A Visit to the Greifensee!

Fantastic view of Mountains

Heron in the reeds!

Granny with Alessio

While my parents were visiting we did a lovely walk part of the way around the Griefensee. To walk around the lake is 18km which would take roughly 4.5 hours. A bit too much for us, although it would be a great walk!

I drove and we parked very near to the lake at Niederuster from there we walked around to the other side to Maur.

The walk was very pleasant, we walked around a nature protected area for many birds. In fact we saw quite a few storks and some herons. There is a observation station for those people who are more into bird-watching. Since it was Good Friday there were plenty of people walking, jogging and of course on the lake.

Sort of halfway around our walk there is kiosk selling some sandwiches and soup, but we decided to carry on until we reached Maur. We were really in need of a sit down and some yummy food, before we caught a boat back to Niederuster.

That was certainly enough walking for us that day, back to the car and home!

Walks in Au

Wine Museum

Views of Lake Zurich

Au Castle

Farm

Vineyards and a ghost house!

The Au penisula is just a stones throw from where I work and for that reason, we go walking there every week with the kids. I have done a few posts on this area in the past and here is one more!

Well it is not the only reason, I think it is a lovely area to walk in and I enjoy going there. This particular time was at the end of February and it was lovely and sunny. The children know where to run to and wait for the rest of us to catch up. The building in the last photo is what the kids seem to call a ghost house, not sure how that rumor got started.

There are great views of Lake Zurich and if you want to keep fit you can certainly find paths that go uphill.

Walk Around Lake Pfäffikon

Mountains in the distance

Roman Ruins

Jucker Farm

Church at Seegräben

Looking at Pfäffikon

On the last weekend that my parents were visiting we decided to go for a walk and combine a visit to Jucker farm since my parents had never been there yet. I drove to Pfäffikon and parked at the train station and we wondered down to the lake to begin our walk. It is about 10km to walk around the whole lake and should take about 2.5 hours but we of course stopped for a while in the farm.

It was quite busy by the lake with lots of people enjoying the sun and some were renting the rowing boats. I remember that I did that with Alessio went he was a quite small on this lake. The walk goes inland after 20mins or so and you pass a roman ruin which was once a fortress, in a place called Irgenhausen.

Passing lots of fields, a small stream and a badi we finally see in the distance Jucker farm and you can tell that it is the right place as you can see the pumpkin exhibits. We stopped there for 1.5 hours and continued on our walk, while at the farm we bought two small bottles of pumpkin secco and after leaving we found a place to stop and have a drink. It tasted very nice and if I go back will buy another bottle.

We saw a few jetties where there were people lying enjoying the sun and having maybe a lazy day, this part of the lake seemed to be covered in lily pads.

Finally back in Pfäffikon again Alessio played at a playground for a bit, it is hard to pass a playground and not let him play for a while. My parents wondered up the road to look at the church where lo and behold there was a wedding apero going on.

I will post the photos of Jucker farm on another post, it is always lovely to see this place.

A Scottish Walk

The last Sunday of our holiday in Scotland we went for a walk with my parents, my sister, Liam and Jamie. We drove to just outside Falkland village to the Craigmead car park, our walk would descend through Maspie Den back into the village via the Yad waterfall around 3 miles.

We passed by East Lomond Hill on our way down and had great views on the countryside, the boys are great fun just running in front of everyone. Eventually it gets to be quite muddy and we descended down to the waterfall, carefully trying not to fall. It was quite busy and the paths were quite narrow, once at the waterfall you can walk behind them and we all got our photos taken.

We continued down the path which it did kind of criss-cross back and forth over the Maspie burn, we came across come nice wooden bridges.

Then we came to a tunnel, the boys collected many sticks to amuse themselves, we noticed that lots of trees had been uprooted, I guess there had been many storms this spring.

We then walked through the Falkland Estate and into the village where we headed off to find a cafe for our well deserved refreshments.

A lovely way to finish our holiday as the next day we headed back to Zurich, next time we are in Scotland will be Christmas.

Winter Scenes

The snow has come and gone over these winter months but it has been here with a vengeance for the last week. Do not get me wrong I like the snow but after a while I am quite happy when it goes, it was lovely to see everything covered.

On Thursday we went walking with the kids from work, it was lovely to see the area all full of snow. I walk here nearly every week, but I never tire from seeing the same place again and again. The Au peninsula is always a great place to walk, the kids had so much fun with the snow. From throwing snowballs to sliding down and rolling around it was all fun!

There is always lots of people walking in all types of weather and when the weather is warmer it is just nice to sit and enjoy the view.

I am glad to be taking photos again, having had my camera stolen while I was in Munich, I realise that I usually take lots of photos. I another reason that I am happy to have bought another one is that when I am in Hong Kong there will be lots of photos taken!