Rain

We were supposed to go hike along the ridges around Zürich today but it has been pouring rain all day so we have postponed our hike.

I decided to take a picture of my birthday present to myself for the blog today:



A big huge orange polka-dotted mug. So now Martin and I don't have to share the single mug we had in our apartment anymore. Not only do I get my own mug now, but I get a big mug again, finally. And, the best part, it only cost $4. Happy Birthday to me.

My Morning Run

There are some really pretty flowers along the route that I run in the mornings. So I took some pictures of my favorite two houses a few afternoons ago to share with all of you. Of course, as usual, I have chosen a running route "where the other half lives". So it is lined with many gates leading into well-landscaped yards. And, there's a great view across the lake from this road as well (when it's not raining or foggy).







And this bush is neat. I have no idea what it is, but it's like a little patch of fire on the side of the road:





And here's a bit of the view that can be glimpsed between some of the houses:





Note the nice rooftop terraces/patios where people can sit and enjoy their views. Of course they have lots of little plants on them to make them pretty. I have also noticed that most houses and apartments here have flowers out on their balconies. It makes everything look nice.



Even this modern building (which has an amazing view BTW) has plants on all its balconies.



And there are even some palm trees - these are not too far from my apartment. I thought I had to go to southern Switzerland to see palm trees but I was wrong.

The link below should take you to the CNN article on the World's Best Cities to Live - Zürich being #2 with Geneva and Bern also making the top 10.

Article on Greatest Cities to Live

Lunch by the Lake

I took these pictures yesterday (Tuesday). Whenever it's not raining outside, people all come outside during their lunch hour to enjoy the nice weather. On any weekday, between 12 and 1pm, every single outdoor bench, wall, and chair has a person sitting on it and every single walkway is filled with people out walking or strolling while eating their lunch. There are people running and cycling too. Nobody wastes a single moment of their lunch hour indoors when the sun is out!

This is also what sitting by the lake would look like on a weekend afternoon. Not in the mornings, as the Swiss enjoy sleeping extremely late, but around 2 or 3pm it would be this busy.





Just a scenic shot across the lake:



And people are out paddling around on paddleboats, which you can rent:



Maybe these people don't work? Or maybe they have longer lunch breaks (I've heard some companies here give up to 3 hours for mid-day breaks). That gives them plenty of time to rent a paddleboat for a few hours to enjoy the sunshine on the lake. Though they could also be tourists. Last weekend on the train Martin and I sat across from two young women who had just finished their spring semester of college in the U.S. and were traveling Europe for awhile. It's prime vacation time for U.S. college students.

Bellinzona Part 2

Here's a pic of some of Bellinzona taken from Castelgrande:



After touring Castelgrande, we wandered around the town of Bellinzona a bit and took some pretty pictures.







This was just in a courtyard of a tourist information building:



And we found a little slice of heaven for lunch, döner kebabs! It's nice to be back in Europe where we can eat these on a regular basis.



After our filling lunch, we headed up to castello di montebello, where it turned out there was a medieval fair going on. So we hung out there for awhile. It looked like there was going to be a jousting tournament but they were taking forever to get on with it so we left and went to have a beer in town before catching our train back to Zürich.










A view out from a window at castello di montebello:

Bellinzona Part 1

Bellinzona is located approximately 14 miles East of Locarno. Italian is the main language. Bellinzona is home to three castles which have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. So, we went there to tour the castles. Bellinzona is just the right size to fill a day with touristy things - three castles and a few churches to see plus lots of little cafes and shops to wander through. We went into one of the churches and it was beautiful inside. Very detailed paintings and sculptures all over. It's worth stopping in Bellinzona just to see the church! It has a super long name: The Roman Catholic Collegiate church SS Pietro and Stefano.

Bellinzona is located at the intersection of several passes through the Alps, which made it a key city in terms of trade and protection. Hence all the castles there. All sorts of groups were constantly vying for control of Bellinzona and therefore control of the trade routes through the Alps. The city changed hands many times. It finally came under Swiss control in 1500.

We started with Castelgrande, which is the biggest castle in Bellinzona. We did not learn much about the history of it. It was built originally in the 1st century BCE and has undergone many changes and additions since then. It, along with the other two castles, are all in remarkably good shape. Whether this is through restoration or the fact that the castles were never involved in major battles I'm not sure. They seem to all have had major renovations/additions/restorations done to them.

Castelgrande from afar:



They hold banquets and weddings in this big courtyard in Castelgrande:





You could walk out over the wall for awhile, or you could walk under it. There were lots of little holes in the tunnel under the wall, likely to poke guns or weapons through in times of battle. We wandered around underneath the wall because it was nice and cool down there and it was a little too warm out in the sun.





They also show movies on the grounds of Castelgrande in the evenings, you can see the screen and seating behind me in this picture:



The other two castles, from Castelgrande (taken into the sun so it's kind of hazy and faded). The one in the foreground is castello di montebello, built in the 14th century and renovated in the 1900's, and the one in the background is sasso corbaro which was built in the 15th century:

Locarno Part 3

And now for some relaxing!

After we climbed down from our hike (we only got lost once and had to backtrack a little bit to find the turn we missed), we stopped at a nice little cafe before taking the tram/funicular all the way back down to the bottom. Jeff, I took these pictures for you. While we were pretty high up on our hike, there were still cafes all over the place. And every one of them had a great view and plenty of beer. You could take any lift up to the top (there were even some ski lifts) and find yourself a cafe at the top or even a half mile walk away from where the lift ended. I'm not sure how they get all of their supplies up there. But you could go up there and not do any hiking at all and just sit and take in the amazing view with a refreshing beverage of your choice. They also had lots of different cakes and pastries there.

This was where we had our end-of-hike beer:



This was a random cafe about a half mile into our hike. We just turned a corner, and, voila, refreshment! There is another big cross here. Lots of big crosses in the mountains.



And, on the way down, some sort of fortress or old church that looked pretty:



Then we had some beers on our balcony.



Then we wandered into town for some (cheap) pizza for dinner. In town, on the piazza grande, there was a concert getting started. This was the first act. Some guy singing in Italian, not sure who. He wasn't that great. The next group that came on was pretty good but I didn't take a picture of them. Little did we know the concert would go until 3am. Europeans like to stay up until the sun rises on weekends. It was extremely noisy at night in Locarno.



And here's a Heineken booth! Not sure why, but Locarno was really big on Heineken. A G&T from this booth costs $12. Martin would not buy me one. :(



And there was also a big crowd watching the Munich-Milan football game on a big screen in a little park. I had to drag Martin away from it.



At night they light up the buildings on the piazza grande. Note that I took this picture around 9:30pm and it is still light out.



On Sunday morning on our way out of Locarno I had to take a palm tree picture:



And Jeff, this is where you could tie up your boat. Martin and I would visit you all the time if you had your boat on Lake Maggiore! There are lots of great beaches on the lake. We didn't go to any so I have no pictures of them, but I know they're there. Lake Maggiore looks so inviting when you're hiking 4,000 feet above it all I wanted to do was jump into it the whole time we were hiking.

Locarno Part 2

So after we hiked to our first rest stop, where I thought we would turn around and go back down, Martin looks to the west and says, "Let's climb up that other ridge over there and see what's on the other side of it. It's only another hour of hiking." Ha. Thankfully all of the walking I've been doing in Zürich has strengthened my legs enough that I wasn't tired yet so we continued on to the top of the next ridge.

And then we had some lunch by the big cross on the top of the ridge. Lunch being, of course, bread with ham and cheese. Is there anything else to eat in Switzerland?



Our view from our lunch spot:



We hiked up here from the little circular lookout on the little hill to the left of the tower and buildings in this picture. That lookout was where we took the pictures in Part 1.



Here's a view in a different direction:



Martin really liked all these little flowers growing along the trail near the top.




And we also thought it was neat that you could see the deciduous trees turn into evergreens right before the treeline ended near the top. With some snow-capped mountains in the background, of course!