More brass - this time with more of a festive mood

And the band plays on... just another local band playing in the station. Can EVERYONE play a musical instrument here?

Another shot from the Christmas market. I often find that the stallholders have strange affinities with what they are selling, or is it my imagination

Leica M3 50mm Summicron Tri-x

Back in Zurich, I've missed a couple of weeks of the Christmas markets. This is taken in the Hauptbahnhof market where you can buy lots of things, most are even related to Christmas

Leica M3 50mm Summicron Tri-x

Arriving back in Zurich, I discovered that Christmas had started without me. Here's one of the perennial indicators of the festive season

Leica M3 50mm Summicron Tri-x

I work some of the time for UBS, who are keen to sponsor all sorts of events (Americas Cup eg) and coming up they are supporting the Swiss Olympics (Eidgenössisches Schwing- und Älplerfest 2007) in Aarau next week

As a foretaste we had some wrestling in the canteen today - the only way to settle lunch time quarrels

Here are all the original pictures

Canon EOS5D 70-200mm f2.8 IS 1600ASA @f2.8. For those who might be in the least bit interested, because this was indoors, I took a few trial exposures, and then set the camera on manual exposure 1/1250 @ f2.8 and popped away

Swiss National Day, 1st August, is an excuse to bring out the bunting. However there doesn't seem to be much need of an excuse normally and flags are often flying for reasons which escape me. There is no lack of flags either. Apart from the national flag, every Canton has a flag (23) (26, thanks Z)and every local Gemeinde or Commune has one (2740). This website has just about everything you need to know about Swiss flags. I've posted this question before, but I like it so I'm posting it again. What is unusual and (almost) unique about he Swiss National flag? Also there are flags for guilds or zunften. So, depending on the occasion you can see a wide variety at any one time. Most buildings have fixtures for flags.

This is Augustinergasse, one of the favourite tourist photo opportunities in Zurich

No, this is not a waiter throwing a tantrum because someone asked for french mustard with their bratwurst. Taken in Bahnhofstrasse, one of the many bands in Switzerland being led with gusto by this Furtwangler look-alike.

Canon EOS 5D 70-200mm f2.8 L IS 1/2500 @f2.8

Just in case anyone thought it was only the boys showing off

Canon EOS5D 70-200mm IS L @200mm ASA400

A couple of weeks ago I had a shot of a young guy diving into Lake Zurich. This was from a platform specially erected for the Züri Fäscht, and it proved so popular that they've left it for the season. This week the weather is hotting up so a few people have been taking advantage - more of a "Butch Cassidy" leap this one.

Canon EOS5D 70-200mm f2.8 IS L @100mm. 1/2000 F5.6 ISO 400

A jumble of a photograph, littered with unsympathetic artifacts, but that was the jumble of Zurich Fascht on Saturday. Somehow or other I managed to get a shot that doesn't have any of the numerous rides, stalls, dodgems etc that dominate the occasion. Maybe next time - but I liked the flags

This weekend is the annual Züri Fäscht - three days of old fashioned funfair rides and tacky stalls along with concerts and wall to wall sausage and raclette vendors

I kicked off with some pictures of young kids throwing themselves into the lake from a great height