The Neutral Zone

Zurich, Switzerland - This weekend, we visited one of Switzerland's French speaking cantons for a hike among the spring flowers. Biel/Bienne  Our first stop was Biel/Bienne, which is on the far western side of Bern, a German speaking Canton, very near to Neuchâtel and Jura, French speaking Cantons. Being on the border of French and German Switzerland, the town is bilingual and so it's official name is "Biel/Bienne" (the forward slash - and not the hyphen - being part of the official name), where Biel is the German name and Bienne is the French name. Hannah suggested this stop because it has an "epicerie" (i.e., gourmet market) that she had discovered in one of the far corners of culinary internet. As it turns out, the town is quite charming and located along the shore of the picturesque body of water known as either Lac de Bienne or Bielersee, but (strangely) not as "Lake Biel/Bienne." The old town dates back many centuries and has wonderful little...

Zurich, Switzerland - In the last two weeks, we've started to get a bit more spring weather (in  between   pockets of cold). Last weekend we took a nice walk by the lake and in the old town, which were predictably teeming with many other people eager to be out in the warm weather. Many of these people were unmasked which is in-keeping with Swiss reluctance to aggressively confront COVID-19. This weekend, we made our way to Schwyz for a hike between the mountains and along a river where we happened to pass a shooting range which was actively in use. Shooting ranges, and guns generally, are common in Switzerland, though the country has very few gun-related homicides. Swiss regulation and management of firearms and coronavirus are an interesting contrast - one seemingly very competent and the other less so.  Hiking in Schwyz First, our hike in Schwyz this weekend. Schwyz is centrally located in Switzerland and it is among the three original cantons of Switzerland. As Swiss t...

Zurich, Switzerland - Spring has mostly arrived. This week was warm (mostly 15-20 Celsius) and sunny. I say "mostly" because winter is not going out quietly: next week, the forecast predicts snow. But generally speaking, the temperatures are up, the sun is out, and the flowers are blooming. People in the streets The spring weather has brought people out of their cramped apartments and onto the streets. Literally. Regular readers may recall from a post I wrote about a year ago that our neighborhood is famous for the cherry blossoms. This draws in a number of blossom-gawkers, some of whom position themselves in the middle of the street in various poses while confused drivers try to navigate there way around them. Today, we saw two girls set up a tripod in a crosswalk and then sit (not stand) in the middle of the street while the phone took photographs. This was not appreciated by the passing Swiss drivers, one of whom even had the temerity to lightly tap his horn (scandal!).  ...