Zurich - Insel-Ligerz Swim

Village of Ligerz

My next challenge after Sempach was the Insel-Ligerz swim. The plan was for me to work my way up to a 3km swim from Untermatt to Weggis on 17th August, since the furthest I’ve ever swum crawl is probably around 2km and I want to test my abilities.

The Insel-Ligerz swim is one swim of 1.1km followed by a 2.1km swim one hour later. You can choose to take part in either one of the swims or both swims; if you do both swims, it’s counted as a 3.2km swim. My reasoning was that if I could do both swims without feeling exhausted, I’d probably be able to manage the straight 3km swim. This was the first event I’ve attended where there was an official timing of participants.

I also noticed that it was part of the Swiss Open Water cup, inaugurated this year, which gives you points for each Swiss lake swim you complete that’s on their calendar, and then extra points if you place; there are also awards for different age categories. I signed up for it (it was free), but with the weather as it now is, it’s unlikely I’ll do any other swims. My previous swims weren’t on their list and so didn’t count.

I left Zurich just after midday on Friday to overnight in Biel beforehand, so that I didn’t have to rush the next day. Biel is one of those places in Switzerland that is truly bilingual, so everything is in German and French (eg, Biel/Bienne). It’s always a bit of anticipation as to whether the person that’s about to speak to you will do so in French or German. I initially wondered how they chose to put German first on all the signage since F for French comes before G for German, so you’d think it would be the other way round. However, on further deliberation, I realized that in both French (Allemand, Francais) and German (Deutsch, Franzoesisch), German actually comes first alphabetically. Question answered!

It was a beautiful day, so I walked along the Taubengracht, which I’d read about online. It’s a walk by a gorge and it’s really quite unexpected as you don’t expect it to be there in the middle of the city. It’s not a long walk, maybe 30 minutes to an hour depending on how many photos you want to take. As usual, there was a barbecue facility half-way through if you wanted to grill your dinner in the countryside. It was a beautiful walk and ended up at an equally pretty café / hotel, where I stopped and treated myself to a banana split.

It wasn’t so easy to find your way out at the other end; I finally made it to a bus stop which actually said it wasn’t being serviced, but the bus stopped, so I was fine. I’m not sure what I’d have done otherwise – maybe walk all the way back?

Biel itself wasn’t anything special, but I was very happy with my hotel which had all the UK TV channels (that’s pretty unusual!), a great buffet breakfast (which included baked beans – also unusual!), and tea and coffee making facilities. It was close to where the ships left to go to Ligerz (and close to the railway station), so it was ideal for my purposes.

I had to check out by 11am, so I decided to take the earlier boat to Ligerz (cost covered by the swimming participation fee). It was cloudy and raining in the morning and I started to fret that I would be the only person there; I wasn’t going to back out because of the rain.

However, it cleared up as the day progressed. As we approached Ligerz, I could see the buoys for the swim already in place across the lake. It was quite exciting! Getting off the boat, the swim was well-signposted, so I got there with no problem and got myself kitted out with my number and wrist tag.

I took the spare time to look round Ligerz which was extremely old and pretty but very small (it’s just a village); there were steps leading up the hill where you could see all the vines growing, but I didn’t want to wear myself out before the swim. In retrospect, I wish I’d done it, as I think the view from up there is stunning, having seen some photographs.

The thing I found most disconcerting was that they didn’t have any changing areas; they had toilets, a large tent to store belongings, food tents, but no changing rooms. I had to hide behind a tent to get into my costume, but I wasn’t alone and it wasn’t unisex behind that tent!

The first, 1.1km swim was from St Petersinsel to Ligerz, so you had to wear life vests as boats took you across in groups of about 12. I had been thinking to go over early, but I’m glad I didn’t as there was nothing there. We were dropped off at a place that was stony underfoot (yuk!). I went into the water beforehand to test the temperature and it turned out that there were more rocks under the water and then deep masses of algae or something. It was quite disgusting underfoot. I’m glad I went out as it would have taken me ten minutes just to get started otherwise.

It was obligatory to wear your own “auffallende Badekappe”, by which I think they really meant a bright, easily-visible swimming cap. However, “auffallend” means striking or noticeable or remarkable, so it was a bit open to interpretation. I saw some people wearing checkered caps, others wearing caps in the shape of an animal with scales sticking out of them. I had been worried if mine was bright enough, but since it had the slogan “what do swimmers think about?” with a picture of a roast chicken in a thought bubble, I decided that this did indeed qualify as “auffallend”.

Just as we were about to start, a family of ducks sauntered across the starting line, so we all had to wait. And then we were off; the timing wasn’t so strict since as we got to “Go!”, some swimmers were still on the shore and others, like me, had already waded out quite a bit. I felt nervous even though I do this distance of swimming almost every day.

On arrival, there was one person pressing a button when you arrived (which was presumably recording the time somewhere), another two people were writing down your number and your rank. To my surprise, an audience was cheering everyone in and shouting “Hop, Hop!” (that’s a Swiss cheer of encouragement) as each person reached the finishing line. It was a nice way to feel truly part of it.

Then, an hour later, they started the 2.1 km swim which was to the island and back (it’s an archipelago and not a true island, by the way). There were fewer people in this swim, and fewer again doing the full 3.2km. With each increase in distance, the level of swimming was also better, so my ranking got progressively worse. Among the women 3.2km swimmers, I came in last! There were some 2.1 km swimmers behind me, though, and one male 3.2km swimmer slower than me. Still, as a test run it was successful and although I was more tired than just on the single 2.1km at Sempach, I wasn’t absolutely exhausted.

It was a bit of a rush to get the boat back to Biel; I grabbed my prize for completing (upgrading from the Zurich plastic cup, to the Sempach towel, and now in Ligerz to a full-sized bottle of local wine!). In my rush, I left my swimming goggles behind, but when I emailed afterwards to ask if they had them, they sent them back to me by post. Sometimes Switzerland is truly wonderful!

Unfortunately, after that day, the days became colder and the lakes cooled down. In the end, it was ruled that, for the 3km Weggis swim that I’d been working my way up to, you had to wear a wetsuit for safety reasons (preventing hypothermia); the lake temperature was forecast to be 18.5 degrees or less. So, after all that, I never did the swim I truly wanted to do! But I had a lot of fun along the way all the same.

Zurich - Sempachersee Ueberquerung

Exiting After the Swim

I thought I’d make the most of my last opportunity (maybe) to swim across various lakes in Switzerland. It’s a good way to explore places I wouldn’t otherwise go to.

So, I’ve done two extra lake swims so far – one was at Sempach, which was 2.1km (it was not easy to find the information, but the swim was from Nottwil to Sempach). It took place on August 1st, which is Swiss National Day and thus a bank holiday. This year, it was on a Thursday. Consequently, I went down after work on Wednesday and stayed in a hotel by Sempach station (confusingly sometimes called Sempach Station and sometimes called Neukirch).

The hotel was good although the open-plan bathroom was a bit disconcerting. I felt I had to shut the curtains each time I wanted to go to the toilet so as not to be seen by people in the flats opposite! I’m not sure what the designer was thinking, but maybe you can’t actually be seen from the outside. I wasn’t going to risk such humiliation, though.

After I’d checked in to my hotel, I walked around for ages trying to find out where the swim would start from. I found the local Strandbad (beach lido), which to my astonishment was not a paid area like it is in Zurich, but just a free area along the lake with sand and where you can swim; they also had some barbecue areas (this is very Swiss, they are very fond of installing free-to-use barbecue areas). But this wasn’t the starting place for the swim.

I found out in the end that I had to get the bus to get there and that last year all the buses had been full because it had been an exceptionally hot summer with the most ever participants, so I started to stress about which bus to get. I decided I couldn’t afford to cut it fine, so I had to get up early (for me) and get the earlier bus and arrive early. Then I stressed about whether I’d need the toilet if I’d just eaten.

The swim was similar but slightly different from Zurich (and had only around 575 people). This time, you got a red and white swimming cap to wear (out of some strange material) and, to my surprise, you had to return it afterwards. Your number was written on ink on your hand rather than on your cap to identify you and your luggage, and you also wore an electronic armband that was supposed to register you starting and finishing. You could leave valuables and rucksacks there and there were changing rooms (and toilets) available.

We were all taken by bus to Nottwil at the other side of the lake (Sempach lake) where toilets were again available. I now decided to worry about the actual swim and I had to keep on telling myself that I could do it and that I mustn’t panic. Although there were some foreigners there, it was very Swiss and all the instructions were relayed in Swiss German. We all waited at the water’s edge until given the go-ahead to start and off we swam. As usual, the swim was marked with buoys and rescue boats.

The water was a good temperature, so I didn’t have a sense of shock when I entered and I could see the other side, which was comforting. Towards the end of the swim, if I focused on it, I could feel that my arms had been working, but I didn’t feel exhausted; it took me about 55 minutes to swim the 2.1km.

We had to queue in the water while we waited to exit; it was quite cold as you stood in the water, although everyone was patient and polite and there was no pushing to go up the steps first. A representative from the organisation shook each person’s hand individually and congratulated you while calling out your number so that they could log that you had arrived. 

Your reward for completing the swim was a towel, so better than the plastic cup that I got in Zurich. After collecting the towel, there was also someone there cutting off your electronic armband and another to collect your swimming cap (hence the queue with all these people to pass through on your way out). It was almost like being in Egypt again with all these people allocated to different tasks.

Of course, there was the standard steaming cup of bouillon awaiting you once you’d got through all that. A warm snack (something cheesy, I think), a soft drink, and a small bar of chocolate were also provided by the sponsors. You are always very well looked after at these events.

I spent the rest of the day exploring Sempach, which isn’t very large. It’s a pretty town and there’s a large bird sanctuary just a bit further up the lake towards the station. I started walking along the lake towards the bird sanctuary and there was a group of people on SUPs (stand up paddles) with dogs on them too wearing life jackets (the dogs, that is!). It looked most bizarre and one of the dogs kept on jumping into the water and they had to keep on trying to haul him back on! I’m not sure what they were doing, but perhaps they were training the dogs as rescue dogs? I have no idea!

After amusing myself watching them for a while, I continued on to the bird sanctuary. I still find it bizarre that so many Swiss Badi (lidos) have some form of aviary or bird sanctuary attached to them (eg, Seebach and Enge in Zurich, for example, and now this at Sempach). Anyway, it seemed that Sempach was quite well known for its bird sanctuary, so I paid the entrance fee and did the tour of the exhibition on birds; it was well laid out and I stopped and had a diet Coke in their cafeteria before getting the bus back to the station and getting the train back to Zurich.

All in all, it made for a good trip out for a day; it’s not really worth doing just for seeing Sempach, but if you’re doing the swim, it’s fun to see somewhere you wouldn’t otherwise go!

Zurich - Trip to Pilatus

View From Fräkmüntegg - and Dark Skies Overhead

Pilatus is one of the must-see things to do in Switzerland, so I couldn’t leave Switzerland without giving Idette the opportunity to go there.

Again, getting the tickets is a bit complicated, because although I could see the RailAway deal on the internet, I wasn’t really sure how to get all the various bits of the journey correct (it involves getting a train, the steepest cogwheel railway in the world, a cable car and a gondola) or how to get it without committing to a specific time of travel. You can also get a boat if you like, but it adds several hours to the journey.

Anyway, we got our tickets the day before from the station and the woman serving us was very helpful and took my half-fare card into account and my existing travel pass for my zone and Central Zurich area. And she ensured we got the ticket that would have the correct forms of travel and allow us flexibility of when to travel. Phew.

Our travels all went smoothly, although we got a little lost in Kriens trying to find the cable car to go up, but it gave us a walk among the hills, so it was good for us. There were a number of Japanese tourists there, so we had to queue a little to exchange our tickets for tickets for the gondola in order to have the bar codes to let us in through the automatic gates. Impressively, a man was there cleaning the gondolas as they came into the station. This is Switzerland.

We ascended the first part of the mountain until we got to Fräkmüntegg (there’s a Swiss word for you!!). From here, we were supposed to take the cable car up to the top, but the mountain was covered in mist. It was so unfortunate! We decided to eat lunch at the restaurant there, while we still had a view of some kind, and in the hope that the mist would clear in the mean time.

There was an adventure park right just as you got out at Fräkmüntegg station, so the first thing you see is people walking along a tightrope above the massive drop below. It looks scary and impressive! Although it was misty, it wasn’t cold, so we were able to eat our lunch outside. For the first time, I had a very Swiss lunch of Roesti with fried egg on top! It’s making me feel hungry again just writing about it.

The mist didn’t move, but we took the cable car up to the top anyway, but visibility was literally nil. We watched a film, so that Idette could see what she was missing, and I think we had a snack before taking the cogwheel train down.

The cogwheel train is the steepest in the world and it’s one of those crazy ideas that someone has and then goes ahead and does while everyone scoffs saying that it’s impossible and won’t work and then succeeds and becomes a roaring success (in Egypt, that’s like El Gouna). Given the bad weather conditions, the train was still quite full. Going down, we were quickly out of the mist again and it’s amazing as you travel through the mountain at some points and you just have the bare mountain rock either side. It’s incredible how they ever excavated through it.

The upside of Pilatus being misty was that we had some time to look round Lucerne (the Chapel bridge, the old town, and the church, which actually I’d never seen before) and to have some coffee and cake.

Despite the less than optimal weather, it still made a wonderful and varied day out!

Zurich - Trip to the Rhine Falls

Approaching the Rhine Falls by Boat

I had the pleasure of a visit from Idette towards the end of July. Since I’m moving back to Egypt in October, this may be the last time that she’ll have the opportunity to visit me in Switzerland (although I ended up back in Switzerland last time I moved to Egypt, so who knows what the future holds).

When I visited Idette last year, I mentioned that I was thinking of maybe moving to Schaffhausen, so I decided that this would be a good place to take her (so that she could see what might have been). Also, on thinking of your typical image of Switzerland, it has to be mountains and lakes, and although we’d taken a boat – sorry, ship, they get quite annoyed if you call them boats - on Lake Zurich before, we hadn’t really seen any Swiss mountains together. Therefore, I thought a trip to Pilatus may be in order.

I’ve done both of these trips before, but it was so long ago now that it’s actually pre-blog. Consequently, it’s maybe worth splitting up the trips into two blogs, as both places are well worth a visit.

The day of Idette’s arrival was a perfect summer’s day.

It’s easy to get to Schaffhausen, as it’s a direct train from my local station and takes about 50 minutes. However, I forgot to look up the route that the train takes. You might think that if it’s a direct train, why would I need to be bothered by the route? Well, in Switzerland, the ticket system is really complicated. You try to buy a train ticket to Schaffhausen from the machine and it will give you two options for tickets depending on which route you are taking or it asks you if you want a day pass for a whole load of zones instead. Well, I had no idea which way the train went and I had no idea what all those zones were that the machine was listing. I just wanted to get the train that goes to Schaffhausen from my station. Why should that be so difficult? In my hurry to get the train, I plumped for the ticket listing all the zones, but I think it was three times the cost of what I needed to pay, actually, and the zones covered a far greater area than where we were going! Lesson learned, but it’s a bit late now. I don’t know why they have to make it so complicated.

Anyway, I shouldn’t dwell on this as the day was superb (even though I say so myself!). We wandered round the old town a bit and had a coffee and cake (always a good idea). Idette’s husband had informed her that there was an IWC museum in Schaffhausen (Gerard, I think I remember you buying a IWC watch once and Paulo commenting that you’d spent your bonus early!); watches are obviously a guy thing. I’d never been there, so we went to visit that – of course, if you aren’t horrendously rich, some of them are just out-of-this-world expensive, but the older ones with the fancy casings were interesting to look at and I could appreciate the work gone into them. The pieces are tiny! It takes you through the history of the watch design, so it’s actually quite absorbing. I teased Idette that she should buy one for her husband, but if he was hoping for one, he didn’t get it (unless she bought one at the airport!).

We then walked along the Rhine to the Rhine Falls. There was some construction going on, so we got a bit lost at first as we couldn’t get to the footpath as directly as I had done before. However, we managed. It’s a great place for a stroll as you have the Rhine to your left and some beautiful private properties to your right; you can see the river getting gradually more and more turbulent the closer you get to the waterfall. Also, after the town, it was a bit cooler down by the river, which was a pleasant respite.

And then, lo and behold, at the end of the walk, you turn a corner and there are the Rhine Falls. The surprise was spoiled a bit as you see them already from the train as you go to Schaffhausen, but it’s still a lovely prize for having walked that far and it’s always something else to be right beside them. The Rhine Falls is the largest waterfall in Europe, at least in terms of breadth.

The Falls were gushing pretty hard when we were there; I guess the summer heat was melting all the ice. There’s a load of spray in the air and, of course, the thunderous noise of the water crashing down en masse. We took one of the boats that take you along the river and under the Falls. As you travel further down the river, the land on the left is Germany and the land on the right is Switzerland. How cool is that?

To my surprise, there must be good Swiss-German collaboration, because our Swiss boat picked up a group of swimmers from a German beach further up the river. They stayed on the boat with us while it went under the Rhine Falls (then you really can feel the spray from the water and actually you can’t see much because it’s just a mist of water droplets), which is exhilarating as you can sense the danger of getting too close; one woman on our boat seemed to be really enjoying it and just laughed the whole time. On coming out from the waterfall, the boat then let the swimmers jump into the water so that they could swim all the way back to their beach. What a fun thing to do! It really made me want to live in that area.

We had perfect weather the whole day and in the evening we had the open-air cinema booked by the lake (VIP tickets). I’ve already written about the open-air cinema before, but there are some new things, so I think I’ll combine that at some later point into a blog of three open-air cinema visits that I’ve done recently.

But it was a fun day out!