Freitag Shopping – a unique experience - http://www.freitag.ch/ their Zurich store is in Zuri West, a mix of light industry, office buildings and up-and-coming Zurich hot spot close to the train tracks.
The store is created from 5 freight containers piled on top of one another. Shoppers can climb to the top for a view of the city. The Freitag brothers popularized the messenger bags in the 90’s. Theirs are made out of recycled vinyl tarps from European freight cars - each bag is a different color or colors in one of ten or so different styles – Mac has a red messenger bag (not the very expensive Freitag brand) which his friends call his pizza delivery bag. I had really wanted to get a bag but couldn't find any that looked unblemished and the bags are expensive. The only reasonably priced item in the store was a box of Swiss chocolate candy which was on a shelf above the heater so I didn’t even buy that. And I who am not fastidious came home and washed my hands and face.

Skiing and winter hiking

A group from Larry’s area at ETH went skiing last Friday at Flumserberg about an hour and a half train/gondola trip from Zurich. Gorgeous weather, recent snow and an intermediate mountain – when you skied down you could see a lake off to your left and across the valley a wall of steep mountains – just about perfect. You could also see that view when riding down the tram which I did in the morning. Larry and I went up to the top but when I saw the narrow path down I thought back to my unhappy ski lesson in St. Anton where I fell and landed in the grass, so decided to descend to an easier run. Good decision as I skied well all day. Larry and I met for lunch outdoors at a mid-level and then Larry successfully found the tougher runs. We found the ETH folks at the end of the day and 23 of us enjoyed a great fondue dinner after a few beers. Only the 3 Americans and 1 German enjoyed the end of the day outdoor beer – everyone else went inside! And the waitress quickly brought over ashtrays thinking that must be the reason we were outside.

With an international women’s group I went on a winter walk hike in Holzegg yesterday – again about an hour and a half trains+bus+gondola ride from Zurich to Holzegg which is at about 1400 m. We walked up and down and up and down and back up for 3 hours in a mix of snow, ice, mud and bare paths. Fortunately, I brought my walking stick with me - thanks to Ruth. Walking paths through ski areas are becoming very popular here. This area was lower than Flumserberg and the skiing wasn’t good. Again the weather was perfect and the vistas magnificent. On the way back some of us stopped in Einseldn (normally a great place for cross-country skiing but bare this winter) to watch some Fasnacht entertainment. A group of men dressed in white sheets with masks but not looking KKK’ish were hurling about 100 loaves of bread into the crowd. Many people were dressed in costumes (cowboys and Indians being the most popular! Then we listened to a surprisingly enjoyable, slightly off-key 25 piece band before continuing our train ride back to Zurich.