Industriequartier and other curious stuff

This is a rather interesting part of town - for me, at least, who likes looking at massive refurbed buildings and yawning facades that reek of a different time and function.

You can probably guess from its name what Industriequartier is: a whole bunch of businesses housed in enormous warehouses and old factories. The area abuts the 'less savoury' part of town, according to the Ralph Lauren Umbrella-brandishing narrative.

That may be true, but I'm not sure if 'usavoury' in Zürich isn't just the equivalent of 'colourful' in other cities. It is certainly a much more multicultural part of town. We discovered, with much joy on a previous expedition, a substantial Turkish supermarket, where we acquired fresh-from-oven bread, delicious sheep's feta which was consumed by all members of the family in record time, and - oh joy - coriander.

Zürich is surprisingly safe generally, though that doesn't mean it doesn't have its fair share of the usual underbelly goings-on. So they say. And if it's going to happen anywhere, it's alleged to happen in West Zürich, where they say it's best not to walk the streets late at night. (When most people are in bed and adhering to house rules.)

Obviously, to be able to give an accurate summary of the allegedly hip night-life in this area, I would need to be in a parallel universe.

Back to my child-friendly expedition.

The kids and I were interested to discover train lines in the footpath, which were slowly being dug up. We wondered where the trains went in the past, and why they stopped using the lines.

BTW, I'm finding information hard to acquire, since my German is so abysmal. Even Googling is proving highly frustrating.

So my take on it all is that there is a fair bit of construction going on, and (thanks again to eavesdropping on Infotech Central conversation) I discovered that the regulations with regard to building sites in Switzerland are rather different to those in Oz. (Those Infotech Central boys know so much stuff.)

I've noticed that workers don't always have hard hats on. I even saw one chap in jeans and a t-shirt wafting around one of the enormous mobile diggers doing something that looked like spot-cleaning with a little water sprayer. (?!)

Cranes can be plonked anywhere, and don't appear to be cordoned off with much regulation (on a previous expedition we practically climbed on the base of one). And I'm told that the statistics of fatalities on building sites reflect this. (Of course I don't have those statistics to hand because it's all hear-say and I can't find the source, can I?)

Anyway, we escaped unscathed, and headed back to good old safe-as-houses Geranium Central.