yesterday we visited the bernese oberland, to mürren. we first spontaneously took the cablecar up the schilthorn, known to many from the james bond movie on her majesty’s secret service. in fact, one terrace up there was built specifically for the film to allow a helicopter to land there. from the top of the schilthorn, one has a great view on the surrounding mountains, most prominently eiger, mönch and jungfrau. (a couple of years ago i was up there, visiting the jungfraujoch.)

afterwards, we took the cablecar back down to mürren, and took the funicular up to the allmendhubel. from there, we enjoyed the mountain view trail to the grütschalp train station. from the trail we had a great view on the big three mountains (eiger, mönch, jungfrau). it was a really nice hike with some diversion, from moorlands to ski slopes, forests to dry-stone walls and even some cows.

also on last weekend, we did an excursion around the zürcher oberland. we started by taking the historic steam locomotive train (the same as last time) from hinwil up to neuthal, were we continued to a lake to barbecue. later, we continued by the same train to bäretswil and walked down the kemptner tobel to kempten, ate some ice cream there and finally continued home. the weather was fantastic (even though the forecast warned that there might be rain), it was sunny and warm the whole time.

here are some impressions:

yesterday we went on an excursion. first, we visited an old ehgraben in züri niederdorf, which is a small trench between rows of houses which was used to dispose of feces during the middle ages. nowadays one can visit it and read the provided information panels. afterwards, we proceeded to the lindenhofkeller, containing celtic, roman and medieval remains.

afterwards, we continued to the sewage treatment center in werdhölzli, zürich. we had a guided tour through the process of treating waste water from the zürich region and its conversion into “clean” water. certainly very interesting! it is also interesting to see what kind of stuff the mechanic filtering finds. among toys, dentures and mobile phones one can find base stations for mobile phones, credit cards, cash, id cards, remotes, pocket calculators, etc. quite amazing.

finally, in the evening, we had a barbecue.

this friday, our math institute did an excursion to the üetliberg. we took up the cable car at felsenegg, had a drink or ice cream in the restaurant there, and then walked over to the uto kulm, where we had a nice dinner. from there, we took the train back down. the weather was very nice in the beginning, even though rain was predicted and there was a lot of rain in the morning and the night before. while sitting at the restaurant near felsenegg, clouds came up, giving a nice shade for the walk. inbetween, it also rained a few drops, but that was almost welcome as a refreshment. after being at the uto kulm for a bit of time, having a nice apero outside, we were able to enjoy a nice rainbow over zürich. as we went inside, it started to really rain outside. in the night, when we left, it was dry again. i’d say, perfect weather for an excursion! only for the photos, there could have been more sun :-)

last week, i was in zürich, visiting my phd advisor, as well as my friends there. on friday, the math institute did an excursion to the rheinau abbey. here are some impressions from the abbey (not from inside though, as photographing was forbidden in there) and the walk afterwards at the rhine knee.