One thing I truly envy Karsten is his daily way to work. He is cycling every day, it takes about 20 minutes and it’s a beautiful way to start your work day (unless it’s raining cats and dogs like last week). We live at the outskirts of Zurich and naturally there is a building boom going on – flats and houses are incredibly expensive in Zurich, so slowly but steadily all the suburbs and villages expand and take over what is left of a beautiful surrounding. In Switzerland, Zurich does not have a very good reputation. It’s mainly associated with big buildings, trains and banks, I guess. The valley around Zurich must have been very picturesque, though, with many old farms, hills, lakes and rivers. I give it ten more years and the last old farm will probably have disappeared.

Karsten’s way to work somehow shows the bias between the extension of the city and the original surrounding nature. It starts with an industrial park and ends with the highway. But in between, there are forests, fields, creeks, birds….Every morning when he leaves, I wish I could join simply because the prospect of cycling for 20 minutes along fields and lakes in the fresh morning air seems incredibly calming and refreshing.

This morning, he took the camera with him, so this is what he sees every morning and evening:

starting at the sports field….

…passing the industrial park with a huge construction site in order to build a tunnel underneath the railway…

….entering the nice part. The path leads along a small creek on the left side.

Passing one of three lakes on the right side….

…enjoying the season..

…watching herons on the freshly mowed fields…

…passing another lake…

…crossing the highway (with rush hour)…

….and stopping at his workplace which is right next to a blooming sunflower field right now.

And this is my favourite picture which he took on the way back today: