Close to home across the Pfannenstiel Range on Lake Zurich

Easter Monday, April 2nd: Staying locally we decided on a hike across the low ridge East of Lake Zurich, a popular area for city dwellers and great for a Sunday "stroll" (in our case, 11 km, of course). This trail is officially called the "Pfannenstiel Trail", named after the range. We don't come this way too much, we prefer the alpine heights or the rolling hills in the Emmental. But the low hills around our area offer comfortable forest trails, farms and often wetland reserves, and once in a while there's a look-out tower from where you can still admire the chain of alps on a day with a good view. 

After climbing the tower, we had lunch in the popular Hochwacht restaurant, and descended back to Lake Zurich via a quaint little gorge, and then crossed the lake on a car ferry, which makes the short run every 10 minutes. It's very popular and well-used: saves a ton of time driving around the lake. The day started warm and sunny, but sadly turned cold in the late afternoon. ALSO, we took the wrong bus in Horgen to the train station, and ended up walking an additional 2 km, so 13 km in all! My feet hurt that day.

11 km from Forch to Meilen, then a ferry back across the lake. The hill separating Lake Zurich from the smaller Lake Greifensee to the East is called the Pfannenstiel.

Heading North to Zurich by train along the West side of Lake Zurich, we look across the lake to the Pfannenstiel range, where today's hike takes place

Farms and pastoral landscapes in this area

These marshy areas that we often encounter are being lovingly restored by nature clubs

The 35-m high Hochwacht Tower offers some nice views of Lake Zurich and the Alps to the South.

Lake Zurich and the Alps to the South

To the East: Lake Greifensee (we walked around most of that in January this year)

Lunch at the popular Hochwacht Restaurant with the tremendous view.

Our descent back to Lake Zurich was through a small and slightly overgrown ravine. Pretty sure it looks better in summer!

This collection of buildings used to belong to a nearby fortress, now in ruins. The hamlet is uncreatively named Burg (German for Fortress).

Cute little (formerly) restaurant in Meilen on Lake Zurich

A well-used car ferry service operates between Meilen on the East of Lake Zurich, to Horgen on the West. We ended our outing with a ride across the lake on one of these ferries.