This weekend was the national Schwing- and Alp Festival in Pratteln. Some 400 000 spectators came to see, amongst other things, grown men hurl one another onto the grown by holding on to each other’s burlap sac shorts. The winner of this typical Swiss sport was Joel Wicki, a 25 year old farmer from Lucerne. It was the first time in 36 years that a Schwinger from central Switzerland won.
The event also featured a procession representing some of the 100 nationalities living in the area. The Russian congregation created a stir as one of the women was seen wearing a traditional dress as well as a brooch representing the letter “Z”, the ambassador to the Ukraine cancelled his appearance at the event as a consequence. But overall this was very much a celebration of all things Swiss.
A German Youtuber decided to grow his audience by taking on a stupid and dangerous challenge; namely walking the highest mountain hike in the Wallis, the Barrhorn which is 3610 meters high, wearing only swimming trunks and flip flops. Although he managed to get to the top he had to call friends to help him back down and has faced a backlash for his action which could have gone terribly wrong.
This week the government will be announcing what measures it is asking people to take in order to reduce their energy consumption this winter. One of which will most probably be to sleep in cooler bedrooms. We will do a post on the measures once they are shared.
This summer saw some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Switzerland. In average the temperatures were 2.3° Celsius higher than normal, the number of heatwave days recorded was 29 days (when temperatures remain at over 30° Celsius). The point of 0° Celsius was recorded at 5184 meters on the 25th of July, the highest ever.
It seems as if the hot weather was broken by Friday’s thunderstorm, which brought flooding, hail and high winds to the region. This week you can expect milder temperatures in the mid 20s as well as more rain from Wednesday onwards.
Have an amazing week!
