We have just added information to the Cheerful traveler guides, on traveling to and around in Basel, Bern and Zurich. They’re designed for people who live in the Lake Geneva region and travel to other Swiss cities for business or pleasure, but visitors to Switzerland will also find them helpful.

We’re in the process of updating two of our other guides, so be sure to revisit these pages in the next few days.

I was hunting for US presidential election night events in Lausanne and Google brought up such an odd and fascinating bit of Lausanne history that I must share it: the story from Time magazine, 3 April 1964, of the murder of Marjorie Winifred Bird, an American of substantial wealth whose doctor was accused of murdering her with massive doses of barbiturates. And her “consort” who was accused of being cahoots with the doctor and stealing $200,000 worth of jewels. I read the fascinating if sordid tale right to the end looking for a possible link to the 2008 elections. Only at the end did I realize it was at the beginning. The victim had, it seemed, hoped the US would become a monarchy.

I doubt she would have appreciated this election.