It's Wednesday morning, some minutes past seven. As usually I have my self-interpreted French breakfast, some carbohydrates, fats, calcium and vitamin c.
The weather condition is outstanding 5˚C and sunny, no cloud in sight.
Together with the working class I take a early train to go to work. (Working class today means commercial clerks - but of course the banks and the insurance companies don't tell them, that they are 'just' workers. The workers really think, that they are part of the middle classes, means that they are part of the bourgeoisie. That's really clever in a democratic country, to confuse the voters so much, that they believe that they give their voice in a own interest, just to damage the own rights).
I start the walk at the bank of the river Limmat - what a nice view, might be at a city's park.
...centre park.
There was a time in my live, where I played definitely to much Tetris... when I saw a group of skyscrapers, I was expecting a falling part, what is fulfilling the gap.
Good News! This is the official declaration, that - not only the culinary - winter is over: ramson is ready to harvest. That means boring potato, cabbage and celery meals could be tuned.
Partly the same story, also woodruff is ready, could be part of a nice alcoholic drink: woodruff punch
Suburbia delight.
There are actually many good things about suburbia to tell. At first position it's a good place where it's possible and allowed (from a ethical point of view) to make huge architectural gestures.
Contemporary metal sculpture in its natural environment.
Sometimes in the 13. century there was here the castle and the city of Glanzenberg. Maybe it was a little bit to close to the city of Zurich, because on one day, the Zurich people decided, to make the folks of Glanzenberg an offer to leave that place instantly and search a new place to live. This offer was that convincing, that they didn't refused.
Until today, Zurich is still taking benefit from this old effort: if the city would still exist, it would be hardly possible to build there a highway.
Many creatures are benefiting.
Communication clash. Somebody would like to sell something about history, somebody else tries to get himself a little place in history.
It's getting obvious here, that landscape is not given. It's a decision!
I'm staying in the doorway of the former city of Glanzenberg - if the city would still exist, everything would be different today... taking my further steps I thought deeper about this sentence. 'Everything' in this case means probably 'everything'. Not only the landscape. Because, if this city wasn't destroyed by Zurich in alliance with the earls of Habsburg (surprise, at school we learned, that the old Swiss and the Habsburgian have been hereditary enemies), maybe Zurich never get to the economical power of today. And following the confederation of the old Swiss states never got the power to kick the Habsburgians out of the country, so they never went to Vienna, and so they never became Kaiser and they never reigned the Balkan - so maybe never a first and according a second world war happen... it might be better or worse today, but anyway different.
Suburbia is probably on of the habitats (like the jungle) with highest density of different forms of life. Here are sheep, pigs, humans and broad variation of trees.
Finally time for architecture critic!
Good: Hard and closed shell to the noisy railway and street side. Open to the riverbank.
Bad: Ugly design, looks like typical investors building from the 1970ies. No relation between the ground floor apartments and the terrain (or nothing more as on the upper levels). Just a weak communication between the buildings established by the arbour.
Late palafitte building.
Also in a neutral country it's very possible to get involved, to get bloody hands:
Make a smart decision by buying fuel!
Polling day is approaching - and I wonder:
Why do we have to vote for people without any background, doesn't matter which party - their background is plain on every picture.
Another rich habitat are allotment gardens. They show a wide selection of fences.
So did also the leading national fence builder contributing a part. At this moment I had not the slightest idea, that this was a hint to me, what will follow on the upcoming way.
Imagine: There is a forest, with hundreds of tree trunks - but the people don't know what to do there.
So somebody had to write an instruction and to build up some additional sticks that the people know what to do in this environment.
My contribution to a peaceful new world. I treated that bunker with a concrete disintegrating acid (the wet mark right at the front corner).
A forester's piece.
A modernist birds house.
Is there a lesson to learn?
Maybe: if you connect to the nature, you go down with it.
Sec 0:30 - but I still didn't understand.
With 581 m over sea level just the second highest point of Urdorf, 6 meters missing.
But signs, everywhere signs - and I still hadn't any clue, I really believed, that this red-white-red marks are signing the hikers path - in a very dense way.
So far I was only pissed that somebody at the shooting range is disturbing the silence of the forest.
Quality certification - I'm still on the way at the boarder, this time it's also the boarder between the states Argovia and Zurich.
But it was not only one man, it's the army - on my map there was not even a simple mark, that here is a battle ground, and exactly during this days, they had to make manoeuvre here. (Mind the red white striped frame around the coloured area on the map - at this moment, I still didn't understand.
I would say a rather explicit declaration that I should take a detour, and shouldn't following directly the boarder line.
A forest war sound piece.
A passing by deer must feel horrible at this place.
It was never scheduled to come to this place - but well, it's nice to have lunch here.
Autumn pleasure in the spring.
Good roofs.
Bad roofs.
The famous start of so many scary movies.
On a high plateau.
Almost not to believe, just 5 kilometres in this direction the city of Zurich begins.
A waving flag piece.
Boooom - it took until here until I understand, that these red-white-red marks are showing the limits of the army ground. Between the first contact until here 1 hour 20 minutes. When somebody is thinking in such a slow way, it's probably better to walk instead driving cars.
Archetype city, designed by the Swiss army.
I don't know which role model they used, but I could say, if you wish to be not disturbed by the Swiss army, you better live in a house with contemporary design. They will never figure out how to enter.
In this neighbourhood it's not absurd to suspect, that there is something hidden in this pile.
Minimal housing.
Here they learn to fight massive, heavy enemies. As long as they don't move, the Swiss Army keeps beeing winner (probably the Swiss national football team is also practicing here, result of the last game 2:2, after a penalty shoot-out).
Hooligans land art.
In a society with a oversupply of fun parcs and wellness offers it makes absolutely sense to open an ag(g)ro centre, especially that close to a army ground, to get rid of bad vibes.
The rear guard in the postindustrial times: stone pits and cement plants are the remaining rest what is telling from rougher times.
Argh! If Darth Vader would be living today, he would be a real estate developer!
You know, short version of the Swiss history. In the early times humanoids came to a country with hills. Somehow they managed to survive in that mean environment for centuries, until the day when they developed very heavy machinery to move the ground. After that day they started to build houses, because houses could only stay on a plane, horizontal surface.
As I told, flat.
Like on cigarette boxes they should use that white box in the foreground to announce a warning:
"Looking to long at this kind of houses and thinking about its relation to the grown ground could cause serious eye pain and bad mood"
Actually, the house itself is not the worst ever, at least it has mostly a clear form and the proportions are more or less in a balance. But the greens!
Look here, that's kind of a burlesque of landscape planning. Very certainly the only concern was, that the lawn mower finds enough place and a flat ground between the green stuff and the fence.
Q: Why fence? A: Actually, we don't know, we never thought about it, but it's just common to build one.
It was about time to go back to the forest, I was heading for that stone, the mark of a four communities boarder corner. In my understanding that's very exceptional, at least in a area, where the boarders are 'naturally' grown... it takes a lot of occasions, that four towns meet each other, without any superpower, that decides that it has to be like this.
But at the same moment, I don't know any touristic programme, which brings people to this outstanding place.
A tour through four communities in 23 seconds in real time.
A blair witch moment.
One of the best side effects of hiking is, that beer tastes - well, it's just the best drink of all at this particular situation.
By the way, the entrance of the restaurant Casa Mediterranea looks very promising.
Just a few metres further I have be back in suburbia - it's miraculous.
The selling slogan of this settlement means: "Living in the garden city" - "in a spacious park landscape" - it's important to know, that they build two additional lines of buildings between the already erected houses and the street at the right.
I hope, this is linguistic impotence, or at least irony - if not, the marketing people really think, that all others are stupid fools.
It's 4pm, and I go home.
Today I have at least the feeling, that I did something. I was suffering on thirst, because I had just 6 dl of water with me - I forgot, that if I'm walking on communities' boarders, the chance is very small to hit a fountain with potable water or a restaurant.
