Shop
opening hours are
customarily Mon-Fri 9am-noon &
2-6.30pm, Sat 8.30am-noon,
although it's becoming more common
in the cities to ignore the lunch
break and stay open on Saturday
until 4pm; the flipside is that
many places take Monday morning
off. Most shops now have one day
of late-opening, often Thursday
until 9pm; those in the
subterranean malls at train
stations are open daily, and close
later. Most big-city stations also
have 24-hour vending machines
dispensing loaves of bread, cheese
and cartons of milk. Museums and
attractions are often open on
Sundays, but virtually all are
closed on Mondays.
Almost everything is closed on
the following public holidays
: Jan 1; Good Friday & Easter
Monday (March 29 & 31);
Ascension Day (May 9); Whit Monday
(May 18); Dec 25 & 26. In
Switzerland, shops and banks tend
to close for all or part of Swiss
National Day (Aug 1) and on a
range of local holidays as well.
As well as the above,
Liechtenstein keeps May 1 as a
public holiday, and Aug 15 as the
national holiday.
