Mandatory Dog Training Ends; Swiss Rail Tickets Set To Rise; Spooky Excavations at StadtCasino; 39th Annual Basel Christmas Markets Open

News For 29 November 2016

Starting the 1st of January in the new year, the Swiss Federal requirement for dog owners to undergo training will no longer be in effect. The requirement was a response in 2008 to several reports of attacks by dogs on people and other animals.  However, the federal government has found that administering the law has been expensive, burdensome and without any measurable effect on he number of negative reports of incidents involving owners and their dogs.  Cantons will, of course, still have the ability to continue or pass their own laws as their citizens may desire.  

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Swiss Rail has released its annual train fare plans, and the news is not good.  Despite aggregate price indexes in Switzerland having once again declined, fares on most routes and classes will increase starting next month.  The biggest increases will be to annual GA passes which will rise more than 5% for adults.  For single ride fares between Basel and Zurich a round trip fare will increase by 2 francs.  The news however is not all bad: Half-Tax cards will still exist, and their cost is expected to stay the same; Junior card privileges will be extended to allow a child to ride with any adult, in addition to their parents or grandparents; and conductors on Swiss Rail will all be wearing snazzy new uniforms funded partially by the fare increases.

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As reconstruction continues at the StadtCasino in central Basel the excavation has turned up the remains of 30 people.  Apparently, the construction zone is directly above what was once the cloister of the Barfusser Church, now the Basel Historical Museum.  At one point, historical documents suggest the construction zone was actually the site of a 16th century building used to house patients deemed insane in the adjacent hospital.  The remains are likely those of people that died in the asylum.  When remains turn up, Basel's archaeologists go to work cataloging and restoring the bones for further scientific study.  Marc Bernasconi, the director of excavations at the site pointed out that all of Basel sits on ancient historic relics and finding them is simply a function of how deep one digs.

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Over 900,000 visitors are expected at this year's Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Markets).  Between the two markets at Munsterplatz and Barfusserplatz, 185 vendors will be on hand this year selling gifts, food and all manner of trinkets.  This year, the markets hours will run from 11 to 8:30pm every day and many shops in the inner city will extend their opening hours to 10 in the evening.