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Schlittelweg

Uetliberg is a small mountain near Zürich where you can find many hiking trails. You can also find the Schlittelweg (sled trail) -- a 3.1 km (about 2 miles) long sledding trail. Even better, there are train stops near both the top and bottom of the Schlittelweg, so you don't even have to walk up the hill again.

Last weekend, Laura and I took a walk along Uetliberg that ended near the top of the Schlittelweg and we took the train down into the city. Swiss trains are usually immaculate. It's rare to see anything worse than an occasional discarded newspaper, or smell anything worse than a whiff of detergent or excessive perfume. The Uetliberg train, though, smelled awful. If you've ever shoveled a long driveway or gone skiing, or if you have children who like to play in the snow, you may remember the unique "wet dog and unwashed socks" funk that comes from peeling off a snow jacket after a few hours of hard exertion in the snow. That was the smell that we endured as we rode down Uetliberg. As we'd been hiking for a few hours, I have no doubt that we were also contributing to it.

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