forts were necessary.
3. The buildings are basically just a lot of concrete and there isn't a lot of space inside, considering there were 16 people (8 working and 8 sleeping) and a further 8 outside the villa!
4. Each fort had 3 cannons and some machine guns pointed outside. Each fort aims one of these in the direction of the other forts to assist in the defense of the other by crossfire.
5. The windows where the cannons are not trapezoidal shaped but are basically cuboids over cuboids - this is to prevent bullet ricochets!
6. There is a tiny vertical hole at the windows near the cannons. This is so that the soliders can drop grenades on potential enemy soldiers who managed to get close to the cannons to manually try destroying them.
7. They have a really cool ventilation system which still works today, which circulates air from outside to inside while also maintaining lower air pressure inside, so that air would always find it easier to come in.
The Sentier de Toblerones hike is really pretty in Fall (would recommend avoiding going through the nearby golf course tho). Highly recommend visiting the Villa Rose on one of its open days and donating to help them keep up the good work!
Ah fantastic! Glad you enjoyed it Aditya, and thanks so much for all the extra interesting info :)
So, are the cannons still inside the villa?
@@paulthiel5145 Yes, they are.
Army: we’d like to build some military fortifications.
Local Council: they must be in keeping with the local surroundings.
Army: I guess we can do that.
They should call them..."Swiss Army Villa's"...
@@bypinkerton892 they probably can transform into giant robots
Ever heard of camouflage?
@@iberlo85 I don’t really follow fashion tbh
@@228ss nor the army or basic hunting techniques
The Swiss have a much more capable defence these days.
"OK, Switzerland, that's it. I'm invading you."
"We understand, Mr President. I'm afraid we'll have to close your bank account, though."
"On second thought, forget what I said."
It worked the same way in WW2.
"There is also that tunnel through the alps you like to use?
I'm afraid we have to demolish that"
Switzerland was already then place where dictators and criminals had their money kept and laundered.
@Peter Goezinya I know, but it's always fun to maintain stereotypes. For example, I'm Dutch, so I wear wooden shoes and live in a windmill.
@Peter Goezinya I'm Australian today I fought off several drop bears and a half dozen deadly snakes. Please send help
I'm german so skip this comment, it isn't funny.
Tim now on a Swiss Watch List for revealing Swiss Military Secrets.
Pocket watch? Wrist watch? How does he get off the list and get the actual watch?
Do they keep the names in a Rolexdex? 😃
Pretty much all decomissioned now ;)
*Cuckoo clock.
cesariojpn it better be a Victorinox.
When you live in Switzerland and there is a guy from the UK telling you cool stuff about your home country. :-)
even weirder when it is from your home town
I'm watching this video to spy over the Röschtigraben!
Use google and you find a lot of such interesting places. One of my favorit with installed but de-militarized guns is Crestawald. www.crestawald.ch/
Time for the RS 🤣
@@xXPred4torXx I was in the RS in Fribourg, would not recommend *shrug*
I think British people were created to commentate things. They have perfect voices for commentary. They can hold their liquor pretty well too
lol for the liquor bit
@WorldFlex what’s creepy about that???
Replying so I can see the flame wars later. Nice comment, though!
As a Slav I have to disagree. Nice accent true, but with drinks well... good only for the first round...
Not sure about the drinks part judging by the local spoons on a Friday night.
An advertisement for sale of the house:
"A bit older, with no parking space inside, but alarm is connected to good defense tools and this house have never been robbed out yet."
Plot twist: Tim is actually a secret agent surveying Switzerland.
These Swiz And There Smart Set Ups!
Yes, it becomes obvious when he say France wasn't the enemy.
Thanks for blowing his cover.
Should I be worried
@@genstian Once a week there's a french mirage flying near the Mont Blanc in ordre to check for invasion swiss trooops along the border. The swiss could invade us in a week !
First rule of Fake Villas: DON’T TALK ABOUT FAKE VILLAS
Because that is only the tip of the iceberg!
guess there live all exstasi etc in.-.- sorted out MKultra s etc. VERY glad hoffman book finally on german available!i ts more then time ALL the cruel hiddencrime make PUBLIC!!!and change societys into GOOD...
Aston! The one true Villa.
They literally sell chocolate replicas of their tank defense.
"And of course, we're not here to see any of that!" I always smile when that line comes up.
I'm sure it will become his epitaph.
It's become a cliché in our home; either my kid or I will say it when we drive by something interesting or touristy!
As someone who lived in Lindau Germany, next to the border, i can tell that the bunkers torwards Germany are also nicely decorated and hidden
Meanwhile our German bunkers stick out incredibly ugly with graffiti.
They stick out most of the time, but there’s a similar thing wear I live where the Nazi’s disguised concrete bunkers as houses. Unfortunately their disguises have all been stripped away by now
Visited Lindau a few years ago. I remember it was so quiet and everything was closed at 7pm or something like that. Very pretty to look at, but I was so bored in the evenings lol
Weirdly enough, the bunkers near Kreuzlingen and the German city of Konstanz don't feel hidden at all. You can find them quite easily if you take a walk around the neighborhood.
@@BuenavistaNZ Who the fuck visits Lindau? It’s not a tourist region, hole Germany isn’t. It’s a nice place to life at but not a nice place to make holidays (ok maybe if u camp at a river…)
If I were invading Switzerland and that Toblerone line was actually made out of Toblerone, I can see myself being stuck there for a few weeks rather than a few minutes.
so would i but maybe we are not made for invading switzerland in the first place.
Seems like a sound all-purpose defensive plan for Switzerland... just keep giving them chocolate until they go away.
Switzerland: stealth forts
France: to deceive the germans?
Switzerland: the tourists
France: y'know what? Fair.
@Lassi Kinnunen "mais putain who would want to live there the boulangerie is more than a 5 minutes walk away"
65% of the swiss country is german, why would you insult us like that because of some nazis 80 years ago???? geeez, when will the former allies stop demonising being german...
@@Anonymuskid Ahem! . . . approximately 65% of the Swiss population is German speaking. Swiss are not Germans; Germans are not Swiss - unless they emigrated. The German-speaking Swiss are culturally very similar to Germans, but it is still distinct as is the dialect they speak.
@@Anonymuskid the f*ck are you on about
@@Anonymuskid I guess 80% of germany is English then?
I mean considering people know how to speak English and all
When you die, they're gonna write on your tombstone "but of course, we're not here to see any of that!"
I prefer going left. They said right in their comment
@@dontspikemydrink9382 I'm an idiot
Lol I just read you comment when Tim said it in the video XD
Tim, I really appreciate your videos. Being an amputee, I no longer am able to walk and hike as easily as I used to Thanks to your videos, I can continue to see the world. Keep up the good work.
I use a virtual reality head set and google earth to revisit all my travells and holidays .
Please don't think me a dick but you might find it kinda cool especially for checking future destinations out.
@@gammon1183 Yes! This is a great idea. A friend and I use Google Earth, along with Street View, and UA-cam to travel all over the place. I realize it's nowhere near being there in real-life, but being on a fixed income and disabled, it is way better than what our parents had.
@@johncalvinhall Good skills John and all the best to you mate .
@@johncalvinhall i salute your positivity. Courage all the way
I have fibromyalgia and also suffer from frequent migraines as well so i don't get out and about much any more, especially compared to how active i was as a teen/young adult, watching videos like this and using google earth is a lot of fun and helps me feel less trapped.
Also, this whole comment thread is a breath of fresh air after reading some of the negative stuff above, hats off to you lot!
Albania: Bunkers
France: Maginot
Switzerland: Toblerone Line go Brrrrrrr
Fun Fact: Most swiss houses have bunkers built in from 1939
@@sanity._yl4568 I wish I lived in Switzerland, and no, it's not because of the bunkers and guns. It's because Switzerland is a functional country unlike my homeland...
@@ravenouself4181 yeah that’s true it really is, the economy is very stable and the quality of life is undefeated. Citizens also have so many benefits
@@sanity._yl4568 I was referring to the functional Government and low to non-existent levels of corruption... ye... my homeland has more in common with Belarus than Switzerland despite being nearly as mountainous. And, Yes, it's in Europe.
@@ravenouself4181 Eastern Europe I’m guessing
"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak." SUN TZU
When I play poker
"Sun Tzu said that. And he knows a little more than you about fighting, because he invented it!"
@@jairoconsolascio5226 okay? 😂
@@jakedasnake138
Don't worry, I was just quoting Soldier from Team Fortress 2. XD
@@jairoconsolascio5226 oh okay I was confused 😄
4:35 "Oh elle est jolie cette maison !" You killed me !
😂😂😂 lmfao
"The lovely town of _F1 car screeching past_ "
I read this as he said it lol
I had to go back and watch that bit a couple of times to get what you were on about... then p*ssed myself laughing because I was so dumb!
this is perhaps one of the best comments on the entirety of the internet. congratulations, you win!
Whats the fastest town in Switzerland? _Nyon_ !
@@tokinGLX OMG i grew up watching ur vids man, what are the chances of finding u here ahah
I’ll have to keep an eye out for these next time I invade Switzerland
You wot
If you visit the Alps, take a look at cliffs, mountain sides, mountain huts. We have littered every single mountain with heavy artillery and bunkers. We're worse than moles.
@Uddipan Mondal if one power uses nukes, the others will too. And nukes wont be used until the very end, because the one who fires first a nuke dies second.
And no one profits from attacking the swiss lol
Have fun, but you won't get far
Luca Zakmiov can’t stop biowarfare with your puny bricks. When we invade the Swiss you’ll all have the pox!
Now that, is what random UA-cam recommendations are all about. Sweet.
Well Google keeps recommending crates of calculators because I looked up liquid crystals
The algorithm is finally starting to learn that some of us would rather click something totally new instead of just more of the stuff we've already seen!
"You can usually walk the whole thing without being peppered by anti-tank guns."
*usually.*
Dying that the official information sign literally calls it "Le sentier des Toblerones" (Toblerone Trail)
Pouty MacPotatohead ones shaped after Poundland’s Twin Peaks bars might be quite effective though. Cheaper, too!
@Pouty MacPotatohead
To be fair, only in the UK Toblerobe has such huge gaps.
@Pouty MacPotatohead To be fair...the swiss army in the valley area would have been defeated in less then a week if germany actually wated to invade. Only the south and east would have been somewhat safe until the germans at that time send in their own mountain huggers to clear them out.....the austrians and bavarians :D
1930s: Switzerland builds secret fortifications looking like Villas to not scare off tourists
2030s: Mallorca builds secret bars looking like fortifications to scare off tourists
True story!
Interesting, I'm Swiss, never heared of such things
@@carolinemaja2199 jä chum iz:) de suech mau öppis über Faulensee. Die vier Bunker si crazy:)
@@ericbell7 si
@Jverbe Its not French, its italian
No wonder Toblerone bars are so powerful
I think in a fight Toblerone bars would lose out to Irn Bru because the latter's made from....
Avery I swear I've seen a comment from you in every single video I watch.
LoL
Ok here you are again
Powerful to give you diabetes ! Trust me I know !
@@tomjoad1363 I've not figured out diabetes yet. It's going to be hard fighting all the health professionals that get in the way.
There are so many fortification nerworks inside the mountains too. You'll be driving by a cliff and suddenly you realise there's a bunch of windows in the cliff. Some if them are being sold cause they need maintenance. I've heard of some being transformed into server farms (because stable temperatures inside mountains).
I'm swiss and I made my mandatory military service in the artillery in a fortress in the alps, but I never heard of those villas! Thank you!
I love the little things that motivate your travel / videos! Less touristy and more raw curiosity haha. cheers
The "private property" owner has the best weapon to defend his property. A freaking anti tank gun.
Actually those forts packed an even heavier punch! Anti-Tank guns of that era of construction where only 25-45mm in calibre, and the forts packed bigger guns! The AT gun where more of the flanking guns with big field guns being the main firepower. They usually also had multiple watercooled machineguns, those can shoot for days if fed. The soldiers in it also had racks of rifles and grenades to deal with closeby threats.
RUBENSKI you only forgot minefields ready to be laid around the forts in case of immediate danger... (from a Swiss Army officer living in the region)
You can actually buy these forts for a fairly cheap price at auctions from time to time, a few years back one was sold for 25'000 i think, not sure about the price tho
A little cumbersome. But sure to stop a Panzer Mark IV.
As a child in Switzerland in the ‘60s I certainly did associate the shape of Toblerone chocolates to the tank traps!
You were a smart kid
I just discovered your channel, and I'm already a big fan. I grow up near all of those mountains at the shore of the lake of thoune. As I'm interested in history and as a former member of the famous Swiss army (I'm joking) I already know about all the fortresses up in the mountains. Some can never imagine what they had built there. However, honestly, I've never heard of those deadly military fortress near Nyon. This was entirely new to me. Thank you for making this video, keep up the good work.
Loved Switzerland & Austria the most when I backpacked Europe. Absolutely Gorgeous countries.
This is why I love your channel, Tim. I would have never known about the things you go to see & record (ie. the volcano railway and the army destroying villas) keep it up!
This just brought a tear to my eye :') I used to live just up the road from there and spent a lot of time in Nyon and Gland. Seeing those images of downtown Nyon really brought beautiful memories flooding back, so thank you for that.
P.S. - anyone scoffing at the idea that I could say that Nyon has a "downtown" area given how small it is, keep in mind that Nyon meets all the qualifications to be a city in Switzerland XD
"qualifies as a city in Switzerland" - that bar is pretty low. Klingnau is a city, because it was a medival city on the Aare and it has a city wall. Now a days, you can not find the municipality border and the neighboring municipalities have more population then the city. On the other hand: When you lay a city map of london over Zurich, you start to realize that Baden really is just a secondary center of the metropolitan area. Nothing wrong with that - it is just interesting how granular goverment is in switzerland and that a city in switzerland has a much smaller scale then an international city.
0:57 "This is the lovely town of [makes quiet racing car noise]"
I can’t express how beautiful the lake Geneva is in person. If you ever get the chance I would 100% recommend.
3:33
It's been 1 years that I see these blocks every day from the train and I finally understood what they were for... LMAO
NYONNNNNNN is probably the sound Tim makes when flying over your head.
Or maybe a Nyan Cat with an accent?
Nope. ua-cam.com/video/yP3eQf32qGs/v-deo.html Try at 0:40
Was that the theme from “Keeping of Appearances”? Yes, if only Emmett had an anti-tank gun to stop Hyacinth when she “sang at” him.
Reminds me of an old Chinese saying "Never trust a pink villa"
Switzerland is a beautiful country and the flag is a big plus
I see what you did there.
true
American land owner: "Hey! Get off my lawn!"
Swiss "land owner": "Feuer!!!"
Thanks Tim. I am a really enjoying your channel and you have given me loads of excellent travel ideas.
A note on tank blocks: they are not only designed to slow tanks down but also to cause them to expose their soft under bellies so they can be penetrated more easily.
We are glad to anounce that today's 'Hellooo' has a bonus 'Bonjour' and has been rated by experts to be an excelent vintage, with earthy notes and a hint of happy puppy.
In America they have houses like that too, but they are just owned by a crazy guy
Dave Todd You mean pee heads?
the white house...?
@@hikingwithmarty He's being evicted soon.
princecharon wait does the current president ‘own’ the White House for his term? If not who does own the White House?
@@nicholaswilson1851 Hmm. I think that depends on which definition of 'own' we're using. Trump certainly thought that he owned it, which is why I used that joke, while also implying that he was an unwanted guest.
Damn. Was reading "Switzerlands fake villains" and was pretty confused but hyped at the same time.
Music choices for the two possible invaders around 2:56 had me ROLLING! Hahaha. Well played.
Reminds me of that one trip we took to the swiss alps more than thirty yeras ago. My dad got out of the car to take pictures of the mountenous landscape, when suddenly a swiss soldier appeared out of nowhere and told my father that it was strictly forbidden to take pictures right here. It was only then that we realised that the mountain in front of us had a huge door right at its middle that was camouflaged as stone. You could only see the cut out line.
5:17 “Meanwhile, the Toblerone line is now a hiking route, and these days you can USUALLY walk the whole thing without being peppered by anti-tank guns”
WAIT A SEC-
The most impressive one, which you can visit most of the year, is the one overlooking le Day and Vallorbe. A fake chalet that commanded all access to Switzerland through these areas. Their guns and cannons had an impressive scope from up there. Also, the Swiss weren't very scared of the French but more about Germans invading through a conquered France.
3:10 "Illustration not to scale" 🤣🤣🤣 Good one! 👍🏻
I’m passing next to this house every morning to go to school, I’m travelling from gland to Nyon 😂
2 barbie houses and long line of Toblerone. Got it.
Imagien moving to Switzerland and thinking you're just gonna go say hello to your new neighbors 😂😂
I wonder who looks after the front gardens :D
CrowArchLane department of defense to be honest...
A few sorry Bunker artillery soldiers that still exist.
I can just imagine a grim-faced artillery commander tending to all the delicate flowers with a little apron
@@spartan963300 its probobly the most bloddy thing the swizz army will ever do
Switzerland has mandatory military service, so uh. Frustrated teenagers.
I’ve lived 5 min from there my whole life and never knew about the villa. Shame on me. Thanks for this great and informative video !
The US could defend itself with its chocolate - I tried Hershey and it put me off for life.
yeah, but the Hershey line would melt if a Canadian or Mexican soldier just looked at it...
Deep burn. 🤣🤣
Hershey is the best tasting chocolate in the world! It beat all the others in match after match. I don't get how, but it did.
Hershey and nestle enslave African children in the chocolate fields of the Ivory Coast.
@@davidpruittpruitt7579 gershey raset like vomit
Love your interesting stories, I can't get enough of them! Keep up the good work!
Allo Allo and Map Men? I must be dreaming.
And Keeping up Appearances 😊
Not only villas, also barns etc, they have stuff everywhere
and it's not just the Swiss either. The Germans disguised an airbase in the Netherlands as a farming village, the aircraft hangars being barns complete with straw covered roofs and things like that, but with thick steel reinforced concrete walls.
@@jwenting The “IJssellinie“ was build by the Netherlands in the 50s.
www.ijssellinie.nl/
“So where do you want your next military base?”
“Villa.”
Thank you Tim! I didn't even know I was curious about this, and then here you come along opening up a very interesting can of worms
Very excellent video, and I appreciate that it didn't feel like any time was wasted at all. Cheers!
Ah thanks Krunky Munky! Comments like this are the reason why I make videos :)
The police sometimes put a speed-radar in there, extremely annoying
nei wüki? 😂🙄 die hends scho nötig..
cost me Sfr 20 mutters darkly they (police) hate SO number plates in Nyon.
Hahahahahahahah your pronounciation of Nyon is legendary 😂😂 it just sounds like a f1 car coming past
... it is an actual local joke!
Again a lovely and interesting video
If you would see what we have underground all across the country and in the mountains 😂🤣😂🤣
Don’t speak about the hundred km in electric car ahahah
🤫
Partialy, you can.
The fortress on the simplon pass is open to the public. It is quite amazing.
Like the 5 nukes that we NOT have because Lucens had a partial core meltdown?
Apparently until recently all the bridges had explosives strapped to them as well, and may still.
Very much so. All relevant bridges are fully prepared to be blown apart. It’s also part of the Swiss ‚Guerilla’ defense system. All Swiss army man own a gun, with a small pack of ammunition, ready to start the battle. And this is all not a joke, being an armed Swiss myself.
what about Swiss Ladys :) thay need a gun of there Own
@@bonnienichalson5151 didnt u mean swiss miss?
@@incognitonegress3453 swiss miss instant piss
4:35 "Hé, elle est jolie cette maison !" 🤣
Loved that too.
Hahaha! Onions, onions, onions!! 😁
Did not know about this kind of camouflage - I‘m Swiss...
Great videos by the way!
Swiss are masters in camouflage, they even blow up a mountain in defence!
"These days you can *usually* walk the whole line without being peppered by anti-tank guns."
Usually... :D
QemeH it wont work if you are tanked.
The Swiss Army does its exercices usually with life ammunition all over the year round. When you hike you should always look in advance for the official annoucments of military exercises and which mountain tracks could come under mortar or artillery fire. Its not reserved to military exercice grounds.
the Swiss army had one occasion, where miscommunication caused firing on neighboring country.
In consequences, the ring of the toured was then not only labeled in degrees, but also name of the country the gun is pointing at.
2:48 is a masterpiece of comedy. Also 3:10 "illustration not to scale".
My mom once was on holiday in Switzerland, said they driving along in the country side all Happy as Larry when the side of a mountain opened up and a jet came whooshing out then the mountain became a innocent looking mountain again.
She was impressed.
I'm sorry, no disrespect, but, what have you been smoking? 😳 🤗😯🤫
2:52 was a hilarious and great use of "O Fortuna".
I swear the song at 2:11 is the theme song to Keeping Up Appearances.
It is. Can't you see Hyacinth peaking from behind the curtains? She was the real threat.
Probably keeping an eye out for Emmet.
"Mind the lovely French tourists, Richard"!
@Steve Didn't know it was available to stream in the US through Britbox, must be a recent change.
I love how you comment on disabled access. It just shows how thoughtful you are and how you care about your audience, not just ad revenue alone. Though of course there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be compensated for a job well done.
When I was a kid visiting my relatives where my mom grew up in Zurich, my brother and I went for a hike with my dad and we came upon a pillbox in the woods along the train. Quite exciting for a 6 year old!
"You can usually walk the whole thing without being peppered by an anti tank gun."
Unless you really pissed someone off the day before.
I used to live in Switzerland, and it never failed to surprise visitors when they saw our building's bomb shelter. It was extensive but we used it for storage.
Like in most paranoid countries with such shelters... *Looks inside my shelter* at least there ain't a need for it for now... *Sigh*
@@PrograError To protect herself is paranoid.. nice
What kind of mental problems do you have?
Oh, so you're the guy I nearly ran over today! I thought I recognised you :)
Anyway, welcome to Switzerland!
Way to go to say hi...
"The Tim Traveller channel unfortunately has had to close down on account of Tim getting run over by a crazed Swiss fan/stalker."
1:28 map men map men men men
Well spotted
men men men men men men men
Never draw on a map!
What do you mean? I couldn't find the reference.
@@karljones543 the music...
When driving through the swiss alps and keep your eyes open, you see fortifications hidden almost everywhere... small vents sticking out of mountain sides, some hidden concrete entrances and so on
3:11 "illustration not to scale" Fantastic, i laughed my a** off xD
"These days you can usually walk the whole thing without being peppered by anti-tank guns".
Usually?!? So there are days when...
LOL!
"This demonstrates the value of not being seen."
Tim: Nyon.
Me: ...Nyon?
Tim: You know, Nyoooo~n.
Wait, that's my hometown in my UA-cam suggestions ? 😂😂
That was my daily walk during lockdown last spring 😂
2:49 "Allo, Allo!" intro for France. Genius!
Switzerland has gun emplacements everywhere - look carefully at mountainsides flanking many major roads and you can see the dummy glassfibre covers of gun positions set into the rock faces.
We supplied equipment to make a road tunnel near Thusis which had sub tunnels to the outer rock face for " ventilation " as stated on the plans.
The Dijle defence line in Belgium is quite a nice trek/ bike ride as well. Loads of bunkers and tank entrapment things still lying around around Leuven and Mechelen. Maybe an idea for a video?
I was talking about business travel with my brother and my grandad and mentioned a trip to Leuven, assuming they wouldn't know it. Turns out that grandad was there in WWII, as an army engineer, and remembered prepping the bridges for demolition in case of a retreat.
The more I learn about the Swiss the more I like them
I LOVE the SWISS.
Thank you 🥰
I know, we look harmless don't we? But we've got more rifle ranges than golf courses and we train at 300M
@bhaggen you re a schnitzel with this flag not swiss at all und we de eine bish de schäm di zu tiefscht di us schwizer us zs gä mit erä dütsche flagge du verräter.
@@frankcadillac1977.....Schnitzel is Austrian; du Schafseckel!
Thats only a few of the ones that are public, there are many more we never heard about in weirder places.
Hell we even lost some of them we flat out don't know where some of them are
Really enjoyed that lil video,thank you for making it 👏👍🙂
5:04 its funny because "gland" is the name for a part of the D*** in the France language
In English too, that's why an orgasm is theatrically called the "gland final"
@@Braun30 In English it is "glans" because ofc we aren't gonna use some french word without either fucking with the spelling or butchering the pronunciation....... or both.
So it is in Spanish by just adding a final -e. Don't think it's much different in Italian, Portuguese...
Well there's a sexual terms trails somewhere... *Top Gear flashback*
A Swiss comedian Marie-Porchet includes that gag as part of her "Swiss geography lesson." Sorry about the lack of English subtitles.
ua-cam.com/video/Pf7b01N5P7E/v-deo.html
5:02 Ha... "la belle ville de Gland !" as it's locally known... 😂
On the motorway from Lausanne to Geneva, there used to be a sign that indicated the distances to the towns of: "Aubonne, Gimel, Gland".
They removed it, because everyone used to make fun of it... 🤣
Indeed... but for non-Swiss people to understand the joke, the names of the towns need to be translated into English. So please, go ahead ! 😜
@@CafetiereEnOr "bonnes" can also be understood as "bonnes soeurs", a slang word for "nun".
So same thing, but with nuns instead.
@@Valecto Just to add a bit of explanation, in French the word "gland" can either mean "acorn", or "glans penis".
It can also be a slang word for someone stupid or uneducated ("un glandu"/"une glandue")
e.g.: "Ce mec, c'est vraiment un gland(u) !" ("This guy is really an idiot!")
So "la belle ville (pleine) de glands" would imply a city full of idiots.
How far is it from there to Fucking, Austria??
@@notthatyouasked6656 691 kms, according to Google Map.
Yeah, that Gland is not anywhere near to F***ing... 😋
"You can walk the whole thing without being peppered by anti-tank guns". Dude, I wouldn't count on it, after all 2020 is still not over. ;)
This was so interesting and we really enjoyed it. The narrator is humorous and fun to listen to. Thank you.
"oh elle est jolie cette maison" had me laugh in french
4:34
How do you laugh in French? (snrk snrk snrk snrk!)