The Planetary Walk

Nazy planned several activities for the visit of Mitra and Stefan. Stefan, a vegetable connoisseur, really enjoyed the Burkliplatz farmers market. (I like it too, but mainly for the flowers.) Following tradition, we took them on the planetary walk on the crest of the local Uetliberg Mountain.

I had a 3:00 PM con-call (my employer keeps getting in the way of my social life) so we left early – and just missed Tram 3 toward Central Station. (The next tram came 9 minutes later.) We arrived at Central Station, only to discover that we had just missed the train. (The next train came 15 minutes later.)

The planetary walk features a scale model of the solar system. It begins with the Sun (the size of a basketball) and continues with scale models of the planets. (The Earth is the size of a pea.)

As we were nearing Uranus (a ping-pong ball 2 miles from the start), I explained the solar system to Mitra.

“But,” I said. “The model is not completely accurate.”

“Why not, Dad?”

“The solar system doesn’t go uphill,” I puffed.

“Hmm..”

“And it’s a good thing that we didn’t do the interstellar walk.”

“Why Dad?”

“On this scale, the nearest star would be in Rome.”

Passing Neptune (pictured above), we arrived at a picturesque restaurant and took a short break. Then we walked to the cable car for the ride back down the hill. We just missed the departure. (The next cable car was scheduled in 15 minutes.) We admired the view while we waited. Somehow we didn’t see the arrival of the subsequent cable car and, as a result we just missed its departure. (Add another 15 minutes.) Arriving (finally) at the bottom of the hill, we walked to the train station arriving just as the S-18 departed for the Hauptbahnhof. (The next train arrived 15 minutes later.) We made it to the central station 15 minutes before my con-call.

“Just enough time,” I thought, “to make it home for the call.”

It would have been, but I just missed tram 3. I took the con-call in the tram.