Friday, September 14, 2012

Uetliberg Hike

The team went up to Uetliberg tonight. While we intentionally chose the longer path, trying to avoid the super steep direct route, it took longer and was steeper than expected. Nevertheless, this time nobody got lost, and we had a nice dinner at the top of Zuerich.

View from the path through the forest towards Zurich

Tomorrow will be taking the train in this direction, and go visit some real mountains.

Sunset Cruise on Lake Zurich

ZSG's sunset cruise is a two hour trip on Lake Zurich to Rapperswil. ... and another two hours back, if you indeed feel like taking the boat.  


It took two hours for the sun to set, and a lot of photos...

Sunset dinner

And now we are reaching the light sensitivity boundaries of the sensor in my cell phone camera.
At the lake in Rapperswil, just below the castle. 


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

When there's rain, there's water ...


The Sihl, one of the two rivers flowing through Zurich, is usually only a few inches deep, and cristal clear. However, after the rains last night, it's carrying a lot more water, and one can't see the river floor anymore.

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Swiss ingenuity

What do you do if there's not enough space to build a freeway into the city?
...
You put it over the river:

A3 on top of Sihl river

A little bit downriver they put a train tunnel underneath the same river. Bahnhof Selnau, the underground station in that segment, is accessed from a bridge crossing the river.



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Cutlery in corporate apartment

Cutlery drawer in the corporate apartment
This is a good selection and variety of utensils and knifes.
Contrary to Lamia and Wolfram's experience .

Sihlcity in the morning

I have this odd obsession with old brick chimneys. Thankfully Zurich is littered with them, primarily in converted industrial parcels.

This is the chimney at the Sihlcity shopping center. Today the only smokers around sit in the restaurants at the foot of the chimney.


Saturday, September 08, 2012

Knabenschiessen

"Knabenschiessen" is an annual festivity in Zurich, combined with a big street fair and carnival rides. I went during the day when it was quite empty and you could easily move around. No lines either.

Street fair  and food stands on Uetlibergstrasse. I had excellent Raclette-Cheese with potatoes and a pretty good crepe with banans and chocolate for dessert.

Carnival Rides. The grounds are packed with rides. There's pretty much no flat spot that doesn't have either a ride, a food stand, or is needed for people to walk.

Awesome ride. Plastic balloons in water. Everyone can play (even adults). Maximum two people for at most 5 minutes. Reminded me of the hamster ball from school, but the children apparently really enjoyed it, and this was one of the few rides with a line!

*sigh* Too bad I'm not into Gummibaeren...

Notice something?
There are no cages or glass enclosures for the gondolas! There are apparently no seat belts either.  Not only does this look really friendly, but the view must be so much nicer without the cage bars, too.
A setup like this would be impossible in the U.S.
Oh yeah, there were also youth that apparently were shooting on targets or something (which is the whole point of this 4 day event. You could hear the shots when being close to the shooting range, though I didn't go inside. That was pretty crowded, even at 3pm.

When I walked back the apartment, lots of people were walking up to Albisguetli from the city. I was glad that I got food and took a look around before the masses arrived.

There were several very big portable carnival rides like this one:

Thursday, September 06, 2012

Morning View


Today I was woken up by a friendly, but loud "Guten Morgen!" coming up to my window from the courtyard. The friendly woman's intention was certainly not to wake me up, but it was a good start into the day.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Half full

Hefeweizen at Juan Costa right next to the office.

Bye, bye Stuttgart


View from IC 187 while traveling the Gaeubahn between Nordbahnhof and Stuttgart West on its way to Zurich.

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Ready to go


Let's see what the box looks like once it arrives in San Francisco...