![\"135.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/135.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cHow have you managed to stay in one place for so long?\u201d asked a regular customer at our caf\u00e9 in Z\u00fcrich. \u201cHasn\u2019t it made you crazy being grounded for the past three months?\u201d She wasn\u2019t the first to ask this question. \u201cI\u2019ve been completely fine staying within Switzerland\u2019s borders,\u201d I said. \u201cFor sure, I\u2019m looking forward to travelling internationally again but it\u2019s been refreshing to live life in a new rhythm free from 05.30 queues at airports, unexplained flight delays and short-hop trips that are frequently more draining than longer trans-con jaunts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, life with many liberties and services removed has been tough. But there have been worse places to spend it than Z\u00fcrich, where it was very much \u201clockdown light\u201d with small gatherings allowed, domestic travel permitted and the federal government confidently and competently guiding the nation throughout. Where many around the world have struggled with vague guidance and an absence of timelines, the Swiss set up a timetable from the start of emergency measures and stuck to it \u2013 almost as though they knew how the whole thing would play out. It\u2019s now clear that the country\u2019s economy received as much emergency attention as healthcare and we come to the end of this first half of 2020 feeling certain that there\u2019s a plan to restore social life, workday rhythms and cross-border relations.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s somewhat fitting that I\u2019m writing this on the morning that borders across most of Europe reopen to regular traffic \u2013 and not surprising that I\u2019m marking the occasion by jumping behind the wheel and making a business trip to Munich. Yes, I\u2019ve been very happy with the walk back and forth to my office in Z\u00fcrich\u2019s Seefeld district but now it\u2019s time to get out on the road again. And there\u2019s much work to be done to restore stalled projects, replace cancelled advertising and get monocle\u00a0into perfect shape before Europe breaks for its summer holiday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Over the past few months you will have noticed that our issues have been a little thinner. But this special edition is already a bit thicker (perhaps not ideal for swimsuit season) and all indications from the market suggest that many companies are feeling positive about selling their products and services on page, screen and through headphones. From our side, we\u2019ve not only maintained a full publishing schedule but also launched a series of new radio programmes, reopened all of our retail operations (with stock boosted by a new series of collaborations) and \u2013 perhaps most importantly \u2013 unveiled a new, mobile-friendly extension of the magazine dubbed Monocle Digital Editions. You can find out more by visiting monocle.com\/subscribe<\/a>. While we have overcome logistical challenges (diminished freighter capacity, overwhelmed postal services), the past few months taught us that supply chains are fragile affairs and that we need a crisp, digital offer for our readers who aren\u2019t able to get the print edition or simply want something nimble on screen. Aside from offering the magazine in a more backlit-friendly format, we will also be keeping subscribers up to date with an ever-expanding line-up of tips and intelligence on the best in hotels, restaurants, shops, jogs, dips and bars in our favourite cities around the world.<\/p>\n As you settle into this issue, you\u2019ll notice that we decided to give our annual city rankings a holiday this year: we felt that it wasn\u2019t quite the right time to be assessing cities when most of them were struggling with the basics. Nevertheless, the city and all it offers is still in the spotlight for this issue as we reject the narrative that big urban centres have had their day and that everyone is retreating to the countryside. As much as the pessimists and crystal-ball gazers (aren\u2019t they so often the same thing?) have declared that the world\u2019s cities are no longer fit for a healthy, comfortable, rewarding quality of life, we believe otherwise. As you will see across these pages, it\u2019s the city that still excites, delivers on opportunity and will continue to offer the best in education and medical facilities. This doesn\u2019t mean that we don\u2019t want to get out of our urban environments from time to time \u2013 but to think that our cities are going to hollow out because of a pandemic is short-sighted and foolish.<\/p>\n By now you\u2019ll have noticed that monocle\u00a0isn\u2019t hosting its annual Quality of Life Conference this summer but this doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t want to see you and engage in some needed discussions over dinner and drinks. From 17 to 19 September we\u2019ll be hosting the debut edition of The Chiefs \u2013 our new high-altitude summit focused on leadership and looking ahead. As you need a bit of height to see where the world might be heading, we\u2019ll be convening in St Moritz and, of course, all of your favourite editors and radio presenters will be on hand to moderate, host and mingle. For more information, take a peek at monocle.com\/events<\/a>\u00a0or contact my colleague Hannah Grundy directly at hg@monocle.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n As you make your way down to the jetty or find your comfy place on the terrace, we\u2019ll be busy finishing our latest book (gentler living is the theme), developing some jingles for our new audio programmes, moving our Merano shop to a new location and cooking up a couple of other surprises \u2013 more on those very soon. \u2019Til we see you at our next event, thank you for all your support these past few months and wishing you a good summer. Cheers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHow have you managed to stay in one place for so long?\u201d asked a regular customer at our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[43690,26622,14585,43691,43692,17,43693,43694,43695,51],"class_list":["post-85669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-zurich","tag-43690","tag-city-life","tag-covid-19","tag-monocle","tag-pandemic-recovery","tag-switzerland","tag-travel-restrictions","tag-tyler-brule","tag-urban-living","tag-zurich"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116762377382161440","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}