Making A Biel Of It

I LEFT home shortly before 9am and reached Biel/Bienne (this is now the bilingual city's official name) shortly after 7pm, which means I was wearing a mask for 10 hours, and did I not like that?
Heathrow was interesting - I was flying from Terminal 2 with SWISS, and I felt the terminal was reasonably busy, although the fact that Terminal 3 was closed must have helped.
Even so, very few shops were open, and the only place to get a coffee was Leon, which does not serve proper coffee, and anyway had a long queue.
Everyone on the plane and on the trains I got from Zurich - I had to change once - wore a mask.
But walking around Biel this evening I only saw one person wearing a mask, so it is easy to forget there is a health crisis.
On the other hand the receptionist at my hotel tells me you must wear a mask in supermarkets, and it seems at least some other shops insist on the same.
I was too late to get into the city's congress centre, which is where the chess is being held, so I will have to wait until tomorrow to find out what it is like.
One thing that did not surprise me is that Switzerland is expensive. When I used to at least once a year come here and to Liechtenstein, which also uses the Swiss franc, the exchange rate was roughly 2.5 francs to the pound, and everything seemed expensive.
The exchange rate is now about 1.16 francs to the pound, so I am reeling after having paid seven francs for a small bottle of beer in a bar near the congress centre.