Zurichberg and End Summer Fest

Uncle has been pestering me to take the 'cable car' up to Zurichberg for a panoramic view of Zurich from the other side of the city. Since we didn't have any concrete plans, might as well make the trip there.

Take Tram 5 and stop at Kirche Fluntern which is the last stop.


Self-service buttons for you to press which station you want to alight as there is no driver.

This is the top of Zurichberg. Hmm...I though Uetliberg offers a better view :)

We were supposed to see the alps from here. But it always seems that there's a layer of fog or mist surrounding the alps even on good weather days. Uncle Tan's colleague said the best time to see them clearly would be when there's a Föhn wind, which is a warm dry wind that blows down the northern slopes of the Alps. It only occurs a few times a year and when that happens, the other side of the alps would be raining heavily while the opposite side would experience warm weather. When that happens, you're in for a feast for the best view of the alps.

We hiked a little before we returned to town to attend the End Summer Fest at Landiwiese.

Somehow, the kids here are very friendly and happy. They smile easily.
Some of the older ones would even greet you along the way.

Depending on a general map of the place, we tried to make our way to the lake without knowing how long it will take us to reach there.

Har....so this is the lake...a still lake, full of moss and weeds...fortunately it wasn't a long hike.

Well, time to head off downtown for lunch and the Fest.

The 'cable car' looks more like a funicular.

We had a hearty chinese meal in Globus, Old Town. They serve a variety of meals including chinese dishes (and we happen to see one of the managers doing a taste test too) and they serve sushis too. But Zurich isn't a place to eat sushis lah. And they use fire to cook instead of the induction cooker as used by most restaurants. No wonder the "wok hei" :)

Oh, their cakes look so tempting, in fact more tempting than those sold in most of the confectioneries and even Sprungli. Price wise, is on par with Sprungli which starts from CHF 5. Both of us were too full to have space for cakes. We didn't wanna repeat our mistakes of tabaoing and having melted cakes later. Never mind, we'll have it another day :)

It's a hot day and the sky is clear.

And we didn't know there's a flower clock here :)

Anyone for a dip?

We tried to zoom to capture those guys sunbathing on the platform. These platforms are quite commonly seen in Zurich. Seems like a 'public display' to me ;p

After about 30 mins walk, which was good for digestion, we reached Landiwiese.

Oh wantons! Long time no see!

The long Q for crepes. I hardly see crepes here except whenever there's a carnival or festival going on.

Actually Ah Kin wanna help the little boy pick up the coins, but Ah Kin just couldn't see where the coins have dropped...

Street performances. Instead of going off immediately after the performance, the audience all took out cash to give him.

Another street performance which have captured the attention of the kids. It was conducted in German thou.
Daddies here like to carry their kids on their shoulders. Oh we should have taken some shots of how parents carry their kids here. We saw one grabbing the child by one hand to take her across a road. One carried a baby with one hand where the baby was in a lying position. They have all sorts of 'dangerous' stunts here haha ;p

There's a mini island just across with an outdoor theatre.

Well, it seems that the fest is more like a family fest where they have lots of face paintings, Hannah tattoos, hair beading etc for the kids.

We like this best - the manual merry-go-round with "Live" music =)

There were 3 elder folks operating this - one playing the accordion, one playing the drum and one doing the turning, manually. So nostalgic huh and the most popular ride with many parents waiting to get their kids up and each of the seats are different. The ride will stop upon the completion of a song. And it only cost CHF 2 per ride. View the clip below to see how it works :)

I pity the one doing the moving as he would get giddy after a while. But he gets on and off the rides at times.

It's a simple ride, but the kids love it. I seriously think our kids in SG are deprived of play time. I'm talking about real play and not computer games.

This little girl enjoys the ride so much so that she swings along with the music. You can try to see her in the clip above :)


Benches are made from wooden planks and wine crates. Innovative and environmentally friendly huh :)

Glacier ice-creams are a must at such fests, especially for kids ;)

This is a thematic restaurant where kids get to eat and play here together with their parents. So fun!

Or you could simply choose to laze around out here.

And we noticed that the people actually clear their own plates here. They would throw the food away, leaving the plates at the side. This is something that we should all learn. Food court aunties won't be out of job, they'll just have other jobs and who knows, the costs saved to hire them might be transferred to the consumers? Oh no, I'm day dreaming again...being so profit-driven, SG will never become like this...yes, NEVER. Sorry to see us 'small'.

A boy jumping into the lake from the bridge.

Another interesting thing I found is the public toilet here. It's a self-contained toilet with everything you can find in a normal toilet, very hi-tech.

It's unisex. For the men, just pee into the funnel you see in the picture below. For ladies, you need to pull down the toilet seat, reminds me of those cinema seats. Requires some getting used to. After that, press the button to flush. The press the other button for soap, and the next for water to wash your hands. And they also have a button to blow dry your hands. Cool huh!



Hardly will you find any toilets without toilet paper. Yet, I hardly see any cleaning ladies maintaining the toilets, especially the public toilets. Most of the toilets are very clean. So it boils down to, personal hygiene and basic civic consciousness which, sigh...we are seriously lacking. I wouldn't be surprised in SG having people taking back toilet paper rolls from public toilets for their personal use. Is it in our genes passed down from our early ancestors?

Ok lah, to give credits, our toilets aren't that bad lah, but I suppose it's thanks to the hard work of the cleaners hired by the building management. Try visiting the coffee shop toilets and you'll know what I mean.