On the other hand, I found my former situation with the Swiss regulations around noise, including mandated, legally-backed, police-enforced quiet from 12:00-13:00, 22:00-07:00 M-Sa and the entirety of Sunday a source of continual angst. (Of course, the church bells which bang every 15 minutes 7x24 are exempted from these strictures.)
On balance, I think I'd rather take the risk of having a neighbor running a chainsaw any time he wants over getting a knock from the cops because some busybody decided hoovering up broken glass on a Sunday afternoon was sufficiently verboten to necessitate involving the authorities.
But was it quiet in Switzerland? I read a lot about the poor quality of their apartment blocks, to the extent that one could hear their neighbours just talking.
The old buildings have the usual old building problems, including hearing when your upstairs neighbor has gas or is feeling amorous. The newer concrete ones are much better, but entirely devoid of character. If you have millions, you can buy 49% of a house and get away from it all.
On balance, my experience of Switzerland was not particularly quiet, but then I mostly worked in urbia and lived in suburbia. The mountains are lovely and still, but there's not much tech work going in the forest.
On the other hand, I found my former situation with the Swiss regulations around noise, including mandated, legally-backed, police-enforced quiet from 12:00-13:00, 22:00-07:00 M-Sa and the entirety of Sunday a source of continual angst. (Of course, the church bells which bang every 15 minutes 7x24 are exempted from these strictures.)
On balance, I think I'd rather take the risk of having a neighbor running a chainsaw any time he wants over getting a knock from the cops because some busybody decided hoovering up broken glass on a Sunday afternoon was sufficiently verboten to necessitate involving the authorities.