2018 week 26: Enjoying the new sun shades

After the fiasco with the previous sun umbrellas that were destroyed by a storm, there are now new ones at the Sechseläuten Platz in Zürich (the opera house is visible in the background). These ones can handle upto 90 km/h winds (roughly 56 mph).

We enjoyed them ourselves recently.

2018 week 24: Worker safety

If you look at the larger version of the photo, I hope you'll be able to make out the two men doing maintenance work on the roof near the green-roofed red cupola. 

This photo is actually from a few weeks ago, taken in Zürich. When I was taking the photo I was thinking about worker safety. 

Just recently, the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA -- Wiki entry) ruled that from 2019, construction workers and others who work outdoors in the sun will be required to wear sun protection. Actually, if I undersand it correctly, they've decreed that the employers have to enforce that their workers use sun protection (which the employers must also provide). I'm curious to see how that will work out.

Some numbers, according to SUVA: Every day in Switzerland, three people are diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma directly attributable to their occupational activity. As such, the treatments for these cases are paid for by SUVA.

2018 week 16: Peek-a-boo Urania Observatory

Urania Observatory in Zurich. I really must get around to going on a tour.

Website: Urania Sternwarte

I took this photo in week 16 but didn't manage to upload it then because I was busy with work related activities so I'm back-dating this post.

Train signage at the Zurich main station

About a year ago I complained about the fact that SBB was replacing all the split-flap displays in the train stations. I liked the split-flap displays.

In October 2015, the enormous one in the Zurich main station was replaced by this electronic version. I have to say that I find the replacement quite acceptable -- easy and nice to read, and extra messages (such as service disruptions, seen here) can be accommodated well.

On a side note, I'm going to try a weekly posting schedule. Let's see how that goes.

78. Window display at Musik Hug

The display this time alludes to their repair and restoration workshop.

77. Ganymede on Lake Zurich

This has been done many, many times, but it still captures me.

73. Electric, 2 ways

A No. 8 tram and a Tesla Model S in Zürich. Vroom!

72. Water wheel

The area Zürich West was an industrial quarter, with a history of metalworking and ship-building. All that remains of that now are a few items, displayed as lonely museum pieces.

71. Plumbing in green

View across the way from the restaurant Angkor in Zürich West, which is a former industrial area that is being gradually developed into a office-living-working-shopping-eating quarter. The green piece caught my eye. Overall, a bit of a strange view to have from a nice  restaurant.

70. Resistance (is futile)

A photo from the Zürich West area, where construction has been booming. If you look closely at the old house (sorry, not really easy to make out) in the lower left of the photo, you might be able to pick out part of the word "Resistance", in opposition to the "Renaissance" of the tower to the right.

65. Luegemol

Language Friday, and today we have Luegemol (take a look!). In this particular case, it's the name of a line of postcards with statements in Swiss dialect.

Seen at a shop on Oberdorfstrasse in Zurich.

64. The cliche

A shop window on Oberdorfstrasse.
A Swiss Army knife for everyone on your gift list.

63. This is not Britain, nor is it Hong Kong!

This little children's bookstore on Oberdorfstrasse in Zurich is a favorite of mine. 
Mr. Pinocchio is the name.

Here you can find books in English, German, French and Italian. 
Plus some dual language books which combine one of these four with something else.

62. Boats on Lake Zurich

Boats on the lake, with the alps in the background.

61. Red tram, blue tram

The alps in the distance over Lake Zurich. 
The Quaibrücke with two trams on it.
Boats docked in the foreground.

It's a pity I didn't get a better exposure.

60. Spring is in the air!

Petite daffodils, seen in Zurich last week.

58. Long vehicle

Loosely following my Friday language feature, today I give you a "Long vehicle" sign on a trolley bus in Zurich. Apparently, it's universally understood in the English form?

The ad for the BMW reads:
Don't (just) look. Test drive.

43. Cat ladder and cat rump

Another cat ladder in the Zurich area of Wipkingen.

34. Boats on Zürichsee

Just a few steps from Sechseläutenplatz is the Zurich lake. This is another photo from last year.

33. The stone parquet at Sechseläutenplatz

In yesterday's post I mentioned the stone parquet that was being laid in the plaza in front of the opera house. I should say that while I've been calling it the plaza in front of the opera house, it is probably more correct to say that the opera is located on the plaza, as it is a large space and many buildings front onto it. It's actually a very well used space, and in the past it was occupied by some event or the other for 8 months out of the year.

Here is a photo showing the stone pieces that make up the parquet. The stone is quartzite from Vals, in canton Graubünden. If I understand it correctly, it took a year to quarry the stone for the 16 000 square meter area. I know that a lot of thought went into this choice, I just hope the material can stand the heavy use that the area gets.