Tag: Switzerland

Switzerland sabbatical

We’ve arrived in Zürich, where I have the good fortune to spend a year-long sabbatical at the Center for Digital Health Interventions at ETH Zürich.   Andy is attending the Zürich International School and Pam is planning many explorations.

I arrived a few days ago, to splendid late-summer weather.  Although I’ve not yet had time to explore the city, I have thoroughly enjoyed my daily walk to the office from our temporary flat.  It follows quiet streets at the edge of the old center of Zürich, passing schools and childcare centers bubbling with children in the morning, and sidewalk cafes burbling with adults enjoying an evening Bier in the late-afternoon sunlight.  It passes by a home where Johannes Brahms once made music, and the university hospital.  It passes homes dating to the 17th century, far older than Dartmouth or Hanover.   It passes buildings where a student named Einstein once took classes and a chemistry building that wrought seven Nobel Laureates before it was repurposed for the department of Computer Science.  It passes busy students bicycling to class and aromatic bakeries tempting me with their wares.  It passes an overlook where the university cafeteria looks out across the church spires of the city center to the lake and hills beyond.  [Gallery]

I can tell I’m going to really like this place…

Alpine hike in Switzerland

I was in Zurich for meetings and managed to set aside a day for hiking in the high country to the east. Fresh snow and low clouds made for an eerily quite day in the mountains.

I was in Zurich for a day of meetings and decided it would be a great opportunity to go hiking in the beautiful mountains of Switzerland.  So, despite earlier stops in Dallas (for ACM CCS) and Delft (for ACM SenSys) I brought along my backpack, boots, and full winter hiking gear.  On Wednesday morning, after lots of helpful advice from my ETH colleagues, I boarded an eastbound train from Zurich.  Read on for the full story, and check out the photos. Continue reading “Alpine hike in Switzerland”

Switzerland skiing

Nordic skiing near the town of Saint Cergue, Switzerland.

On December 8, 1998 I was near Geneva on some business, and passing through the town where Alex de Sherbinin ’84 lives and works these days, so I stopped in for a brief visit.  Just hours after landing, complete with jet lag, he picked me up at the Nyon train station and whisked me up into the hills. Geneva and Nyon are low altitude, along Lac Leman, but the land rises rapidly up to a ridge known as the Jura, perhaps 3000 feet elevation.   As we drove up a windy road, the snow became deeper, and the views more spectacular, back across the lake to the Alps and Mont Blanc.  We stopped in the little town of Saint Cergue for a little picnic lunch and to wait for the shopkeeper to reopen so I could rent some XC skis.  When she finally returned, the neighboring shopkeeper scolded her, in reference to us, “These are the seventh people to come into my shop to ask when you will reopen, won’t you please put up a sign saying when you plan to return.”  Even in my limited French I caught the gist of her resultant muttering about how she has the right to close when she wants, if she wants to close, she closes, etc etc etc. 

A few francs later and we were off to ski on an amazing network of set tracks, in gorgeous conditions.  It was a beautiful sunny day, temps just a little below freezing, and fresh snow.  The trails rolled over gentle hills, in and out of the woods. The bright sunshine and the exercise pretty well eliminated my jet lag.  There were few others out that day, being midweek, and most who were out were retirees about twice our age.  I can only hope to be that active at that age.

Alex later took me by his office at the World Conservation Union (IUCN),  across the street from his apartment where it seemed every window had a view onto the Alps, and around the corner from the WWF international headquarters.  At the IUCN everyone seemed to be working on momentous projects in faraway places.   Really neat place.

Thanks Alex!

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