I woke up yesterday morning to see some fluffy white flakes tumbling from the clouds: it was my first true snow day in Zurich!
Now, with most of my snow-specific gear either a) old and discarded, or b) stored at my family's home in Colorado, or c) locked in a storage locker in Virginia, or d) stored at Jill's parents house in New England, I didn't have many options.
Go ski? No skis over here yet.
Go snowshoe? No snowshoes over here yet.
We stripped down our gear to a minimum when we made the move across the Atlantic, and all I really have is a kayak I could paddle or a bike I could ride . . . or I could head out on my feet, but my legs were still a bit sore from
the track work out earlier in the week. I opted to bike instead of paddle, mostly because of visibility concerns on the water and the frequent ferry schedule on the
Zurichsee; plus, that water is darn cold this time of year! So, I headed out on my trusty Gary Fisher and took a ride around
the lake on my bike.
It's about a 70 km road ride and I snapped a few pictures along the route, hoping for a unique picture to catch my eye. Nothing particularly unique, but here is a sampling. This is the Uetliberg, Zurich's own mini Alp, shrouded in fog.
This is the view across the lake from the West side of the water -- known as the "shadowy side" of the Zurichsee.
True enough, this is a photo of the "sunny side." Somewhere in there is our apartment.
It was about a 3 hour ride, but because I stuck to the lake edge I hardly had any traffic to contend with. It was just me, the snow falling but not really accumulating, and the 4-5 foot bike lane for most of the way. I also got to try out the new pack carrier I've rigged up (it carries by backpack on the back of the bike), and it worked like a charm! 70 km through wind and snow, and the pack didn't wobble or get into my rear wheel or anything. I'll post some details on that later, once I've taken a few photos, and then probably stick it over on the
Untamed Adventure blog I've been neglecting.