matchy matchy poofiness

Note the sign on the building "Pelz Paradies" (Fur Paradise). She had just come out of this fur shop on swanky Banhofstrasse.

late winter

I could just skip work and sit here all day...

zuricamels

This is when I first saw them, but they had already passed me by the time I got my camera out. Camels move surprisingly fast!

The camel handlers stopped for some beer while the camels made a mess on the sidewalk. I started to get a bit worried here--what if the camels got out of control and the handlers were too drunk to handle them?

Grossmunster camels.

He looked like he was posing.

He looked mad..foaming at the mouth and all...

A few more pictures here.

If you've ended up on this page by accident, it'll make more sense if you go here first.

zuricamels cont'd

The camels moved on to another part of town...

If you've ended up on this page by accident, it'll make more sense if you go here first.

more men at work in zurich

In Zurich, streets are clean and pot-hole free, the trees are perfectly pruned, walls and buildings are cleaned and repainted as soon as graffiti goes up (in some cases on the very same day), garbage and recyclables are collected according to a precise schedule, buildings that previously looked perfectly fine are renovated, entire stretches of major streets are torn up for no apparent reason, tram-tracks ripped out (you should have seen the Limmatquai this summer! too bad I didn't take any pictures then...), and everything is put back into place 4-5 months later, looking even prettier than it ever did before.

For a cynic who has lived in cities where none of the really necessary things ever seem to get done or fixed, where potholes left untouched for months turn into craters, where the city-scape is marred with abandoned, half-finished projects because the city or developer ran out of money, where tunnels collapse during, or even after construction is complete, where inaccurate street signs have you driving around the same 10 block radius for hours, where someone forgot to put the sidewalk back in after doing some street work--it just seems like Zurich has way more money than they can figure out how to spend. In some of my other cities (which I still visit)--forget beautification! I'd be happy if they would just fix the potholes, and if they would just please, please, make sure no tunnels fall on my head!



cleaning tram tracks with a blast of water? (also note the scaffolding on the building in the background...)

street cleaning

spray cleaning something

I guess he got a little bored doing whatever it was he was supposed to be doing here and decided to do some window shopping instead.

putting the finishing touches on a wall after removing anti-WEF graffiti.

more men at work in zurich, cont'd

Z in Villigen posted on the Altpapiersammlung in her village. Thankfully, ours comes twice a month, rather than 4 times a year. Paper must be stacked and tied in neat little bundles in order for it to be collected. Here are two men and a truck, hard at work, collecting paper in Old Town Zurich.







"We build for Zurich" - I've been seeing these signs posted by the city administration all over the place since I moved here. Construction work is constant. The interesting thing is that the signs contain detailed info, complete with diagrams, on the construction project, the contractor, and the expected completion date. The most amazing thing is that, unlike all other cities I've lived in, the construction is actually completed on time! No delays! Probably no cost overruns either...Then, they just move on to the next construction, er..beautification project.