Walking to Zurich

Monday was the first sunny day we've had here in a long, long time (although I may have missed one while in the US), and I decided to take advantage of it by exploring a trail I'd seen leading off from our regional train stop. I ended up walking all the way into the city, which took only 30 minutes, even including my many stops and wanderings. I was impressed at the Swiss way of setting up their paths - they have no problems running them under huge highways or over creeks (bridges optional). I was also amazed at the number of people - all ages - who were out with various accessories - their dogs, kids, bikes, or walking sticks. I wondered if they were all unemployed, too, but I didn't ask.

I was sorry that I only had my cell phone with me, so the pictures are rather poor. I stuck near the river for the most part, and here's some of what I saw:

"What is where?" I only walked a part of this, but I was interested to see that there are several different areas contained along the river. Places for picnics, playing sports, dogs, bikes, and also places where each of those are restricted.

I'd never seen a sign like this before. I was amused.

I took a picture of this bright orange sign because I thought maybe it was warning about attack deer (to me, the animal in the picture looks like it could be poised for aggression). In fact, it was a sign simply warning people that deer are present in the woods, and to please watch your dog. 

Stepping stones across a small creek. Notice the massive freeway in the background. What a novel idea, to make the green space around highways functional in other ways.

Sheep! Many (but not all) were wearing bells, and they were surprisingly loud - you could hear them several hundred meters away. From the noise, I expected them to be in a full blown stampede, but they were just moseying along, chewing their grass. Strange note - despite much peering, I couldn't find a fence on the other side of them. For the life of me, it looked like someone had dumped them on a hill behind some abandoned building.

Dark picture of a black sheep.

Lamb following its mother (I assume that's who it was).

Thanks for posing, brown sheep.

Poor digital zoom on my phone, but I stopped for a while to watch a pair of ducks and their two tiny ducklings. The ducklings trying to cross the rather swollen river was most entertaining.

Also, the orange sign about the deer wasn't just for show. Last week, in the midst of fairly steady rain, I noticed this on the hill in our backyard:

Deer are a common sight in West Virginia where I grew up, and I used to mock the tourists who would pull off to the side of the road to take pictures of the herds. However, this was my first European sighting, and  I was surprised to see one in such a suburban setting. It had a decent set of antlers on it and didn't seem bothered at all by the large apartment buildings less than 20 meters away. I still haven't managed to get any pictures of the hawk in the next field, but I have heard it cry a couple more times, so it must live in a nearby tree.