Ali – The subject of the schwimmbad was touched on in an earlier post but I don’t think we have quite done it justice. Bad means bathroom and so schwimmbad would seem to translate to ‘peeing while swimming’ but actually is what southerners would call a ‘swimming hole’ and what Baltimoreans would call ‘the place where I got hepititis’. The Swiss, being a culture that evolved living on lakes, are very attached to their swimming holes, which come in a number of flavors: the regular lakeside schwimmbad, the flussbad (or schwimmbad on a river) and even the sportbad, which sounds like some kind of competitive bathing.
During my trip to Zurich last October, some Swiss dinner companions suggested we go to the nude schwimmbad, and then debated among themselves whether Americans could handle the nude schwimmbad given our strange cultural nudity aversion. I’m still not sure if they were pulling my leg as the only nude Swiss I have seen thus far was the 3 year old boy with his swim trunks around his ankles at the water park after a particularly toilet flush-like water slide ride.
So far our favorite is the flussbad for both its free entry (the sum total count of free things in Zurich so far is 2: flussbad and bike rentals) and water park ride-like quality. 
The thing that’s truly amazing for a city-dwelling American is the pristine and potable quality of the lakes and rivers that sit smack dab in the middle of a bustling city. I attribute this mostly to the fact that the Swiss are rule following sticklers. Where Americans feel it is our God-given right to throw our trash in the water and wouldn’t dream of inflicting job-killing regulation on our toxin-spewing industry, the Swiss would melt into a formless jelly without regulations and restrictions on their daily living. They dance with Bacchanalian delight while they carefully separate their cardboard recycling from their white paper recycling and package it in uniform neat cubes. It truly is a sight to behold. 
The fact that they live their lives in the shadow of immense mountain ranges might also contribute to this rule-following culture. One needs a bit of structure and cultural uniformity to keep from feeling so insignificant and meaningless next to such imposing grandeur.
I have to say that the wall of recycling at the grocery store is a price I’m willing to pay to not swim in poo, toxic sludge and discarded packaging. Regulation never looked so refreshing!