Zurich

City Views.259

At the top, two last photos from my day in Zurich; just above & gallery below, last shots from the several hours wandering around Schaffhausen before and after dusk the day before.

May 2, 2025 | Categories: Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Zurich | Leave a comment

Windows.17

April 11, 2025 | Categories: Switzerland, Zurich | Leave a comment

Windows.13

Back to where we began this series, with one traditional window (below center) and more of Sigmar Polke’s lovely 2009 windows from Zurich’s Grossmünster.

February 15, 2025 | Categories: Switzerland, Zurich | Tags: Stained Glass, Stained Glass Windows | 1 Comment

Windows.1

Just a few of Sigmar Polke’s remarkable 2009 windows in what was apparently the birthplace of the Swiss-German reformation, Zurich’s Grossmünster. New year, another new series which smw, slt certainly hopes hope you’ll enjoy. Much love to Andre for ensuring I saw these :-).

January 13, 2025 | Categories: Switzerland, Zurich | Tags: Stained Glass, Stained Glass Windows, Zurich Grossmünster | 1 Comment

From the Air.67

This is Uetliberg, 870 meters (2500 feet) or so above Zurich. Spent the last night of my Switzerland say, and then this last day (before the overnight train back to Amsterdam), exploring the city with a local friend who was also my host. We hoped the clouds- mist – would clear so that from the viewing tower, we’d see Zurich. But as this gallery demonstrates, from the viewing platform a long climb above the top of the mountain proper, the mountain itself and everything below it was still shrouded in clouds and mist. But the alps rose above the clouds :-). In the bottom photo, you see just a bit of a tree ghosting into the bottom left corner, while the southern alps rise above the clouds in the distance. It was an interesting and somewhat surreal experience.

December 9, 2024 | Categories: Switzerland, Zurich | Tags: Swiss Alps | Leave a comment

Zurich: Many Churches & The World’s Largest Easter Bunny

A few random facts. In the process of returning from PNG to my US home on the west coast, I had to go the long way around in order to debrief at our HQ’s in Berlin and Amsterdam. That’s why you saw some Amsterdam photos recently – since I was in Berlin less than 24 hours, the camera didn’t come out there. In order to take a break from all the intensely long flights cramped into economy-class seats, I gave myself two weeks visiting friends in a few parts of Europe before returning to North America. These are the last Euro shots from this trip. They’re from Zurich & surroundings, where I was honored to stay with an Oberlin friend her family.

I’ll let the pics speak for themselves, and for those curious what stands out to my still-outsider eyes here in the US, I’ll share just two items noticed in the last 24 hours: on 3rd Street Promenade at a clothing store, the offer of a ‘survival kit’ which was two t-shirts and one pair of shorts for a special price – not quite sure where survival comes into it, but hey, knock yourselves out American consumers. Next: a very large SUV (noticed because it was large enough to squeeze me down in my bike lane on Main Street in Venice) called “Armada.” I sense a theme here, which I admit to my eyes and senses attuned to the neediest zones of the world seems, may I say, rather contrived and consumer-driven. Oh yeah, one more thing: my smart phone (first and only one, so far) is dying a rapid death so I went to T-Mobile where they try to finance all your phones. What’s the advantage to paying for the phone fully rather than financing it? Once you’ve paid at least half the value of your phone, you can ‘upgrade’ – this means, trade it in for a newer model. Planned obsolescence: it’s not just for cars any more! (And we all know how well that car thing has worked out for the world around us…) I really do want to take a full seven months off here, and I thought I wanted to consider working back here…but, sheesh, with such a consumer-driven culture, I really hardly want to settle in any more deeply than necessary to just see my friends and families & then get back to where things are more…well, whatever. You get what I mean, maybe. I’m not sure I do. I’m just sure I don’t feel like this all makes perfect sense yet.