February 11, 2014

After a quick trip back to Salt Lake City for Nicole Pershing's beautiful wedding, I headed back today to Zurich. I have a morning lecture. I walked to the hospital on this beautiful day.

February 5

You would think that I was not working, but I am ...

On Feb 5 the ophthalmology had a ski day to Davos, while the University tested their emergency electricity equipment.  It was great fun getting to know the people in the department.  Davos is where the world economic summit was earlier in the year.  We went to the summit of the ski area and had tea.  The alps were beautiful, but it was VERY windy.

Professor Klara Landau, Chair of Ophthalmology and I cross-country skied (langlaufen) lower down.

A special treat was going to Schatzalp--this is high up over Davos and you reach it by train.  The Berghof Hotel stand there; it was not always a hotel and it started out as a sanatorium for Tuberculosis.  Thomas Mann visited there and was inspired to write his great novel, Magic Mountain (Zauberer Burg).

February 2--a day at the Zurich Opera

We were invited to the Zurich Opernhaus today where we saw Rigoletto--VERY interesting interpretation by Tatijana Gurbaka and amazing performance by a Russian soprano as Gilda---Olesya Golovneva.  The opera house is beautiful.  Gilda still dies at the end.

February 1-- we move in!

We moved into our Apartment in Zurich! It is on a hill and above us is Dolder where there are ice rinks, tennis courts and even animal preserve. You get to it by the train that runs next to our apartment.

our House is to the left --we are on the first floor you can see

the ice rink on Dolder

January 31

Water Fowl on the Zurich See

Today we walked to Zurich Horn which is south of the city--you can walk a very nice path to this place. There are water fowl everywhere--swans, Commorant, ducks, coots. The view of the city was nice too!

a view toward Zurich on the lake

January 30

Grosser Munster

We visited all of the major churches in downtown Zurich. The Gross Munster has two towers and is a symbol of the University of Zurich. The Frauenkirke has the Chagall windows. The St. Peter's Church has the largest clock face in all of Europe. The Augustiner Church was quite simple but beautiful. All were reverent places.

St Peter's Church--on the side!