Out for a walk

So, here's a photo of the dish I made with the gorgeous chanterelles I got the other day at the Naschtmarkt:

I sauteed shallots, garlic and a sprig of thyme in olive oil and butter until they were just fragrant, then turned up the heat and added the chanterelles (cut into chunks).  After they'd begun to brown a bit (about 5 minutes), I gave them some salt and pepper. Meanwhile, I cooked a couple handfuls of pappardelle. Now, the plan was that this was going to be a SIDE DISH, but I'm terrible (always have been) at judging how much dry pasta to cook. It always seems like not very much. Anyway, I ended up with more than I intended. Once it was mostly cooked, I added it and some of the pasta water to the pan with the mushrooms and finished cooking it. The pasta water makes such a nice glaze-y sauce. A bit of grana padano on top. It was very good.

Yesterday's weather was gorgeous. Sunny, warm, breezy, without humidity.  I decided it was the perfect weather to take a book down to one of the cafes on the canal.  I took pictures of what I saw along my walk. Here they are:

U-Bahn station at Schwedenplatz.

Lovely, old, ornate building with a McDonald's.

A tram.

The canal.

The next two are a couple of strange sculptures - M & I have tried to figure out who made them and why they're here, but we don't know:

This is the Badeschiff - a ship with a swimming pool.

A bit fuzzy, but the sign points to the direction of Budapest.

I had no idea what this "Fairness Zone" thing was - I'd seen it a few times in different sections of the canal paths. After a bit of searching, I found this information: http://cyclingisgoodforyou.blogspot.com/2010/07/about-fairness.html.  Apparently, there are sections of the path that have resulted in conflicts between bicyclists and pedestrians and who has the right-of-way.  These notices on the ground appear to be in sections where bikes tend to go really fast, but it's hard for pedestrians to get out of the way.  Hmmm. I just try to stay to the right side of the path and hope that I won't get whacked by a bike.

There are a number of these cabanas, with dirty foam mattresses inside, all along a section of the canal. They seem pretty creepy.

At my destination with a delicious, cold drink and a book.

On my way home.

That was my afternoon.