When sunshine combines with public holidays, Swiss roads grind to a crawl. May has three weekends extended by public holidays: Ascension (10 May), Pentecost (20 and 21 May) and Corpus Christi (31 May). All three are likely to bring freeway frustration. Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) warns drivers to expect delays on the A2, particularly […]
Archives for 2018
Swiss government data shows sharp rise in another tick borne disease
A report published recently the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) shows a sharp increase tularemia cases, a disease spread primarily by ticks. From 2010 to 2016, an average of 31 cases of infection were recorded annually. In 2017, the number jumped to 129, a four-fold increase. 129 cases is 1.5 per 100,000. Most were […]
The Swiss cantons making the most wine
In 2017, Swiss residents downed 249 million litres of wine, around 37 litres per resident over the age of 191. This equates to roughly one bottle of wine per week. Statistics from 2015 show that 13.8% of the nation don’t consume alcohol. If this is factored in average weekly wine consumption by those who do […]
FILM: LEAN ON PETE – a film that stays in the heart
4 May 2018. LEAN ON PETE (La route sauvage) **** There are films that stay in the heart. This is one of them – a small gem of an Indy film. It’s about a teenager whose mother left him as a baby. His father tries to be there for him, but there are money problems, […]
Switzerland most expensive for meat
Switzerland has the world’s most expensive meat according to a survey compiled by Caterwings in Germany. The survey, which looks at meat prices in 52 countries, ranks Swiss prices at the top across all meat categories. On average, Swiss shoppers pay 142% more than the average across all meat categories. Chicken, the meat with the […]
Tainted tuna uncovered by food fraud investigation
A european food fraud investigation has uncovered tainted tuna. Tuna destined for canning was illegally treated with chemicals to transform it from brown to red, fooling customers into thinking it was fresh. Fresh tuna sells for twice the price of canned tuna. The chemicals used are carbon monoxide and nitrites, the same substances often used […]
Swiss cantons to get more money for refugees. Not everyone is happy.
Switzerland’s federal government has decided to increase the amount it gives cantons for each refugee, which includes accepted refugees and asylum seekers. Currently, it provides a one-off payment of CHF 6,000. Soon this will increase to CHF 18,000, according to the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP). At the same time, federal assistance to […]
Switzerland breaks record for highest number of PhD students
In 2017, there were 31,293 doctoral students at Switzerland’s two federal technical universities, EPFL in Lausanne and ETHZ in Zurich. This record figure is 1,000 more than in 2016 and 10,000 more than 10 years ago. The biggest rise in 2017 was the number in computing (+7.5%) and in science and engineering (+4.1%), both higher […]
Hemingway and Fitzgerald in Switzerland
Basel-based Irish writer Padraig Rooney, whose recent book The Gilded Chalet, explores Switzerland’s relationship with American, British and other expatriate authors, looks at Hemingway’s and Fitzgerald’s own encounters with the Lake Geneva region. The war was over and the French franc cheap: twenty-five to the US dollar in the mid-twenties. Ernest Hemingway first breezed into […]
Some Swiss train fares to fall in June
This week, ch-direct, an association of public transport providers that sets ticket prices, announced there would be no ticket price rises in 2019. Instead the prices of some tickets will fall slightly on 1 June 2018. The price small cuts on standard fares in June relate to the shift from 8.0% to 7.7% VAT at […]
