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Category: Zurich Runs

  • Lake Front

    The beauty of a city is often marked by its waters. Lake Zurich is one of the most impressive and probably the most visited. This route follows the shore and reveals a surprising variety.

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    View from Bürkliplatz

    A little History

    The present form of the promenade was completed in 1887. Arnold Bürkli was the chief engineer and gave his name to the place where the start and the end of the route is. New land has been won over many years and at great expense. Among other things, the park Arboretum was created through which the route leads right at the beginning.

    After the park (the route takes a different route through the park on the way back) you reach the small beautiful port of Enge. The route turns at the end of the park Landiwiese. On the way there, the route passes the lido Mythenquai. This is onlyone of three official seaside resorts along this stretch. Seebad Enge (one of the most beautiful in my opinion, the route leads past it on the way back) and Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen are the other two. During the winter months these two facilities are open to the public and you can walk through them. In summer the run must lead around it.

    The other side

    On the way to the other side of the lake, the Quai Bridge offers a breathtaking view of the old town. The route leads along the lake past beautiful villas to Blatterwiese and the China Garden, where the second turning point is located.

    Generally, it must be noted to this route that it has large crowds when the weather is nice. It can be quite exhausting to walk through the crowds. However, this track can also be suitable for hard training, especially during the winter, when everything else is full of snow and ice.

    Route Infos

    • Start – End: Tram Station Bürkliplatz
    • Feasible for hard Trainings: Yeah, if it’s not crowded
    • Altimeter / Difficulty of the running course: Easy

  • Zurich’s local mountain – Üetliberg

    Preparing a trip to Zurich brings you sooner or later to the “house mountain” Üetliberg. The top offers breath taking views over the city of Zurich and its lake. If the weather plays along the glorious vista gets its finish by the glowing Alps in the background.

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    View at City

    The Üetliberg peak belongs clearly to the top attractions in Zurich. My experience is, that Tourists often go to nice places. Unfortunately, they show this behavior in Zurich too, which means it’s crowded. The main reason behind this overfilled situation is the easiness to reach the top. Take the train at the main station. Drive 30 minutes up. Walk 500 meters. There you are.

    If you are more into lonely / exclusive moments, then you have several options to improve the Üetliberg experience:

    • Don’t go up there
    • Choose a bad weather day (hoping for less people)
    • Combine it with a run

    Because you are reading scribaruns and not scribatakesthetrain I recommend you of course the last option.

    Disclaimer: This is a strenuous run and not suitable for beginners, due to the altitude to be overcome. If you are not familiar with the area, please stick to the route, because there’s a path labyrinth, which of course is not dangerous, but may be not as satisfying as it could be.

    The route

    The Üetliberg experience run starts at Zurich’s periphery (Tram / Train Station Triemli). It takes you through longer lonely forested parts, moor landscapes, let’s you overtake heavy breathing downhill bikers looking for their trail all the way up and unifies you in the end with the standard tourist for the last few meters.

    Uetliberg with fog

    The effort will be rewarded immediately by the breath-taking view. I am 100% sure that the enjoyment is much more conscious with the completed distance and altitude. I claim that this impact is so high, that you will enjoy the view even though the weather is not post-card like. Sometimes fog and dark clouds have their own rough beauty.

    If the weather is great you see the swiss alps panorama

    The downhill part brings you again your privacy back and may triggers the feeling, that you are far away from any civilization somewhere in the alps. After enjoying Zurich’s aesthetics from a different angle you may conclude that scribaruns was right, that the combination of diverse nature, beautiful view combined with a challenging altitude run completes the Üetliberg experience to the max.

    Route Infos

  • 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.

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    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