2025-05-30 Walking along the Limmat
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My lower back hurts and I think it’s better to take long walks than to
sit at the computer as I usually do. So the plan for today is to read
the newspaper on the balcony, surrounded by plants; then eat the best
baklava in town (Damaskus) – well, nearby. And then I walked back
home. About 8km in 2h, that went well. And I took some pictures.

This is where I read the newspaper until it was too hot.

two chairs on a balcony surrounded by greenery

I met Claudia at the coffee house & pastry shop.

a woman smiling at the camera

When she met her friend for lunch, I started walking.

I started at the Dietikon train stration. Look at the Salvia pratensis
 growing on the gravel. And the fast train rushing through.

several train tracks, two platforms and some forlorn flowers in the
foreground and something looking like a bullet train in the background

I wanted to take the track between railway and river so I had to pass
beneath the train tracks.

an underground passage with walls of concrete (brutalism!) and
elevators leading up the the platforms, stairs with daylight in the
distance

On the other side, I saw a swan with four chicks. The water carries a
kind of white foam. I suspect that this is the cotton-like seeds of
Populus nigra.

The river here is the Limmat and so following it upstream leads me
into Zürich and we live right at the beginning so we'll just get into
the outskirts of town.

a river with reeds and trees on the farside and swans and ducks in the
foreground

The track is free of cars but there are bicycles and people on foot
and every few minutes a train rushes by. This train with the more
rounded snout is the slower urban train.

a small road between river and train tracks, with a bicycle coming
towards me and a train rushing past

As I looked over across the river i saw a lone man punting upriver. It
looked like hard work because the water levels are high and the water
runs fast. It must have rained somewhere in the mountains.

a man standing in a long boat, pushing it upstream with a pole

At one point the track was blocked. They were digging it up so they
could fix the sewage system or something. Too bad, because that was a
shady segment! I had to take the detour without trees protecting me
from the sun, unfortunately.

a fence blocking the track and huge pipes visible; the trees to either
side look cool and shady!!

I reached the next train station. I still can't walk next to the
river. I'm separated from the cool water by a patch of grass. My track
continues right next to the railway.

Some platforms with two overpasses for cars, giving this area a bit of
an oppressive look

I know somewhere around here there are the foundations of an old
castle. And here it is, hidden between woods and elevated road.

a stone rectangle; the walls are about half a metre high; behind the
elevated road we can see the tops of concrete skyscrapers (more
brutalism!)

At last I make it back to the river. Occasionally, bridges pass both
over my track and over the river.

I hate cars.

a metal construction crosses the river and cars are faintly visible on
it

Here is one of the many benches. Too bad somebody ate a chocolate bar
and decided to leave their packaging on the bench. Boo!

a bench facing the river and on the far side there's grass and woods
and a single person that looks like a hiker

On the far side, there's a former convent. I was surprised to learn
from the Wikipedia page that the convent still exists! It belonged to
Einsiedeln Abbey in the canton of Schwyz but it was located in the
canton of Aargau. It was closed 1530–1576 due to the Reformation in
Zürich. In 1841, the canton of Aargau closed all monasteries within
its territories but convents were allowed to reopen in 1843.

On many afternoons, there's a small ferry that carries people across
the river for free. On this picture you can see the small boat and the
cable it is tied to.

a cable is tied to the far side and a boat is tied to it; on this side
there's a small pier consisting of two wooden planks pointing towards
it

If you look towards the Alps, the mountains seem huge. Huge! But on a
phone camera, they are minuscule. Zooming-by-cropping doesn't work
that well, unfortunately.

trees at the horizon and behind that, a wall of rock and ice, or so it
seems

When the weather is hot, people like to drift down river from Zürich
towards Dietikon on inflatable boats, rings and matresses. This is the
first hot summer day with temperatures reaching nearly 30°C and this
is how it starts…

the river with a single inflatable boat on it; there are three
half-naked men aboard

A field of *Brassica napus*…

a field of yellow below and a blue sky above, separated by a thin line
of buildings; it looks a bit like the flag of Ukraine

As I approached Altstetten, I had to cross back over the railway. Once
again, a train rushes past. Metal worms, racing across the land. The
sheer weight and their amazing speed keeps awing me.

looking down on at least five tracks and a fast train on one of them

#Pictures