Month: July 2016

In our guide book it says that Zurich has more than 1200 fountains, many of them drinking water or fountains where you can fill your water bottle. I decided, on our one-day walk through Zurich, we would see if we could find at least one percent of them.

Before we started the quest, I had taken a couple of photos of fountains. The first is at the Hallenstadiom, a sports/concert arena.

I also took this photo (at bottom) of one near our accommodation in a suburb of Zurich. I put in a few photos of the houses across the street and flowers around the corner.

Then, here comes the first we found on our one-day focused hunt, found from a hint from the guide book which had the comment that you would have to have a mighty small head to get a drink. However, I did put some in my water bottle .

We went to Lindenhof Platz and found two fountains in that square, one that the birds used for drinks (see photo on right), not from the pool, but from the clean water coming from the pipe.

The second fountain was not far from where two people where playing chess. Who is winning?

We walked down some step stairs with beautiful planters lining them to a small platz near one of the oldest churches in Zurich to find this modern fountain (top center).

Continuing with a collection from across the central part of Zurich, first, one in another platz, where this waiter from a street cafe (just walking away in photo on left) filled a glass from the fountain

Another modern fountain in an old square…

When we sat down to eat lunch at an (expensive) French cafe, we saw this fountain, mixed in among the tables. A dog at a neighboring table, caught up in her leash, looked pathetically at us to rescue her.

Here is one on the main street by the river, decorated with flowers floating in the pool, and where a near by worker was filling a watering can and a tourist was filling her water bottle.

Where the Linnet River meets Lake Zurich, you can find this fountain (center of photo). Although you may not be able to tell from so far away which one is the fountain and not the sails on the sail boats, Stephanie and I could tell it really is a fountain. When we later took the water bus nearby the fountain, it was in the “no-show” phase and I couldn’t get a better photo.

On our way to buy chocolate for souvenirs (we have to do that on my last full day in Switzerland), we found this one. A nap anyone?

Then, at the last minute, finding I didn’t yet have my required 1% but being tired and heading back to our housing, we found this one outside the train station.

And this one this one inside the train station, which charmed the children.

I was done! I had found 12 fountains (+2).

But on the bus back to our house, I wondered if this was going to be a fountain, under construction (and had Stephanie snap this strange photo on the left as the bus went around a round-about). [Update: Our host said it was not going to be a fountain but a statue.] Then, there was this fire hydrant. That could be a fountain, right?

Did I mention all the beautiful flowers? No? Next post from Zurich?

 

 

 

While I’ve been in the USA for a three weeks, I’ve spent most of the time in Flagstaff, Arizona, up at a high elevation, enjoying the cool pine country. There were plenty of wonderful things to see and do, including sitting on the porch of the Summers’ townhouse and looking at the land around it!

Mt. Eldon was behind the house, which was a lovely place to view and a good place to walk.

With beautiful views and a wondrous group of cacti in bloom and fruit.

The Arboretum at Flagstaff

Ronnie drove up to Flagstaff and we went to the Arboretum at Flagstaff.It is a lovely place with nice wildflowers, pine forests, and butterflies.Yes, both in a butterfly house and those I happened to catch “in the wild.”

We learned about a few plants, like the one at the bottom called Old Man’s Whiskers (at the Arboretum, although later we saw it in Sunset Crater National Monument called another name). We also enjoyed the wild flowers in wet places and dry.

The butterfly house was a fun visit.

The herb garden with photos of marjoram and oregano.

The pine forest (with a few aspens), with a nice view of the San Francisco Peaks.

Campbell Mesa trails

Gael and a friend walked a marathon on the trails at Campbell Mesa. While they were walking miles and miles, I took a short, early morning walk. I took more than a few photos,including several of different types of trees since I’m writing a short set of articles about trees.

With a few close up pictures to show different aspects of the trees.

In addition to trees, there were flowers, mountains, clouds to enjoy, too. Two sets of the flowers.

And other types of wild flowers.

Lowell Observatory

This observatory is on Mars Hill (!) near the city of Flagstaff. Gael and I made a visit late one afternoon, in time to see these beautiful wild flowers on the grounds and listen to a couple of lectures before it was dark.

We were able to see some of the telescopes, but, surprisingly after weeks of sunny weather, the sky clouded over, and we could not see many stars through them. The telescope on the right was the one used to discover Pluto years ago.

We also saw the full moon on the summer solstice.

There is more to report from Flagstaff, but I’ll save some for a second post, interesting things like old volcano sites like Sunset Crater

 

 

While hunting months ago for places to visit in Italy, I came across information about mineral and thermal baths and spas that had been part of the Grand Tour of Europe which all sounded fun to visit. Then, while we were in Italy, Gael found information about free thermal baths (meaning they are not part of a resort where you have to pay to use them) at a place called Saturnia. So, on the spur of the moment (ah, complications come from such decisions, as you will see) we set off by train(s) and bus (or so we thought) to get to these baths. It took us quite a few hours.

We booked a room in a beach resort that was “near” the baths. We didn’t arrive until after 9:00 pm, and, discovering by making a phone call to the resort that no buses ran at that time of night nor were we very close to a bus stop anyway, we got picked up at the station by the person in charge that night at the resort. How kind to be rescued (no taxis either!) We didn’t get to see any of the beach resort until the next morning. The ocean was beautiful, but the water and even the air, was cold, so we didn’t stay long on the beach.

Since we really wanted to go to the thermal baths, we had to do some trouble shooting that morning. The information from the hotel booking agency was not that accurate because Saturnia was not all that close to a bus stop either! We ended up going the expensive, but wonderfully comfortable way, of hiring a car and driver. (Don’t ask how much.)

In the photo below, you can see our first view of Saturnia from the hill above. Our driver stopped so we could take pictures.

As we arrived right in the parking lot a short walk to the water, this is what we could see.

With (free) and handy changing rooms, we got in the water  immediately. It was perfect, warm and not hot, and lovely light sulfur smell….ah, all was well if you could get one of the small falls of water to land on your shoulders for a massage.

While sitting in the baths, we could look across the water to this beautiful green field. Is that man getting ready to dive in? (What I’m sure he is doing is trying  to protect his feet because the rocks were sharp. I would advise water shoes if you are going to this wonderful thermal bath.)

As I walked downstream to see if the water was still warm further away from the cascade, I shot this photo….made me think of someone walking by the Jordan River a couple of thousand years ago. And yes, the water  was still warm.

On the way home through the countryside, we enjoyed some beautiful sights (or I enjoyed them while Gael and Susan took a cat nap.)

All in all, a lovely place to go (but complicated to get there).