Winter Walk to Cham along the Shore of Lake Zug

Sunday January 4, 2026 -- Today we decided to brave the negative temperatures for the first time this winter, as the recent snowfall has left the landscape looking very pretty and not yet melted away. 

As it's not often that we get nice winter landscapes in the lower areas near where we live, we chose to stay close to home this day, just in case it would be too cold for us, and then we could return earlier from our walk! As it turns out, with the sun shining, temperatures of -2 degrees in the early afternoon were quite bearable, and we timed the 5-km walk perfectly to return before the skies became overcast.

We walked a stretch along Lake Zug to the train station in the next town of Cham, which we used to do at least once a week when I moved here 12 years ago, but which we haven't walked for a long time now. It's a lovely lakeside trail with (usually, but not today) views of Mt.Rigi and the Bernese Alps to the south, and lots of birds because this is a nature trail. On this beautiful Sunday afternoon, there were very many people walking along this trail in both directions. Once we got to Cham, we caught the little urban train back toward Zug, from where we still had to walk another ten minutes to home. 

At the Brüggli beach, you look south across Lake Zug, with Mt. Zug on the left.

The trail follows the lakeshore. 

We don't often have such nice winter trails to walk near the city at these lower elevations.

This trail is actually part of National Trail no.3: "Alpine Panorama Trail", of which we have done very many sections!

This cute little bird (a European Robin) was hopping around and not flying away. 

Bridge over the "Alte Lorze" River, which enters the lake here, and leaves as the larger main Lorze River just a bit further away in the nearby town of Cham. 

Across this little bay we get a glimpse of the city of Cham. That is where we are ending this day's walk.

Now the prepared trail follows the railway tracks all the way into the city of Cham. There were a lot of people out walking here on this beautiful day. 

There are usually a lot of water birds here on this part of another river called the Dorfbach, which enters Lake Zug here. In spring they nest on the edges of the left side of the stream. Straight ahead we should be able to see Mt.Rigi, which is hidden in the clouds this day.  

Passing the entrance to the privately-owned St.Andreas Castle. (In April 2016 we got a private tour of the grounds from Urs' cousin, who used to work there. Those photos are HERE).

Typical farmhouse for this region. In the background is the very tall bell-tower of the town's church. The train station is across from the church. 

View toward Mt. Zug in the back. The bridge takes you into the Villette Park, which we didn't walk this day. (Back in June of 2019 we did a nice walk around the Villette Park).

Up ahead is the train station. To our left are the grounds of the Villette Park.

The town of Cham featured highly in the early Industrial Period, as the Lorze River provided a large amount of water to run the factories. This is a typical house from that period (Called "Jigsaw Architecture"). We did a very interesting "Industry Tour" in May 2019. 

Between the path and the railway line: Not sure what this building was used for. It seems it might once have been part of grounds of the Villette. 

A quick detour into the Villette Park after all, as I wanted a photo of the Villette villa.

From previous research, history of the Villette: "At this site just south of the railway line, there used to be a farm which was heavily affected by the building of the railway. A rich banker from Zurich (Heinrich Schulthess-von Meiss) bought the property and used the rubble from the railway to extend the property into the lake. The villa was built from 1864 to 1866 and served as summer residence for the family. By 1983, the community of Cham had purchased the entire property (in sections over decades since 1948)." 

The other side of that cute house between the walking trail and the railway line. 

Final stretch to the train station in Cham. 

This was an easy walk for us. We started at 12:45 and got onto the train in Cham at 14:14. From the train station near our home, we still had to walk another 700 meters home. So in all, this was a 6-km afternoon walk for us and 1½ hours of fresh air!

This is what the St.Andreas Castle looks like from the boat on Lake Zug.