Switzerland travel questions from me to Aoife

Switzerland is one that I've still been a bit unclear on. In my rough itinerary we slotted in Zurich, Bern and Lausanne (mainly so I can hang with Boots member Aoife), with a Geneva possibility. To start refining things though, I shot an email to Aoife:

“One thing I’d like to know more about is Switzerland. We’d noted that Zurich, Bern and Geneva were all possibilities, but what’s your knowledge of those cities? Some people – like Sean – can’t stand traveling to Switzerland, because it just seems there’s nothing there for the traveler. But I’ve heard others say they loved it. I also have this hunch about not going to Switzerland for the cities, but for the countryside. What do you think?”
And here’s her reply:
“Bern is nice for a day trip (& weed shops if you’re into that), some typical Swiss architecture to be seen and good beer places …ditto for Fribourg. Both accessible from Lausanne. Geneva I wouldn’t bother with, its similar to Lausanne (but not as nice obviously), the only unique thing is that you can go and join whatever protest is outside the UN at the time…
“Zurich is just another city, albeit a very clean and organised one… you can party hard if you have someone to go out with, so I was told by a reliable source (South American student). Sean is right in that there isn’t really an independent traveller “scene” here and you are right in that you really need to get hiking or otherwise outdoors to appreciate Switzerland. It should be still warm enough to get out in oct and I’ll drag you up at least one mountain before you can do R&R”