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Saturday 30th September – Lake Titisee Walk & Freiburg City Visit
Sunday 1st OctoberAfter an absence of a few years, I decided to pay a visit to my friend Zoltan in Switzerland, having flown from Luton Airport on Easyjet Friday late afternoon. I have to say that negotiating Luton Airport security turned out to be a far more pleasant experience generally-speaking than at Stansted, which handles a greater volume of passengers. The head steward on Easyjet ensured that we were provide with a quirky yet camp brand of highly entertaining in-flight entertainment, testing whether passengers were actually listening to announcements by nonchalantly throwing in Geneva as the flight destination.
Zoltan stays in a neat, cosy apartment in the Oerlikon district of Zurich within easy reach of Zurich airport. He boasts about having female company around the place who does almost everything for him. I’m still trying to get my head around the concept of Alexa.
After a quick breakfast, in the mid morning we drove from Zurich, completing this 14km walk located just across the border, around Lake Titisee in the Black Forest, with 329m total elevation. It was an exhilarating start to the more strenuous walk planned for the next day. In downtown Freiburg, we walked around town before stopping off for Flammkuchen, essentially a thin-based pizza, together with Zoltan’s friend “Z” (she prefers not to have her full name mentioned on social media), who had travelled down by train from Waldorf for the day. The weather was warm and the town buzzing, as demonstrated by the clip showing an impromptu dance group entertaining the crowds.
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Sunday 1st October – Menzenschwand Black Forest Walk
Zoltan had decided to really put me through my paces Sunday, with a 20km-odd Black Forest walk setting out from the hamlet of Menzenschwand and heading into the hills which circumnavigate the valley below, with a total elevation of between 700 and 800 metres. The route is known as St Blasien, which takes its name from the town of the same name that boasts a beautiful basilica, which I had visited before and which we had to pass through en route to Menzenschwand . Before starting the climb, we had to pass through to the outskirts of this typical southern German farm village, characterized by large double or triple storey farmhouses with sloping roofs and balconies decorated by flowers in the summer. It seems that the town was gearing up for Oktoberfest. Climbing was relentless but mostly within the forest, which provided much-needed shade, shielding us from the morning sun. We reached a lookout hut that gave us a glimpse of the valley below.
From here we dropped down to open countryside where cows grazed unperturbed, reaching Krunkelbachhütte, a solitary guesthouse situated just above a saddle in the upper valley, where we stopped for drinks. The place was humming, serving traditional Bavarian pub food to the multitude of hillside walkers turning up with regular monotony. Just beyond the saddle, our route continued as we ascended through a section of forest once more, taking a short cut along a path where a skier had lost her life during a mid-winter avalanche. We reached the hillside above the ski resort of Hebelhof, with Feldberg, the highest point in the Black Forest, clearly visible over to the west. We stopped at a Hütte for coffee and water. It was from here that, after reaching Caritas-Haus, an interdisciplinary therapy centre, that we followed a dirt track meandering through the forest on the northern side of the valley, where we found ourselves being passed regularly en-route by groups of mountain bikers, a number of which were in fact e-bikes. We began our descent along a steep track following a stream, which led us back down into Menzenschwand.
Exhausted and sweat-drenched but well satisfied by the gruelling hike, we headed back to Zurich after changing into drier attire.
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Monday 2nd October – A day exploring downtown Zurich & A visit to Konstanz Thermal baths
After two days of walks, the latter of which at Menzenschwand proving pretty strenuous, I was looking forward to a somewhat more relaxing day, so after a slow start to the day, I opted to explore downtown Zurich, requiring only a half-hour trip on the S-10 tram from Oerlikon. Zoltan was back at work. The magnificent Landesmuseum just across from the main railway station documents the story of Switzerland from the banks of Bahnhofstrasse to alpine farms and mountains, from Heidi and Helvetii to cheese and cantons. It was quite warm so I stayed in the shade and walked along Limmatquai to Bürkliplatz, named after Arnold Bürkli (1833–1894), the engineer responsible for the construction of the city’s quays.
It was here on the lake front where Quaibrücke is located and where the outfall of Lake Zurich into the Limmat river commences, that I first photographed a beautiful sculpture by Hermann Hubacher, when passing through Zurich after spending 3 months working as a student in Germany in 1979-1980. Adorning the line of trees along the quayside, the statue depicts the abduction to Olympus by Zeus, in the form of an eagle, and his beautiful lover Ganymede. I reached the opera house via Utoquai, before returning along the back streets via Oberdorfstrasse to the Grossmünster, a Romanesque-style Protestant church who’s twin towers remains a city landmark. I stopped for a much-needed break for coffee & cake at a cafe at Rathausbrücke. Finally, I walked along Niederdorfstrasse to Central, where I took the S10 tram back in the late afternoon.
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Though I had been introduced to saunas some years ago, it was after a colleague and I met up with fellow engineer Zoltan that my love and appreciation of saunas moved up a new level. I have visited a number of baths in Hungary and in particular in the capital. After all, wellness and spa culture have been a part of the Hungarian lifestyle for hundreds of years. Hungary’s spa culture began in Roman times, but some of Budapest’s most stunning bathhouses were built during the 150 years of Ottoman rule. These 16th-century bathhouses have similar structures with central octagon-shaped pools topped by high domed ceilings through which rays of light pierce the water. Besides the Turkish bathhouses, Budapest boasts many other historic baths, earning it the moniker “Spa City.”
With Tuesday being a public holiday in Germany, Monday evening looked like a good bet, when the facility would be less crowded. It’s an incredibly relaxing experience. I particularly enjoy it when on the hour every hour, a member of staff enters the sauna room and ladles of water (usually scented) are thrown on the sauna stones – this immediately evaporates and increases the humidity in the air in the sauna. He then uses a towel to agitate the air in all directions – this procedure lasts several minutes and is invariably executed with great humour. It is much appreciated by all and usually results in a round of applause at the end.
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Tuesday 3rd October – Höhenweg Amden hike
Zoltan had suggested this rather intriguing mountain walk, which involved some travelling from Zurich. Taking the S2 train from Zurich Oerlikon which follows the southern shoreline of Lake Zurich directly to the line’s final destination, Ziegelbrücke-Süd, the 650 bus then heads via Weesen on Walensee through a number of farm villages, including Amden, up into the mountains to the final bus stop at Arvenbüel. The overall round trip is a bit on the pricey side, costing CHF 55.60 and that did not include the cost of the Mattstock chair lift down to Amden, at the end. Many do the walk in the opposite direction, by taking the chair lift first.
From the bus stop the walk commences a up a steep rise past some houses, reaching woodland. The route is well marked and one need only follow the Ammler Höhenweg trail signs. After passing through and crossing some grassland, a gravel road reaches a tarred road that then winds its way up the valley for a couple of kilometres, eventually reaching a farm. Here a gravel road leads off to the left before one takes a pathway which climbs steadily along the outer edge of the hillside. After reaching the top, a short diversion via a less obvious route over grassland takes one to a peak called Gulmen.
Returning to the original track, red and white markings painted on stones indicate the way off the hillside, the rutted path zig-zagging and dropping steeply down the slope before easing off as one enters a forest. The path follows the contours of the hill slopes, passing a Hüte, where I was tempted to stop for a pint, as I had been consuming water at a steady rate. I ventured on before eventually joining a gravel road for a long exposed stretch that passes beneath the peaks of Hinter Höhi. Signposts appear which may only serve to confuse anyone unfamiliar with the area, as there are numerous alternative walking possibilities and one might think that the correct path might not seem intuitively correct. By following the signs to Niederschlagwald however, which has a little picture of a chair lift, I ended up at the right place in the end.
The last stretch of the walk to the Hüte (a stop-off for food and drink) comes into view at the top of a long winding tarred road. I had met an American woman en route who has been living In Switzerland for 40 years and still plays the cello and teaches music. We stopped for a quick drink at the Hüte . The Amden-Mattstock Sesselbahn (chair lift) is another 10 minutes further on, which takes one down to the village of Amden. Costing CHF 10 for a 15-20 minute ride, it’s a bit like floating and a rather pleasant experience. The views are breathtaking and the clanging of cowbells from the livestock creating a real cacophony. We reached the lower station and managed to pay the fare just in time to catch the bus at Amden, which is on the same route. Though the total distance walked is only 8.4 km and estimated to last about 3 hours it seemed longer. I was wrecked afterwards, mainly because it was quite hot. I waited for the 16h19 S2 train back to Zurich.
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