Scribaruns

Privacy Policy

Category: Main Station

  • Limmat River Run

    Limmat river run offers its own variety within Zurich’s variety (From City to Nature, from easy to intense and from short to long all year long).

    Download GPX File

    Use Strava

    Limmat close to Escher Wyss Square

    The beauty of running is its purity. You only need a pair of shoes and some kind of space and the journey can start. With that in mind you only have two “set screws” to influence your running experience. One is the environment of your “space” and the other one is your mindset itself. Both of them have factors which are only hard influenceable (e.g. rainy weather, heat or bad mood), but there are some, namely the choice of the route.

    Even if you get the feeling during the run, that this route is the most beautiful and perfect one, it can be different the next day. The priorities change from day to day and from training to training. In my opinion, there is only one route with the potential to claim to be the best route: Limmat River Run.

    Limmat very “rural”

    Limmat River

    Limmat is the biggest river flowing through Zurich. It starts right at the end of Lake Zurich in the middle of the city center. On both sides of the river you will find a path for pedestrians and cyclists. Starting from lake Zurich it’s may be disrupted by streets or other obstacles. But starting from Escher-Wyss Square direction Dietikon / Baden you will find one of the best running routes you can imagine. The scenery is breath taking and very diverse (from city to nature, with forests, island, dams, monastery, many bridges, great views and much more).

    On the left-hand side (looking in the direction of the water flow) you find a wide and flat path. It is optimal for very hard and / or long training units. On the right-hand side you have a more trail like path, which is suitable to run as well, but it’s a little bit hillier with single trail parts. You could run a half-marathon all in all, starting from Escher-Wyss Square and turning in Dietikon. If you don’t like to run this far or you don’t know yet how far you want to go, there are each two to three kilometers a bridge, where you can cross the river and head back on the other side.

    Jetty close to limmat

    Why I like this route

    I personally like the paths along Limmat, because of nature’s beauty and many route variants (e.g. route descriptions “Hönggerberg – Above the Roof Tops”, but also the fact, that it allows you to run all year through. During winter time the days with snow and ice are very rare and during summer time you can enjoy a refreshing bath after the run e.g. on Werdinsel in the publicly open river bath.

    Option: Starting from Escher Wyss Square:

    Download GPX File

    Use Strava

    Route Infos

  • Zurich Tourist: Old to New

    Not interested in the standard tourist paths? You already finished the first page of Tripadvisor tips and don’t know what to do? I’ll show you the real Zurich.

    Download GPX File

    Use Strava

    Zurich West

    Maybe you had the chance to visit the gorgeous city center, eventually leaded by my “power tourist” route. Hopefully you could fill you backpack with beautiful pictures; many new impressions combined with good weather and are astonished about the busy masses of people.

    But the city center of Zurich is mainly used for business, shopping and tourists. Ok, many people live in the city, but most of the people do not live in Zurich’s very center (around Bahnhofstrasse) at all. Asking travelers what they like about travelling, you often get the answer to get in contact with locals and experience their way of life. Apart of the meaning of this statement, some say this will be difficult to achieve with swiss people and for sure not easier in the center of Zurich.

    I only can give you suggestions for a route with a different perspective of the city. A route showing you hip areas and places where people really live.

    Viadukt

    The route

    Starting from national museum you enjoy a path built on decommissioned rail tracks (cheap version of NY’s high line) after running through the former train station Letten. If you are interested in near past, this was the sadly famous international known open drug scene during the 90’s. Today it is a vibrant and mostly crowded hip public river bath. Feel free to jump in for a short cool down during hot summer days.

    Industry Quarter

    Next high light is the former industry quarter, which is partly converted (e.g. Puls5) with integrating old structures and keeping the old charm or replaced by high-rises (Prime Tower) and new parks.

    On the opposite of the many tracks is a very nice residential area which changed during the last few years dramatically (traffic re-routings, opening new cafés, restaurants, bars and chilling squares (e.g. Idaplatz).

    I personally like this route, because it’s full of history and shows a future oriented development of my city. Maybe it appears a little bit boring for a cosmopolitan (especially the “sky-scrapers” part), but I think the diversity within this small area from old to new, from touristy to hip makes it worthwhile to visit.

    Route Infos

    • Start – End: Zurich Main Station
    • Feasible for hard Trainings: No
    • Altimeter / Difficulty of the running course: Easy

  • Power Tourist

    This route is for all with the motto “been there done that”. Within no time you cover the most important sights from Zurich.

    Download GPX File

    Use Strava

    Gross Münster

    The Idea behind this route is mainly to catch the famous beauty of Zurich. The main reason why tourists come to Zurich. Even I know roughly what the top spots in Zurich are, I started a quick research about Zurich as I would do, when I visit a new town. Asking Google about the “Top 10 sights in Zurich” gives me the number one result from Tripadvisor with “The 15 best things to do in Zurich” back.

    I am not a big fan of this website because it’s always somehow cumbersome. No difference this time:  I spontaneously have some questions using the website: Why do I have to scroll down one third of the page to reach the promised “Top things to do” and why do the underlying pictures do not match with the attraction title? Why do the website lists 30 things to do while promoting 15?

    Polybahn

    The sights

    First things first Museums (Zoo is also some kind of museum) I didn’t consider. Anyways, let’s focus on the proposed sights and start with the only four sights which are not covered by the route. Bad for me the number one suggestion “Uetliberg Mountain” is not part of the power tourist route. Good for me, that I designed a very own route for it. Also covered by a special route is the “Parkanlage Zurichhorn”. The two funiculars (Dolderbahn & Seilbahn Rigiblick) are substituted with the much more scenic “Polybahn” just before the finish line. You may have to wait for a while to see it running over the bridge from Central to ETH. All the remaining suggested tips are covered by this route (see the list below).

    Schanzengraben

    And if you are not yet convinced I can add even more points of interests e.g. the footbridge along the “Schanzengraben”, which was part of the old town defence, the “Paradeplatz”, home of the big swiss banks or the “Schipfe”, a special path along the Limmat river. Anyways after finishing it’s for sure, that you can tick the Zurich as a tourist bucket list item.

    Sightseeing Bucketlist:
    • Lake Zurich
    • Old Town
    • Lindenhofplatz
    • Lindenhof
    • Limmat
    • Hauptbahnhof
    • Opernhaus Zurich
    • Niederdorf
    • Botanical Garden (old)
    • Limmatquai
    • Seebad Enge
    • Bahnhofstrasse
    • Fraumünster
    • Grossmünster
    • Bürkliplatz
    • Bellevue Square
    • St. Peter Church

    Route Infos

    • Start – End: Zurich Main Station
    • Feasible for hard Trainings: No
    • Altimeter / Difficulty of the running course: Easy