Access to the Internet is everywhere, with cybercafés or public-access terminals in most towns and resorts, either free or roughly Fr.2–4 for 10mins. City train stations often have a public stand-up coin- or credit-card-operated Internet terminal, and you can even type in and send a short email from the screens in phonebooths for Fr.1.50 (Swisscom taxcard needed), although you can’t pick up any email this way.

More difficulties arise if you’re travelling with a laptop or palmtop, and have all the necessary paraphernalia to connect but just need a phoneline. Although some Swiss phones use the US-style RJ-11, most of them – and the majority in hotel rooms – use either an idiosyncratic chunky square jack or (rarely) an ancient four-pin plug. None uses the British-style design. Business hotels generally keep a supply of adaptors and leads for lending to guests; otherwise, you’ll have to seek advice from an electronics store. Check out www.kropla.com for invaluable advice on how to proceed.

In general, the Swiss have a healthy disregard for the mass media, and watch much less TV than the European average – in fact, the German-speaking Swiss watch least of all. To make up for it they read more, and more locally oriented, newspapers than anyone else in Europe.