More from Zurich, Switzerland

Zurich lies in northern Switzerland with German being the official language. The sweets found here are different from those found in the southern part of Switzerland (where French is the official language). I love kirsch amaretti cookies and this is one of my two favorite places in Zurich to find 'em.

There are so many versions. It's basically a light chewy cookie (marzipan?) with a butter cream filling at the bottom and then partly dipped in dark chocolate. However, I don't like the butter cream filling and prefer those at St. Jacob Confiserie where the cream filling is full-on chocoate with kirsch (cherry liquer)! The picture below shows two amaretti cookies. The bite-size ones on the left are boring--the ones on the right are from St. Jacob Confiserie.

Will be showing more amaretti cookies later.

Here I am in downtown Zurich and come across a bunch of people square dancing. Another American invention passed on to the rest of the world.

Land is very, very, very expensive here along Lake Zurich with houses going up everywhere. I'm sure developers would be drooling over the prospect of this wine vineyard being torn down and rezoned for residential homes.

These wood-carved guys seem to be taking it all in.

Wouldn't mind being a bird around here with this fancy bird house to call my home!

There's a ferry you can take to cross Lake Zurich. I came upon a group of soldiers on bikes. I remember reading a news story several years ago in which it mentioned Switzerland being the only country in the world with bicycle mounted units AND that they were being phased out. I talked to one of the soldiers and he said they still had bicycle units for training purposes only.

Ticket attendants on the ferry go from vehicle to vehicle collecting payment. I watched as one pulled out a tape measure and started measuring this military vehicle. Evidently, it didn't fall into one of the normal categories.

I'm cycling down this residential street and spot this German Sheperd providing security to the homeowner.

Upon closer inspection I find this so called guard dog is a fake!

I've cycled past hundreds upon hundreds of triangle-shaped houses in the farmland but don't recall seeing one like this where they didn't finish the job.

This fenced-in area houses chickens. I figure the scarecrow is to scare away birds from eating the cherries off the tree. But, what is with the yellow strapping tape crossing the fence in all directions? Is that to keep chickens from flying the coop? A mile down the road I come upon another farm with a similar chicken enclosure with yellow strapping tape zig-zagging across the
top of the fence. I catch the farmer and luckily he speaks English. Turns out the yellow tape is to keep hawks from swooping in and grabbing the baby chicks.