Another Walk and Where Martin Works

Yesterday we took a stroll up and over the big hill behind our apartment. On the top of the hill is the science campus of the ETH, where Martin works. We took a few pics of it because I've been meaning to blog about it since I arrived in Zürich:



He works in this huge building with five "fingers" to it. You can't tell but you can see the mountains (on rare clear days) from these buildings and they all have balconies outside of their labs so you can wander outside and get some fresh air whenever you want to.

Here's a sign for the campus:



The same big building but from a different angle (Martin works in the middle one). There are other buildings on this campus as well but this is the biggest:



Sometimes there are cows in the fields around the buildings but when we took these pics they were in their barn across the street mooing at us instead.

We kept wandering over the hill and down the other side where you get a great view of Zürich (and the mountains, when it's clear but today it was very hazy). You can barely make out the lake in the picture below but on really clear days this view is amazing:



There are lots of benches up at the top and a nice restaurant that we keep meaning to go to but never do ... the weather has to be nice so you have a good view or it's not worth it.



The two pictures above show a path with some hedges and buildings on either side of it. We should have taken pictures of these areas because they're garden plots. They're all over Zürich but up on this hill there are a few hundred and they have a killer view. Each plot has a shed, which some people use as a kitchen, and a small amount of land where you can garden and grow things. Some people were having barbecues while we were walking by ... you can set up a little table and chairs on your plot too and have friends over and eat all the things you've grown. And look at the view these plots have!! I'd love to have one but Martin and I think these plots must be impossible to get and are just handed down from generation to generation within a family.

There are also deer up at the top ... I'm not sure why but there's a fenced in area filled with deer. Here I am entranced by them:



And here's the resident buck. They're not quite like the deer from the US but definitely very similar.



And that was our walk yesterday.

Cat Grass

I bought something called "Cat Grass" at the grocery store yesterday which I thought was catnip but I brought it home and fully read the tag (when I realized Onyx wasn't all that excited by it) and it's actually just grass with "healthy necessary minerals" in it that cats need. It also somehow helps with hairball digestion. So, I tried to buy Onyx catnip for Valentine's day but failed. He is now in his fifth month without catnip here but I'll find some eventually!

I learned this past week that there are 1 million cats in Switzerland. 8 million people and 1 million cats ... that are registered. Plenty more feral cats in the barns in the mountains for sure. In my mind, this means that almost everybody here owns a cat since most households have more than one person in them and many cats are not registered.

Anyway here are some pics of Onyx with his cat grass, which he thankfully did eat a little of so I didn't waste $2.90 buying it.





And here he is enjoying his mid-morning patch of sunshine in the living room:



On sunny days that's where he sits from 10-11 in the morning because that's when the sun comes in through the balcony door.

That's the Onyx update for now.

Corviglia and Diavolezza

Corviglia and Diavolezza are the ski resorts we went to in St. Moritz. I think there are 5 ski resorts in the St. Moritz area, though one is just for sledding which is pretty neat. This southeastern area of the Alps, which includes St. Moritz, is known as the Engadin and it is known for sunshine (it has 322 sunny days per year which is more than Colorado) and plentiful outdoor activities.

We went to Corviglia on Saturday and I really liked it there. It was easy to get around, it was sunny, the trails were nice and wide and not too steep, and the snow was packed but not icy. I took some pics of the clouds starting to roll in from below:





And some more mountains from the top ... I was sitting on my butt to take this picture and nowhere near the edge so it's not the best view but you get the idea.



On Sunday we went to Diavolezza. We really liked it there. It has one really long run that covers 1,000 meters of vertical and a couple of shorter runs you can do on a small lift at the top and that's it. But that's all you need! I was nervous going here because there are no easy trails, it's all intermediate or advanced and the shorter trails at the top should be labeled as advanced, no joke, but they're not. Intermediate trails here range from somewhat flat to terrifyingly steep ... which ain't right. You never know what you're going to get until you try it. Thankfully the long run at Diavolezza had an advanced route and an intermediate route and the intermediate route was just right for me ... wide open trails. It had a few flat areas one of which I (along with all the other snowboarders and some skiers) ended up hiking every single time.

The views at Diavolezza were breathtaking. They rivaled the views we had while skiing at Lake Louise or Sunshine in Banff. But, enough words, here are the pictures:

These two I took from the top:





Here I am resting on my butt again:



In the afternoon Martin skied down a glacier. Instead of doing the long run down the front, you could go over the back of the mountain and ski over a glacier. The down side was that you had to wait at the bottom for a train to get back to the base of the mountain. Since Martin had no idea when the trains ran he of course just missed one when he got to the bottom and had to wait for an hour for the next one. But he got some great pictures on his way down!





You had to stay between the poles on this run to avoid falling to your death but thankfully the trail was well marked. I'm glad I didn't try it in the end because Martin said it had a lot of flat spots that I would have had to hike through.











Just look at all those glaciers ... global warming can't possibly exist. :)

Here are some pics we took from the car on the drive home ...





The Engadin is absolutely gorgeous ... I highly recommend making a trip there, if you have the time and the money. Martin and I decided it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, until we get rich and can afford to get back there again.