Introduction
Welcome to our life in Thalwil: a personal blog with views and news of lakeside life near Zurich, Switzerland.
Recent posts
- Lake walk I Thalwil-Wollishofen
- Redesign month
- Dreaming of lakeside summer days
- No more bella vita in 2005?
- Z'Thalwil spricht me Änglisch
- Burning (eating) the snowman
- Sakura season
- Oberrieden
- Easter market in Thalwil
Archives
Thalwil
This quiet lakeside town is located five miles south of Zurich and easily reached by train, boat or car. Now a commuter suburb, it has preserved much of its charm as a former farming village and boasts a strong community culture as well as a wide range of shops and leisure activities.
Firefox
SafariThalwil includes the hamlet of Gattikon and borders on Rüschlikon, Langnau, Oberrieden, Horgen and (across the lake) Erlenbach.
Thalwil blog
Sunday, June 13 : 8:33 PM Lake walk II |
It's been a while since we started our lake walk and we've been eager to keep our momentum. Despite a discouraging weather forecast, we headed to Wollishofen for the second leg of our journey: the lakeside path around the city of Zurich.
The lake is especially accessible and attractive in the Zurich because of the many parks around it; however, especially in Wollishofen, this is somewhat dimished by the large amount of graffiti. We began by passing the "Landiwiese", named after the Swiss National Exhibition held there in 1939. At that time they actually built a cablecar across the lake. However, this has since been dismanted, so we had to continue on foot, past the "Sukkulentensammlung" with its collection of exotic plants, to the water jet which marks the port at Enge.
Passing the port, we entered one of the nicest lakeside parks in Zurich. The Arboretum is named after the Latin word for "tree" and was opened in 1887 as a "tree garden", grouping many different varieties according to species and origin and creating a unique place to enjoy both "science and beauty".
Many of the current lakeside parks were designed on reclaimed land in the last decades of the 19th century. Much of this is owed to the efforts of one man: city engineer Arnold Bürkli (1833-1894), after whom the Bürkliplatz between the Bahnhofstrasse (Zurich's main shopping street) and the lake is named. Nowadays this is a busy junction and little remains of the original 19th-century piazza.
From Bürkliplatz we crossed the Quaibrücke across the Limmat river and continued along the Utoquai. This area offers nice views of the Uetliberg, the landmark hill above Zurich it is named after.
(more soon)
The lake is especially accessible and attractive in the Zurich because of the many parks around it; however, especially in Wollishofen, this is somewhat dimished by the large amount of graffiti. We began by passing the "Landiwiese", named after the Swiss National Exhibition held there in 1939. At that time they actually built a cablecar across the lake. However, this has since been dismanted, so we had to continue on foot, past the "Sukkulentensammlung" with its collection of exotic plants, to the water jet which marks the port at Enge.
Passing the port, we entered one of the nicest lakeside parks in Zurich. The Arboretum is named after the Latin word for "tree" and was opened in 1887 as a "tree garden", grouping many different varieties according to species and origin and creating a unique place to enjoy both "science and beauty".
Many of the current lakeside parks were designed on reclaimed land in the last decades of the 19th century. Much of this is owed to the efforts of one man: city engineer Arnold Bürkli (1833-1894), after whom the Bürkliplatz between the Bahnhofstrasse (Zurich's main shopping street) and the lake is named. Nowadays this is a busy junction and little remains of the original 19th-century piazza.
From Bürkliplatz we crossed the Quaibrücke across the Limmat river and continued along the Utoquai. This area offers nice views of the Uetliberg, the landmark hill above Zurich it is named after.
(more soon)
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