Secure in Switzerland

Just over five years ago, I visited Switzerland for the first time on a trip with my cousin, Timo. One evening as we were setting up camp near the glacier we had just mountaineered on (read: walked around with crampons on, then Tim hauling my no-upper-body-strength-having-self out of a crevasse that I climbed into), we made some jokes about how the doors on the side of a nearby mountain might be the entrance to a secret military bunker/ research facility. It turns out that we might not have been that far off.

ASIDE: I never blogged about that trip. I came back to Raleigh from my semester in Ghana for summer school and just really wanted to get back out in the world again - some combination of wanderlust or just the daydreaming that Mechanics of Solids will drive you to or the excitement of watching Euro 2008 on the television, which had taken place partially in Switzerland, led me to crash the end of a much larger climbing trip Tim was on with one of his buddies. I was pretty sick the whole time (leftover parasites), but still had a fantastic time. Here are some photos:

Clockwise from top left: Swiss cheese bike, my first (maybe) bunker sighting, the wundercousin,
and hanging out on the mountain.

BACK TO THE POST TOPIC: My team was in Basel this past weekend for the first round of the Swiss national ultimate championships and the accommodation that was offered was in bunkers. When I first heard this, I was quite confused. We will sleep in a Bunker? Like during an air raid? Several of my teammates opted to get a hotel because they had previously had bad bunker sleeping experiences, with offensive smells, humidity and noise.

I did not have any issues with the bunker-experience. It was very similar to a youth hostel. Or at least a youth hostel that is underground and has a doctor's office, pharmacy, and x-ray room (maybe more - there was a dark hallway that I did not dare to venture down). This bunker had four to five rooms with sleeping places for maybe 40 people in each (the one I was in had 20 bunk-beds).

The heavy outer door, x-ray room, beds, and some provisions.

Switzerland has space for its entire population (and then some) in underground pretty-nuclear-proof bunkers, split between private and public bunkers. If you build a dwelling with a certain capacity and you do not include a bunker, you have to pay a fine to the municipality. This money is then used for the construction and maintenance of the public bunkers. Since these bunkers are generally not needed for their intended purpose, they can sometimes be rented out to house people for events, like ultimate tournaments and field trips (I am not sure of the exact conditions).

The bunkers in the mountains look much more epic (my entrance pretty much looked like an underground parking garage, but with out any streets nearby):

(Source: Polar Inertia)

I suppose I should find where my bunker in Züri is... assuming they let foreigners in :)