A Clear Day?! With Sunlight?!

So the sun decided to come out yesterday. As we are nearly 50^o from the equator, surrounded by mountains, and covered in a perpetual layer of clouds, this is a rather momentous occasion. Elenora and I of course decided to go to the lake, as, unlike our room mates (who are apparently vampires), we are used to seeing the sun.

We first decided to shop a bit at Bahnhofstrasse. The main event there was entering the chocolate shop. We both have to shop for chocolate, as we are about to see our relatives (and my sister will kill me if I don't bring her back some of Switzerland's best). Immediately before entering, the sweetly heady scent of excellent chocolate wafted into the street. A lady with a tray of free samples offered us a taste, which we gladly took. Mine was a heavenly bit of dark mocha with the light touches of wafer. As we browsed the shelves of different chocolates I noticed some workers in the back stirring large melted pots of chocolate, some pouring them into bunny-shaped casks, and yet others cracking previously poured casks. These bunnies were being made fresh in the back of the store as they were being sold. I was taken aback by the endless varieties of truffles and pralines, everything somewhat expensive, but appearing to be very much worth it.



After a bit more window shopping, we went down to the lake. The sun was hovering just over the mountains, sending shimmering beams of light to dance among the ripples of water. After basking in the glorious sunlight, I began to notice the huge varieties of fowl that were apparently enjoying the weather as well.






Apparently this little orange-headed guy is called a Red-chrested Pochard. Isn't he adorable?!








A little further to the west, there is a strange statue of a man and a bird, the significance of which I don't quite understand. However, when trying to take a shot of him, a flock of something decided to fly by. I'm pretty sure the man, with his arm in the air, summoned them to scare me off.



The following pictures are taken from the opposite side of the street. Peering down where the lake turns into a river allows one to see downtown Zurich and some pretty cool landmarks which I have yet to visit.




I also have yet to ride the ferry, which will apparently start going across the lake regularly come April.



And this is how happy Italians are in the sunlight:



Love,
Asma