Autumn is here.  The leaves on the trees are starting to change colors – gorgeous shades of red, bright orange and yellow.  Mövenpick ice cream stands have been replaced by Brezel König (large, soft, salted pretzels).  And the little green huts selling heissi Marroni (roasted chestnuts) are soon to be showing up all over town.  At the markets, plums, apples, pears and all sorts of root vegetables have taken center stage.  And the most exciting displays of all are the pumpkins and gourds in all sizes, shapes and colors.

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Each time my family or friends visit us here in Switzerland, we love to find the most Swiss experiences for them.  We stroll around charming villages like Appenzell and Stein-am-Rhine, we take in the (accurately stereotyped) gorgeous landscapes, eat locally and wave hi to the cows.  My parents are getting to know quite a bit of Switzerland, and on previous trips of theirs, have discovered the best cappuccino in Locarno, onions (and confetti) in Bern and my favorite region, the Engadine.  With a day of hiking in the mountains rained out, what to do?

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Construction is somewhat commonplace here in Zürich.  I am forever finding creative ways to artistically avoid cranes in my photos.  And it seems that the city is constantly busy re-renovating something, making it even more perfect than it already seemed to be to me.  I don’t often stop to read the fine print, but when biking towards the industrial-gone-trendy neighborhood of Zürich early last year, I squeezed the brakes when I saw the word “Markthalle” and a sketch of a 500 meter-long market street.  Construction was already underway to create a unique shopping structure beneath the Wipkinger and Letten viaducts (both of which were built by hand by more than 6,000 workers just before 1900), that would include Zürich’s first covered market.

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