My birthday is coming up and since our plan A has gone out the window, we are staying in Switzerland. But since i dont speak Italian or German, i cant figure out whats going on in the rest of the country. Maybe we can share the situation in each canton to help people who want to have a staycation? I will start.

Geneva: Bars and restaurants only open for delivery and take away, but must close at 11pm. Supermarkets are open but all other non essential shops are closed. This will be until the 29th Of November earliest. Masks are compulsory in all public accessible areas, on public transport and outside if social distancing cannot be maintained. Cinemas, swimming pools and other similar things are closed. Markets are closed

At the moment the restrictions grow smaller the further you move from the French part of the country.
In Zurich the restaurants, gyms, cinemas, bars, markets etc are open. Restaurants close at 11 pm. Masks must be worn unless seated. Only four people per table. All shops are open. Masks are mandatory.
Masks are mandatory in public transport in all of Switzerland

Same in Schwyz

My wife and I have travelled across the röstigraben numerous times and never have had a problem speaking English. French, yes but not English.

I really feel for when the German speakers travel to Romandie where both German and English are frowned upon.

English really should become the language used for communicating over linguistic barriers. If everyone was to learn their local dialect, their cantonal language(s), and English that would actually bring the country closer together IMHO.

This still favours the Romandie (except Fribourg and Valais) as they only have French and English to learn.

I had always assumed anyone under 30 automatically uses English to speak to their other language counterparts.

Here are the rules, in English, on the official site of the Federal Office of Public Health (in German, BAG, in French OFSP):
https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home...es-bundes.html

with links, therein, to the cantonal sites, albeit not in English.
https://www.ch.ch/de/coronavirus/#ko...alen-behoerden
The info for any particular canton can be run through deepl or google translate.

VD is relatively open but doesn't encourage much mobility, the Romandie in general seems to be struggling with high numbers. I think the spirit of the Swiss leadership is to not try to export whatever we are dealing with here to other Swiss regions. I'd wait. Also had a birthday in a lockdown.

Happy birthday. Nothing was open but it was still sweet.

Truth is TV unified the accent through the country (except Switzerland ), the internet is going to unify the language across the globe. It's amazing how much the process is accelerating year by year.

There's something about English which seems missing in many other languages, it's very expressive, the thoughts just flow through. My thoughts flow in English most of the time even though it's not my mother tongue.

I'm not pushing for English but for sure adopting it as a bridge language in Switzerland could benefit all.

English sucks, French is far better.

Tom

Hmmm. If English is Lego, German is Cern, French is a lovely wedding cake and any Slavic language a Hopper painting.

went to Brig today and it is really sad. yesterday all bars / restaurants closed so the city is empty.

there is everywhere advertising about ski season and reduced prices and money back guarantee and what kind of a measumrent will be on the snow but.... I don't think that 2020 part of the season will be saved.

Gata; believe me when I say that we've ALL had birthdays, anniversaries, and other significant milestone plans this year that annoyingly have gone tits up because of the wretched virus.... and to avoid the risk of catching/spreading it to others have selflessly chosen to stay home.

I do understand that it's a total pita but please just enjoy your birthday as best you can at home and look forward to celebrating your birthday properly next year instead.

That's great news! (first part)
Hard to estimate the "savings rate" though, as you say.
But I hope that most of the people who usually escape to neighboring countries for ski holiday, will do that here this season.
So there is hope

Thats what we will probably will be doing. Maybe a day trip somewhere to get out of the house a bit. Im just hoping the day will be dry

ouch, I'm sorry if I was holding on to an off topic. I don't even go into the direction of which language would be better if English was not such popular. I guess it should be Esperanto.

If you think about it deeper, we all learn more than one language by default. We learn the spoken language, then the written language, then language/vocabulary specific for an age group, then specific for a professioal group....

In Valais Hotels are allowed to open their bars/restaurants for their residents. I’m assuming this is the rule everywhere.

One entrepreneur tried renting his rooms by the minute, the time his ‘residents’ spent in his bar/resident. Sometimes he had a 200% occupancy rate. This however didn’t last very long.

So it remains possible to travel within Switzerland, stay overnight, have a drink in the bar and a nice meal without the need for a dedicated driver. Very civilised.

The lockdown is a farce really .. The numbers in neighbouring France are huge, that potentially transfers straight into GE, those people are now all crossing into VD for 'non essential' services..

It was like black friday shopping here in VD this weekend.

It's that old analogy of having a pissing area in a swimming pool .

I saw it yesterday . Boy, how surprised was I about this GE invasion, so much traffic when I ran. I feel bad about the businesses in GE that are toast as we type..but GE has officially the highest numbers in Europe now. https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/11692...en-europe.html

It was clear this would happen.
I avoid Nyon, Chavannes & Signy like the plague (no pun intended) atm

Here in canton SG there seems to be no restrictions in place whatsoever, with the sole exception of people wearing masks almost everywhere. Everything is open during normal business hours, and restaurants remain both open and at the maximum allowed occupancy.