Walk along the Limmat and Aare Rivers from Turgi to Böttstein

Sunday June 7, 2026 -- Due to a family engagement on Saturday, we didn't do a hike that day, and on Sunday, did not want to start too early. So we decided for a change to do a riverside walk, and preferably at a location where we didn't have to travel too far.

We chose to start in the town of Turgi near Brugg in Canton Aargau, at the location called the "Wasserschloss" where three of Switzerland's major rivers (Reuss, Limmat and Aare) join and continue from there as the Aare River to join the Rhine River at Koblenz about 20 kilometers further north.

After a 90-minute trip from home, we started in Turgi at noon, and walked 10 kilometers down-river, first along the Limmat, then the Aare, on nice narrow paths through pastures and forests, past a rice plantation (experimental) and the large Paul Scherer Research Institut, several power plants and an interesting lock on the river where a kayak had just passed through. Best of all was a pond with the loudest croaking frogs--I could have stayed there all day. 

Worst of all was our plan to end at a castle we saw on the map, accessed (supposedly) by some old paths from the riverside, which turned out to be absolutely overgrown with blackberries.... we chose to scramble up the bank instead of making a large detour, which was dangerous and we got all scratched up and didn't have time to look at the castle anyway, or we would have missed the hourly bus... 

As the train from Zurich heads toward Brugg, we follow the Limmat River quite closely. The Limmat is the river which flows out of Lake Zurich and through the city of Zurich, to join the Aare River in Turgi, where we are headed. 

Start of our walk at the train station in Turgi, at noon. I am thrilled that the linden trees are now starting to blossom and the smell is lovely!

Along the way till the point where the Limmat enters the Aare River (as well as along the Reuss through Brugg) are these placards with information about the development of industry along these rivers, a very important transportation node in the 19th Century. This trail (in blue) has the official name of "Industrial-Cultural Trail". 

A point of interest for us is always these wooden covered bridges. This bridge over the Limmat River was built in 1921 using remaining beams from the original private bridge which was built here in 1845, replacing a ferry that crossed the river at the time. A total restoration was done in 2014 and 2015.  

Urs walking over the wooden bridge to the right shore (north side here) of the Limmat River. 

Next we came to the railway bridge which connects Turgi to Koblenz (where the Aare River enters the Rhine). This and the other railway bridge over the Reuss River (toward Brugg), where it enters the Aare River, are two of the oldest railway bridges in Switzerland, built in 1856 and 1859 of natural stone. Despite increases in speed and weight of trains since then, the bridges still hold strong. (We crossed under the Turgi-Brugg bridge on a hike in May 2021; in particular here is a photo of the other railway bridge --> HERE). 

In a bend in the river (now heading north) we look over to the other side which is a type of peninsula at the north end of which the Limmat joins the Aare River, and almost directly across on the other side is where the Reuss enters the Aare River. What's interesting to us is that we walked all around this peninsula on the May 2021 outing, and we actually walked between those houses across the way. 

Back in May 2021, we walked along the trail on the other side of the river! Here is a photo of what this spillway looks like from that side --> HERE. 

VIDEO:

I love the sound of the rushing water!

(Spillway on the Limmat River near where it enters the Aare River). 

Now the trail follows a bend in the river heading north, and we have some really nice paths. 

This was a bit of a surprise: There is an experimental rice plantation here, where I caught sight of a beautiful blue heron at the far end. I wonder if it's really a suitable climate for this crop, as it needs a lot of water. There was a large pipe pumping a lot of water into the pond. 

Passing one of many power plants in this region. It is directly across from this site where the Limmat enters the Aare River (Limmatspitz). Unfortunately the access to the river was via a detour on a paved road, which we didn't want to follow. But we had walked all the way to the Limmatspitz on our May 2021 hike. 

Far up ahead on the other side of the river on a hill is a village called Vorderrein with this interesting church steeple showing above the trees. 

Lovely fields of grain, with a splash of colour. 

We had just crossed this field heading back to the riverside... 

Back at the river now... this is now the Aare River which we are now following. 

Nice forest trails. 

Along the way is a fortress ruins called "Burgruine Freudenau". The fortress was built in 1240 by Graf Rudolf IVth of Habsburg, and together with a bridge over the river here, it became a very important transportation node at the time. (An unusual location for a fortress). The heydey lasted only a few decades. The fortress was destroyed in 1410 by a troup from Zurich. Now it is a lovely picnic spot for families. We got here at 13:10, but continued on. 

We finally found a bench for our picnic lunch at 13:20, 10 minutes past the ruins. (We could have stopped at the site of the Freudenau ruins as there were many picnic tables there, but the family were kicking a soccer-ball onto the stone walls, and I don't like the noise). 

It was hard to get a nice shot of the lovely trees on the other side of the river!

At this bridge over the Aare River is the site of the Paul Scherer Research Institute on both sides of the river. This institute is the largest research institute for natural and engineering sciences in Switzerland. It employs 2500 people and welcomes about 3000 visiting scientists from all around the world. 

Further north past the PSI site, we came to the best part of the hike, reeds, and later a small pond with loads of frogs!

In this pond there was a huge noise of croaking frogs! We spent a long time here looking for them. 

Look at the cheeks on that frog!

VIDEO:

What a loud noise of frogs croaking in this pond!

VIDEO 2:

I didn't catch the frogs on this video, but the noise is much louder!

On a small rise we could see up the river. 

Here at the Axpo Nuclear Power plant (KKW Beznau) which is located on an island, we had to cross to the left side of the Aare River, by first crossing this interesting bridge on the right, and then over a dam on the left. 

Interesting entrance to the bridge!

Crossing the bridge from the right bank of the Aare River to the island where the KKW Beznau Nuclear Power Plant is located 

Across the river at Böttstein we can see the castle and castle church which we want to visit before taking the bus back from there. It looks easy enough to get up to from the riverside path. 

I love the blue herons, especially in flight. 

And now we cross the dam to the left side of the river, from where we continue northwards. 

At the far end of the dam there were several people staring down past the walls. We discovered that there was a lock here, where boats could bypass the dam! A small kayak with two people had just passed through the lock, and we missed it by a few minutes. This would have been very interesting to watch. 

Right about here on the left would have been the official trail up to the main road at the level of the castle. But we would then have had to do a very long stretch on the main road. Our map showed three different trails up from this lakeside path, and we wanted to head up any of the three. 

This was the third path according to our map, along a small stream, as the other two were not visible at all. We have often tried out these old trails, and even with some overgrowth, we usually get through. But this time the trail just stopped at a point where there was a sign that said "trail closed" and the sign was overgrown with blackberries. Returning to the river meant a longer detour, so we clambered up a 20-meter bank overgrown with blackberries, and made it to the bus in time, but all scratched up and bleeding. 

This is the map on which we saw the three trails up to the castle. Only the yellow-marked trails can be trusted, but we have often walked the old trails marked as dotted lines. This time though, heading north, the first two trails were non-existent, and on the third trail we made it about half-way up along the stream, but then clambered up through blacberries to the trail at the blue arrow, and returned to the castle from there. It probably would have taken less time to do the detour further north. 

We got to the Böttstein castle bus stop at 15:53. The bus was to arrive at 15:57, but the chapel was close by, so I sprinted over there to have a look. (We had hoped the castle had a restaurant, then we would have skipped the hourly bus and stopped here for refreshments). In my hurry to get to the chapel, I forgot to look into the castle courtyard! 

The inside of the little Böttstein Castle Church was worth seeing. 

Other side of the lovely inside of the castle church. The chapel was built in 1617 and displays both Late Renaissance and Early Baroque design. 

Heading back to the bus stop at the main road where Urs was waiting for me. I made it back in "plenty" of time, but a bit sweaty because I ran!

A look back at the Böttstein Chapel. , which is very popular for weddings. The castle, also built 1615-1617, now functions as a country inn (or so it said on one Internet site). According to the community website, the castle grounds (and castle? not sure) are open to visit during the week. 

These are the hikes we have done in the area around Brugg and Turgi. We did a really nice walk around the entire Wasserschloss area (i.e. where the three rivers Aare, Limmat and Reuss meet up) back in May 2021.

On the way back home, we took the train on the Lenzburg-Rotkreuz line, which follows the Reuss River. 

Location of Brugg/Turgi within Switzerland. 

Map of our hike from Turgi to Böttstein along the Limmat and Aare Rivers. We started in Turgi at noon, and caught the 15:57 bus in Böttstein. (As the bus there runs only once an hour, we didn't want to wait for the next one, but as usual, were very tight with our arrival there).  

Aeuli Gorge near Lichtensteig in the Toggenburg Region

Friday June 5th, 2026 -- It was only going to be a bit nice in the afternoon this day, so we did not plan a big hike. Instead we went to visit a friend in Mogelsberg in the Toggenburg reagion east of Lake Zurich. Since this is quite close to the Kägi Cookie Factory in Lichtensteig in the Thur River Valley (where I had hiked to Wattwil via this cookie factory back in November 2025), we decided to stop there again on the way home, to buy our favourite cookies. (And as it turns out--since this often happens with the few things I actually enjoy--they don't make my favourite cookies anymore... or so the ladies at the shop told me).

To make a bit of a walk out of this afternoon, we headed first from the Lichtensteig train station to a small and locally-known gorge of which I had seen a couple of videos on the Internet, where you can access a pretty waterfall via a very narrow passage through cliffs made of Molass Rocks. As we would never make a trip here for just this short walk, it was a good idea to add this on to today's outing. And to finish off, we walked up to the cookie factory. 

It was quite interesting to squeeze through the passage between the cliffs, but because of recent heavy rains, the trail was very slippery and steep in places. And due to a lot of water from the falls, we could not cross onto the popular rocky beach. But it was worth this detour in any case. 

This is how the day started out on our trip into the Toggenburg

Toggenburg countryside near Brunnadern at 9:40 a.m.

After our visit and lunch with our friends, we took the train to Lichtensteig, which lies on the Thur River near Wattwil. (This is a poor photo... I took much nicer photos on my November 2025 walk along the railway bridge at this exact place. See this photo--> HERE). 

At 2 p.m. we started on our short walk here at the train station in Lichtensteig. (Although the school children had boarded the train with us in Mogelsberg, and gotten out here as well, they luckily did not walk the way we were going!)

Strictly walking time is only 45 minutes for this short walk near the tour river. But starting at 2 p.m., we then caught the bus across from the Chocolate Cookie factory at about 3:15 p.m, with the 20 minutes which we spent in the little gorge. 

Cute little house along the way. This looks like it might once have been a train station!

We are walking on the west side of the Thur River, and this is the view of the village of Lichtensteig on the east side of the river. (I did not take a detour to that church at the time, as it looked too modern). 

Unfortunately we had a long stretch uphill on a paved road, not my favourite kind of walking, although at least the sun wasn't burning down! In the circle on the left is a picture of what Urs is look at on the hill above the road. 

Another good look at the row of houses along the main street in Lichtensteig. The road is on the other side, and this is the riverside view, although the river is quite a ways below. 

Another cute house and garden. 

Down below us is the road and the railway line, and up ahead we can see the bridge which we have to cross over them, and just beyond that is the little gorge we are going to have a look at. 

View from the bridge to the south. We came up past that house on the right. 

This is a particularly interesting (?) sculpture made of rusted tin cans!

After a 25-minute walk from the train station we get to the small side trail leading to the waterfall in the Aeuli Gorge. 

A few photos of Urs on the narrow and wet trail (it's really just a very short trail!) among the interesting cliffs. At least there was plenty of water in the falls!

From behind the falls you can see a "beach" area next to the river (pebbles, not sand) which we could not access because there was too much water flowing from here into the Thur River. 

VIDEO:

of the waterfall in the Aeuli Gorge

This is one of those fun trails where you can walk behind the waterfall! I had to be careful because the  surface was wet and slippery. Here is Urs taking a photo of me taking the video of the waterfall. 

It's always fun to walk behind a waterfall!

Through the trees I could make out the bridge which we were going to cross, continuing up the hill on the east side of the river to the Kägi cookie factory. 

A look behind us as we cross the little bridge. 

Looking up the Thur River in the direction of the waterfall which you cannot see from here (it's on the right side of the photo direction). 

Another view of the Thur River through this narrow gorge area. 

And this is what the river looks like on the north side of the bridge. 

According to the trail marker, it's 10 minutes to the Loreto Chapel on the main road, and very near there is the Kägi factory. 

Beautiful flowering bushes!

Up at the main road now at the Loreto Chapel. We did not go in this time, as I had a good look at it on my November 2025 hike through here. 

Here we are in the little shop at the Kägi Factory. They mostly make various flavours of chocolate-covered wafers. But my favourites, the chocolate Toggenburg butter cookies, which I was looking forward to procure, apparently they are not made anymore. This happens quite a lot to me, when I find something I really like. From here we caught the 3:15 bus for the < 2-hour trip home. 

The pink line is the walk we did this day from the Lichtensteig train station to the Kägi shop. In November 2025 (blue line), I walked through this town on an 8-km walk from Dietfurt to Wattwil. 

Location of Wattwil and Lichtensteig within Switzerland. 

By 4:15 p.m. my train is heading up to Biberbrugg from Lake Zurich. The late afternoon has turned out to be pretty nice!