In February the days are lighter already – and this past winter they were terribly cold, too. What a surreal feeling, then, to lounge in a tropical climate in a bathing suit, sipping cooling sparkling wine, and looking out at an icy winter coast landscape.
Movies and books are good everyday escapes. Spa weekends are excellent luxury escapes. The only downside is, one must close one’s eyes to imagine the tropical beaches, the wind in the palm trees, and the heat from the sun. Alternatively, one should spend time in the company of such a good friend that surroundings become irrelevant.
(Hanko, Finland; February 2018)
Nobody knows better how to chill on a Saturday morning than a cat. Or, preferably, two.
No, that is not the South Pole or Northern Canada. That is Pärnu, Estonia, surviving the polar vortex freeze of the winter of ’18.
Just for a moment I slipped in-between the seconds of time. I was not happy nor sad. Not awake nor asleep. There was no sun nor shadows. Nothing brand new and nothing very old. Nobody coming or going. Nothing beginning or ending. Just an old tree and a lady reading underneath it.
In the middle of Zurich, high up in the Urania observatory, there is a panorama bar. It looks a little like an old water tower from the outside. And it can be so busy on the inside that one barely can take in one’s surroundings, which somehow are supposed to have something to do with Jules Verne’s stories. Fortunately the windows are large.
There are no holes in Swiss cheese in its proper form: melted into a fondue pan, and mixed with white wine and a hint of garlic. In this form it is solid, warming energy on a cold winter’s day. Fat and carbs galore (because oh, all the bread served!).
If you are a waterfowl spending your winter on the Zurichsee you are bound to have stomach cramps and indigestion from all the bread on offer. But perhaps there are worse ways of spending a winter.
(Zurich, Switzerland; February 2018)
Les Halles in Zurich is not like Les Halles in Paris. Its is much better. Sure, you get Moules (mussels) there, too, but the feeling is that of a food hall and not of a modern shopping center.
(Zurich, Switzerland; February 2018)
Dear Zurich,
(Zurich, Switzerland; February 2018)
This is Finland – or some of it. We still have 75% of our land covered in forests. Nobody thinks of that as contributing to the “lungs of the planet”. Why is that, by the way?
This blue marble 