Day 30: Stage 24: Zürich, 37 km, Sun, 27°

Donda Esta #4?

It’s been an incredibly long day, and it’s just after 21:00 as I get started on this post. I’d rather write it tonight and I need a bit of time to unwind anyway. 

The day started off very early. 

After a good, but quick breakfast I found myself walking just above the railway lines looking for route sign #4. This would become the theme today. I became reasonably comfortable yesterday following route four, so today I decided to simply trust #4. I felt confident that this would work out and knowing that I had my waypoint plots in my app to fall back on if necessary.

As you can see, it was a beautiful morning. I began to get further into the vineyards that the north shore is so famous for. So famous that they are now labelled with a world heritage designation.


Early on I passed a beautiful château, complete with formal gardens. There were to be a series of such sightings today

I started off pretty well, and was able to keep a close eye on the route #4 signage. However, as the path lead me down towards the lake the signs mysteriously disappeared, and were replaced by different signage. Very confusing, but trusting as I was today I continued to follow the new signs.

I love the Swiss beehives! I think they are the best that I have seen in the EU so far. Always brightly painted and in good repair.

With a sense of relief I found a #4 just above the new heritage type signs. I continued on.
But there were no more #4 signs to be seen. Just the new heritage type signage.
I followed the new signs for a while, but when I reached the highway I discovered a good walking path parallel to the roadway. The path was also a cycling path, and there were commuters flying along as I walked. There were also a number of cyclists with all their gear on board in panniers.

I came to a point where are the heritage signs lead off the highway towards the lake. After looking at my app, I decided to continue walking on the cycling path in order to make up some time. The earlier deviation had been long, but largely in a semi circle. I need it to make sure that I kept my progress moving down the lake. 

Unfortunately, the cycling lane ended and I ended up walking on a very busy highway with very fast moving traffic. I knew this couldn’t continue so I looked at my app for the first available exit that would take me up away from the lake where I could find one of my way points. As chance would have it I found another heritage walk complete with an information map. This was very fortunate because I was able to plot a route to connect with my original waypoint route. 

And wouldn’t you know it, I found my missing #4 signs!

Feeling pretty pleased with myself, and a little relieved, I set off at pace along a route that would take me down to the lake, away from the lake and back down to the lake. 

The mountains were clearing today. 





As I began to get better views way down the lake, where it dog legged to the right (south) I began to get a little emotional. This is the route that the Via Francigena takes, and for the rest of the day I fought a strong urge to continue on to the VF. It was a magical walk last year, and the pull to go that way again caught me by surprise.



Once again, the route lead me away from the lake. In one sense the walking today was quite magical, but in another way it was a little brutal. I estimate that 90% of the route was on paved or cement roads. This can really take a toll, because there’s just no give when walking on those types of surfaces.



These are thousands upon thousands of grape vine root stock. I’ve never seen it grown like this. I imagine that this is how all of it is started, but I’ve never come across this before. Super interesting what one can learn on these types of travel.
I enjoy the textures in these soil furrows.

And who came up with a brilliant idea of putting rosebushes at the ends of the rows? They are seldom at the end of every row, usually just one every seven or eight rows
Back down at the lake, I’ve been impressed to see just how much the Swiss love boating. They are, of course, a landlocked country, but in the west and north of the country there are quite large lakes.

I’m keeping a sharp eye on those #4 route signs. But I’m a little concerned to see that it’s 4 1/2 hours to my destination, where I plan to catch a train to Zürich. It’s 11:00 in the morning and I have already walked about half the total distance that I’d expected to walk today. I began to have a sense that I had underestimated the length of today’s stage. Hmmmm?🤔

The only thing to do was to keep on walking, because I had no access to Wi-Fi or data. Stick with the plan.

Another beautiful château right on the lake. Down at the far end of the lake on the VF there is a spectacular château.

What an amazing day!

And then again, it was up and away from the lake

Through a small village.



And then back down to the lake.

I met a walker who was coming up this hill and he wasn’t in good shape. By that I mean that he was struggling. A large pack and both knees strapped up. I felt for him, but knew that there was little I could do to help other than to greet him.







Amazing lavender! It looked like Provence lavender.



And then I was in Zürich! I make it sound like it happened very quickly, but by the time I found the  train station and enjoyed a long train ride (while rehydrating) quite a few hours passed by. 

Given the prices in Swiss restaurants, I did what most budget conscious travellers do in this country. I went to the grocery store to see what I could find! The grocery stores were crazy busy! I managed to get some smoked salmon from Alaska, a section of brie cheese, a couple of healthy, looking buns and an ice, cold Swiss beer! I after a really long day I didn’t really feel like trying to find a suitable restaurant. The majority of the restaurants here are focussed on meat dishes, but I did see some Italian restaurants and I’ll have a look around tomorrow.

My small, but ridiculously expensive room is in the building with the red sign on top. It’s a basic room, but it’s quite serviceable and will be fine for two nights.

Tomorrow I plan to spend a full day checking out this city. I’ve heard lots of great things about it. I know quite a few of my friends have never been here, so I plan to do one last blog post tomorrow. In the meantime, it’s 22:30 and I should probably think about getting a bit of sleep. Having changed beds so often as one does on these types of walks, I’m getting pretty good at changing from one bed to another.🙂 It doesn’t mean I’m getting more sleep, but I am getting good at shifting beds!🙏

The portion of the video from when I got onto the train did not sync well with the photographs. So you will see all the photos lumped together from the train. That said, the overall video is reasonably good, but for some reason the distance got messed up. I was on a high-speed train for almost 2 1/2 hours.😂 Anyway, enjoy!