Switzerland is a nation of tenants – and noisy neighbours. Some 49 per cent of the country’s apartment dwellers admit that they get irritated by the racket next door (Homegate survey, 2020). Use of the shared laundry room is the second most common, but more classically Swiss, source of conflict (18 per cent) – as immortalised in the novel “Der Waschküchenschlüssel” (The laundry room key); Hugo Loetscher, 1998, Diogenes Verlag.
Annoyed by the neighbours? Go hiking. More and more people have been discovering the delights of Switzerland’s 65,000-kilometre hiking trail network this year. If the country’s entire population were spread out evenly along all these trails in single file, everyone would remain socially distanced seven metres apart.
The Swiss tourist board Switzerland Tourism reported record figures for the month of July: 39.6 million overnight stays. Too good to be true? Unfortunately, yes: these are the figures for July 2019. Thanks to COVID-19, the current holiday season may break the wrong sort of records.
Another coronavirus statistic: 99 per cent of Swiss SMEs and start-ups have been negatively affected by the pandemic, according to the Berne University of Applied Sciences. Eleven per cent say that COVID-19 threatens their very existence.
Finally, some doggy-related business. Robidog – the Swiss-produced dog waste disposal system featuring an in-built waste bag dispenser – was patented in 1981. Around 40,000 of these contraptions can be found all around Switzerland. However, the dog waste bin has become a victim of its own success: its numbers are shrinking, because dog owners have become more conscientious in picking up and disposing of their pooch’s mess.
Picture: Robidog is an iconic Swiss invention. Here is one specimen on a hiking trail near Vals. Photo: Keystone
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