Okay, the title is a bit provocative. I am from neither CH or GB, and just moved Monday to Zurich. So far so good, I liked GB and like CH. But after 2 years of living in cold England, I just had an epiphany. Two actually.

1) Absence of mixing taps: Really, that's something that s-u-c-k-s in England. Imagine: It's cold and your hands are freezing. You need to wash them up. You have two options: even colder or scolding hot. You would think a country that has sent people to space would try to figure out something better than rushing your hands back and forth between opposite sides of the sink?

2) Lack of insulation: That's reason number 2 why England s-u-c-k-s. It hasn't been cold in CH yet. But I am not afraid. The Swiss know that it's not always sunny and they have built for it (it seems). In England, September would be a miserable time because I knew I had 6 months ahead of me of shivering and trolling for warmth. And you would know that it got warmer around March or April because people would start organizing BBQs, only to cancel them because of rain.

So yeah, CH is better than GB because the Swiss don't seem to have that masochistic bent when it gets to weather...

Anyone disagrees?

All in all I think Switzerland beats the UK (where I am from BTW) on a lot of things - apart from pubs and beer, but I wouldn't go as far as saying that the UK "s-u-c-k-s" 'cos some homes with older plumbing don't have mixer taps. Or some older homes don't have great insulation.

Every country has good and bad points, but so far I haven't one that completely s-u-c-k-s.

Sure, and I am always trying my best to accept it (cf. apartment hunt going on right now), but those two I could never get used to!

Switzerland is great with insulation against the cold but not against noise. Be aware of noise issues during your search for the right apartment.

really? i've only lived here a year but i'm amazed how much quieter it is here than Canada and America, where i grew up

Yeah, but in the US, nobody complains if you sneeze loudly at 10pm or take a shower after 10pm

It depends how well adjusted you are. If you sneeze precisely at 10pm then the noise will be covered by the local church bell chiming the hour.

In GB, I had mixer taps, and a well insulated flat. If you had to move all the way to Switzerland just to find them, then you can't have been looking very hard...

However, moving from Cambridge to Geneva, the two things which I am so far enjoying Switzerland more because of are:

Mountains - been cycling in them this summer, and I'm already looking forward to the skiing this winter.

Fondue - the Swiss managed to outdo the good old British cheese-on-toast. Mmmmm...

I'd have put "public transport" at number one...

(Qualifier: just in case, this may not apply if you are out in the boonies )

Well i do have to say, i am british (yeah scotland rains more than england i know) But just to put a damper on your thread.......Have you looked out the window this morning.....heard or read the forcast....the Swiss rain is here....

Yeah it does rain more in the uk than here but i also wouldn't say it sucked.... there are many good point about both countries but too many to list.....

Every country has good and bad about it just like the people.....

The two things I prefer about Switzerland.

1 You get more say about how your tax is spent.

2, Just as gbn said "the public transport system".

No, it actually rains much more in Switzerland than in the UK.... Zurich is one of the "wettest" places in Europe

In Zurich its really miserable again today.... last weekend I was still enjoying sunshine and >30° in Austria and now this. Horrible - already making plans for trips away from here for the next couple of weekends....

Hi Mike,

I just discovered Pickwicks Pub in Zug. A real British Pub with great fish & chips, bangers and mash, and superb burgers (also great beer, even South African beer)!

It's nice, but it's not a 'real British Pub', and never will be, unfortunately.

That's not to say it isn't a pleasant bar to spend an evening in, however. It's just not British.

Though there are more hours of sunshine which is obviously more important.

I keep hearing this whole swiss being super sensitive to noise thing, but we have been blessed with a building full of completely reasonable and friendly people, and have thus had no problems blaring music during houseparties and watching movies with the sub on past midnight. I live between Enge/Wollishofen in Zurich kanton 2

But at work parties the cops always come. Luckily the swiss boss knows how to talk his way out of fines, I think. But they did come three times last time...

I'm really hoping we never have to move

Bingo. This is the most important thing for me: prior to moving to Zuri in Oct '07, I lived in Seattle for 2 years. They say it rains all the time there. It does. But that's not the killer... the killer is that there is zero sunshine for 6-8 months per year! That's the dealbreaker for me. It might rain buckets here quite often, but you get occasional sunny days (even if they are cold) all through winter, and escaping up to mountaintops for skiing provides this often too. Actually we found this last winter amazing for this - so many sunny days! Big smiles on our faces

Anyways - to each their own.

Thanks Bobby, but as Dougal points out, it's not a real English pub (but not too bad I have heard). It's the same with all theme pubs, if you have to try to recreate the real thing you will fail. All the best pubs back home have grown that way organically over the years (or centuries in some cases), there's no formula, it just happens, or more often than not, it doesn't.

Someone from CAMRA said a few years ago that there are no old pubs left in London anymore, they have all been refurbished and turned into old pubs.

Yes, a lot of things are much better here in CH, BUT I would still prefer to live in London. Not only because the people seem far more tolerant there (nobody would lift an eye browe because you do not speak the local English accent) or complain because you have mixed in a piece of carton in your paper recycling package (nicely lashed up with the one and only accepted cord) and put on the street exactly the defined day ....

And I miss the energy of the city business ....

But I won't complain, I tend to forget that I live in perfect CH in the city with the highest life quality .... I should be glad and happy!:co nfused:???

Last winter was the sunniest and warmest ever recorded in Zurich Normally, there's zero sunshine from November to February....