Botanischen Garten der Universität Zürich

We made a great discovery this week! This website has photos that really capture what it's like:

http://schweizbilder.ch/izueri/botanischer-garten/botanischer-garten.asp

We'll definitely be going back.

Street Parade

Last Saturday was Street Parade, kind of like a cross between Slope Day and Grassroots festival. Lots of music and LOTS of people enjoying the day.

http://www.streetparade.com/home/street-parade-2010?content=1&main=1

We walked through the crowds a bit, and though we didn't buy the seemingly traditional brightly colored wigs, we did up the hair and found some cotton candy!

Spinnennetz

We found this fantastic playground at the Zurich zoo! (Okay, time to rethink Belle Sherman.)

afternoon fun

Has anyone seen these in the U.S.?

Look at this cool box of Kleenex we got at Migros, our favorite grocery store:

Viel blumen

Just below the Zurichberg hill there are some beautiful familiengarten that we enjoy wandering through.

end of the Ämpächli hike

The end of our hike took us along a "Tierli" trail. The "little animals" were carved out of wood.

And then of course there was a playground with an amazing swing at the very end of the trail.

more Ämpächli

Hikes are always easier when you have a chocolate bar along:

And of course you can't expect to see rainbows if you don't have rain:

snow above Ämpächli

Look closely and you might see the snowball flying at the camera!

Listen to an alp

more Ämpächli

We originally meant to take an easy hike to break in our new boots, but Annie really wanted to touch snow and so Zoë picked a 4.5 hour steep loop up to Chüebodensee, a small lake, and then back down again.

The trail passed through an alp (on the way home we bought alpkäse made right on that mountain--check the "Cheese Please" page soon for updates), so we had to cross into the fenced area and navigate around the cows.

The top of the trail crossed over this ridge:

Hiking in the Glarner Alps

Sunday we took a short train ride and then a bus ride to Elm. From there we rode a cable car up to Ämpächli to hike up into the mountains.

glück

Before setting off on our hike last Sunday, we saw this amazing double rainbow over the city. (We saw two more rainbows that day).

Friedhof Fluntern

Right next to the zoo, on top of Zurichberg, is a beautiful cemetery (friedhof). We often wander through on our way back to the tram. Much to our surprise we discovered that this is where James Joyce, a famous writer, is buried:

Saturday

We've decided Saturday is kuchen day. We need an excuse to try all the amazing cakes. Here are some we've had so far:

news flash!

zlog reminder

Just a reminder to everyone, that you can see older posts by scrolling down to the bottom of the zlog and clicking the "older posts" link. We're a bit sporadic about posting and tend to post so much at once that stuff gets bumped....

Swiss National Day

Last Sunday was Swiss National Day, Switzerland's 4th of July (But on August 1st).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_National_Day

We saw lots of fireworks all over town. They have bonfires on the mountains, too, and people go up and sing Swiss songs and roast sausages--some of the stores were selling wurst tied to a long stick!

Falsenegg

We hiked from Uetliberg to Falsenegg, where we caught a cable car down the mountain. Then we took the train back to Zurich.

more Uetliberg

Here is a view from our hike on Uetliberg:

There were farms along the way--with cows wearing bells, too. We even saw a field of oats:

Uetliberg

Last Sunday we hiked up Uetliberg, which is a hill that overlooks the city. It was beautiful. When we got off at the train station we found this very cool slide made out of rollers. We'd never seen anything like it before:

Then we hiked up a viewing tower, which gives an amazing view of the city:

Here you can see the viewing tower from later on in our hike. There's a giant radio tower next to it. We have a perfect view of these towers from our apartment, so it was fun to see them close up!