The Swiss military wake up call

On Wednesday I was awoken with the sudden thought at 6.30am that the world was coming to an end. There was a thundering roar coming through my open window and when I looked out I saw the cause - a convoy of tanks and other Swiss military vehicles were rumbling through the village. Although sleepy  and rather bleary, I managed to grab my phone and snap a picture - see below.

This is not the first time, they first came through late afternoon a couple of days before but despite the intimidating presence of a tank rolling towards you, the Swiss have a way of allaying any nerves - a soldier chucked a packet of biscuits out of the window to the daughter of my friend as they passed.

After the shock of a rude awakening it made me chuckle - yet another thing that would be outlandish in the UK but just seems to be the norm here.