Short Walk around the Au Peninsula on Lake Zurich

Saturday September 16, 2023 -- At this time of year, the animals that spend the summer in higher alpine pastures are led down off the mountains. Leading their animals in processions has always been a special event for the farmers who celebrated a successful summer by decorating the cows with flowers and bells with the most colourful neckbands. The processions down the mountains have become special events for spectators as well. Once the processions arrive at the valley gathering places there are all kinds of other celebrations with food and music and markets and so on.

Today we were on our way to Einsiedeln (a short trip for us) for such an event, when we had the worst luck: Our train from Zurich, already packed with more people going to the same event, had a delay, and our connecting train in Wädenswil left without us. Which meant waiting half an hour, filling the next train to capacity, and then trying to fit in everyone from the next incoming train. With the train packed and just as many trying to get in, the locomotive driver started to order everyone off the train. Nobody moved. Nobody wanted to lose their spot. Even when he said he could not leave the station with that many people in the train.

But we squeezed our way out and did something else for the day (as it turns out, the train left with a 16-minute delay. We figure there would have been less delay if our connecting train had just waited -- surely they knew that very many people were on their way to this event?). In any case, we went for a walk around the small peninsula called Au on Lake Zurich, something we wanted to do for a long time, as we pass this often on the train. The peninsula is mostly made up of vineyards as part of the experimental station for Research Team at the Zurich College for Applied Sciences. We still managed to walk for 6 km with nice views of the lake. The highlight was the Au Castle (now a conference center) and the adjoining small lake. We had lots of sunshine and plenty of shady spots along the way. 

We took the first bus out of Wädenswil toward Au, but had to walk about 2 km along the lake first (part of Trail no.84: "Round Tour of Lake Zürich"), where we saw a lovely steam boat on the lake. 

Here are the vineyards of the Au peninsula. There is a long flight of stairs to the Hotel/Restaurant on the summit of this small hill. This is what we usually see when we pass by train, as the railway line is right here. This peninsula was first mentioned in documents of 1316. 

Trail no. 84: Round Tour of Lake Zurich

Our big ascent for the day: Those stairs behind me!

Looking down the lovely vineyards toward the railway line. This is a project of the Research Team at the Zurich College for Applied Sciences

Here is a look south down the vineyards to the lake

Once at the summit, we had this view down Lake Zurich, to the Schwyzer and Glarus Alps. The day actually turned out much nicer than forecast... 

The lovely Gasthof at Au, with a really nice garden terrace. They were preparing for some kind of event, expecting a lot of people. We walked along the summit for a bit in the hopes of looking down at the lake, but we didn't see anything, except a sign pointing to a castle, so we were looking forward to seeing that. 

What lovely flowers on this farmhouse as we make our way down the hillside on the lakeside. 

On the east side of the peninsula is a boat dock. We were just in time to see the boat come in with a few people headed to the restaurant. We could have taken a ride on the lake, but we wanted to walk around the peninsula. 

There was even a nice small path for a short distance along the lakeshore, lots of shade so it was cool on this hot day, and even a cave-tunnel to explore!

Small cave on the lakeshore

It's always interesting when we come across information panels with history of the region. There is a small bay here, and the panel informs us that before the railway line was built in 1875, transport of heavy goods (in this case clay tiles mostly) was done by boat, and they would have set up a similar crane system to the one in the small illustration at the bottom right. Transport through this bay ceased in 1920.

This wharf is privately-owned, as is obviously the lovely little building. It makes me wonder: Who owns this part of the lake who is allowed to build such a structure for their own use?

A nice walk through the shade of the forest

Around the corner we get the first small glimpse of the castle through the trees in the castle park. 

The Neo-Baroque castle was built in 1928, so very young as far as buildings like this go! In 1992 this building was converted into a conference center.

A walk around the castle grounds

Small details of the castle. 

We then took a walk along the shore of the small lake (Ausee). On the castle grounds near here we had seen a photo-shoot, and the model was hopping around like this, so I figured I'd do a pose as well!

We had a good laugh when we continued along the trail and discovered this statue, doing a similar pose to mine!

What a lovely tall tree! We spotted a very pretty red squirrel in the park here, very close by, but for some reason I was not able to photograph it properly. 

A peek at the Ausee from through the bushes. 

Now we are headed back to the main trail and we pass by the west side of the castle, where the photo-shoot was taking place earlier!

On the lake were large areas of lily-pads. 

A particularly pretty water lily!

On the way back to the railway line, we pass what might have been a gatehouse to the castle at some point?

On our right is the railway line, on our left the peninsula. We are headed to the Au train station. This was a short walk for us (90 minutes' walking, and lots of rest stops) and we didn't feel like walking along the lake anymore. It would have been too hot. 

A look back at the farmhouse on the hillside. When we were on the summit, we had done a little detour to above the farmhouse, where there was a bit of an apple orchard as well. 

A short walk for us: 2 km along the lake from the first bus stop we reached on the random bus we hopped in Wädenswil, then a walk around the peninsula. Still, it was 6 kilometers!

What our little walk along Lake Zurich and the Au peninsula looks like on a satellite map

On a side note: There are some very nice YouTube videos of various alpine processions. I found a recent video of an event the week before (Sept.9), in one of our favourite places in the Meien Valley (side valley of the Reuss Valley), also a short travel distance for us. We had considered going to watch this event, as the cows descended to the village of Wassen (one I photograph every time we pass there by train), but decided to go on a long hike elsewhere instead. The best part of the procession is actually higher up in the valley, where the cows start their march at the high alpine pastures, very early in the morning. We would have had to get into the valley fairly early, and avoid the crowds welcoming the processing in the towns. I could not have taken better photos than in this video by the user Barbara Blunschi who has done several such videos. (The farm where they started and the road the cows walked down is a trail we've done ourselves a couple of times, stopping both times to buy cheese at their farm. One set of such photos is HERE)

VIDEO:

YouTube Video of Wassen Alpine Descent, September 9, 2023

(Credit: Barbara Blunschi)