I have not written here in quite a long time. It is not that I have not been walking. I have walked some more parts of the Alpine Panorama Trail, but I have simply not had the time to write everything up and post it here.
So now I am going to try to catch up on things. When last I wrote, I described reaching the little village of Weesen on the shore of the Walensee. So it was natural that my next stage of the walk would start from there. On a march morning, with the mist shrouding the mountains, I alighted from the bus and set off on my way. The first part of my route for the day followed the Lithkanal. I understand that this used to be a river once upon a time, but the Swiss approach to water management has turned it into a canal. It is nevertheless a pleasant walk along the bank, with the canal on one side, and fields, then later forest, on the other.
And so I came to Ziegelbrücke.. The trail turns away from the canal at that point, heading towards the town of Niederurnen. However, just as it comes to the town, the trail takes a sharp right turn and heads out into the countryside again. Not far out of Niederurnen, the map showed the trail as being blocked due to tree felling, but the location of that work was so specific, and the amount of work being done was so little, that I had no difficulty getting through.
Spring has been an uncertain event in Switzerland this year, but as I approached Bilten, in the gardens of Oberbilten, there were snowdrops, and even a few crocuses, in bloom. Further along, in Unterbilten, there were even a few primroses. These flowers made up for the non-descript scenery on this stretch, and provided colour to look out for in the gardens as I passed.
The entire day’s walk was relatively flat, and the next piece between Bilten and Reichenburg was a perfect example of that. The fields stretched out to the east, where the mountains were still covered in mist. At Reichenburg itself, the route passes by the edge of a pond, with this water feature providing a welcome break from the otherwise drab flatness of the landscape.
Approaching the railway crossing west of Buttikon, I came across an alpaca on the loose. That is not exactly what one expects to find in Switzerland, but there it was. Looking around, I saw close by a farm with more alpacas in an enclosure. I went up to the farm and knocked on the door, several times, but without answer. Meanwhile, the loose alpaca had followed me into the farm compound. That is as good as I can make it, I thought, and I left, taking care to close the gate on my way. I went on and soon came to Schübelbach.
It was only a short distance from Schübelbach to Siebnen. There is not really any countryside between the two villages, with a ribbon of housing development all the way along the trail. In Siebnen, I met up again with the Via Jakobi. Whereas I had gone over the mountains from the Bodensee to here, the Via Jakobi takes a less strenuous route. I guess that makes sense, since the old pilgrims, which devout and penitential, were not ones to go into the wilder areas unnecessarily. The two routes go together through the hamlet of Kreuzstatt, and passing the church at Kapelhof.
I continued on, past Galgenen and Steinegg, where I found a small shrine decorated with the all-seeing eye. And then I was coming into Lachen. The Alpine Panorama Trail branches off to the left on what would be my next stage of the route, but I went on into the town with the Via Jakobi to reach the train station and the start of my journey back to Basel.
The route had been completely flat, which is unusual in Switzerland, but I had accumulated 42,171 steps. And the next stage would see me back into the hills again.
Walkingman 