Explore

Welcome back to another episode of A'lil Hoohaa's monthly photo blogging challenge. 

Our prompt for the month of August was "Explore", which is what, if asked, I would say is my favorite pastime. 

I came across this traffic circle on my way to a dinner, and I had to stop, get out of the car and take a picture. In Switzerland, many of these roundabouts are decorated, often sponsored by a closely company, but I thought this one was the most adorable one I had seen in a long time. 

In August, Colin and his teammates came back after the summer break, and they're practicing on the ice while it's scorching hot outside. On the less hot and humid days I like to walk along the lake and, well, explore, even though I've done so many, many times before. It's still a million dollar sight, don't you think?

This season Colin was elected team captain. Usually his only task is to greet the officials and to initiate high-fiving his teammates. However, their first friendly game of the season turned out not to be very friendly. A lot of penalties were given for situations that we wouldn't call fouls. Colin had his hands full negotiating with the referee on behalf of his team. Which of course has never helped anything in the history of ice hockey.  

I like that his coach and his team consider him a role model and leader. 

This picture doesn't have anything to do with the prompt "explore", so consider it a proud hockey mom's bonus picture.

Once upon a time in the 1960s, BALLY, a high quality leather goods company, built their flagship store in Zurich. The building was marked with five letter balls, spelling out BALLY. 

While the building was being restored about ten years ago for the fashion chain Zara to move in, they were refurbished and fitted with red LED lights.

These can now display all the letters of the alphabet as well as numbers, and they display a different term every day. A friend and I like to make a game out of it. Whoever's in the city texts the other one "ready to Wordle?" I like to use "READY" as my starter word.

 It's harder than using the NY Times' app because we just use WhatsApp and green, orange and red hearts to indicate correct letters, but we are having fun.

Last year hubby's company I also work for, turned 30 years old. We threw a party for over 200 guests, mostly customers, but also vendors and other stakeholders. This year it was time to do something for the team and their family members. We spent a weekend in Munich, Germany. There were some activities for the entire group like a guided tour of the Bavaria Film Studios or dinners, one of them taking place at a traditional beer garden. 

This weekend there were around 100,000 more tourists than normal. Some were at the Adele concert on Friday evening, others came for the Coldplay show on Saturday. Both, of course, spent Saturday exploring the city. It was accordingly crowded. I had already been to Munich twice before, so I wasn't under any “pressure” to see everything. 

What you see in the picture is the "New" Town Hall on Marienplatz, which is the seat of the Lord Mayor, the City Council and the headquarters of the Munich City Administration. It was built from 1867 to 1909 in the neo-Gothic style.

On our way to a hockey tournament in the Southeastern part of Switzerland I dragged hubby to an outdoor sculpture exhibition. It is part of an annual event that takes place at three different locations over the course of several months. I had visited one location with my Mom in June.

Other than the artist who created this "crushed rhino" sculpture is called Stefano Bombardieri, I couldn't find out more about the back story, so one can only guess about the meaning / message. I like to think that the rhino is strong and will get rid of the concrete block. What do you think?

I hope you enjoyed exploring with me. 

Now check out my fellow bloggers' contribution to this month's topic.