"We'll go to Saturn one step at a time, and take breaks!"

Sunday was warm (about 20 C/68 F) and sunny here in Zürich, so we wanted to spend some time outdoors. We decided to take a trip to the Uetliberg, which is a prominent hill on the Albis ridge west and south of Zürich with lots of forest and trails for rambling (it's a bit like Forest Park in Portland, Oregon, in that both are very near their respective downtowns yet forested, cool, and good for walks). ZMG and LGG had not yet been there, so it was a good Sunday destination.

It's an easy 20-minute train ride from Hauptbahnhof to the summit station, where there is a play area with a big climbing structure, a teeter-totter, a motorized swing, and an actual train engine for climbing on:


After a short break there, we headed up the trail to the summit of the Uetliberg for lunch and the view. Along the way, we passed some fanciful light towers in the form of deer with headlights:


Once at the top, we had a great view of the Alps and Zürich while eating our lunch, and I took this picture of ZMG and LGG. That's the Zürichsee and the hills on the "Gold Coast" in the middle background, and the Glarner Alps in the background. The highest point on the prominent hill just above and a bit to the right of ZMG is a little over 3600 meters/11800 feet.


There are two tall towers on the Uetliberg, one of which you can climb on to an observation platform 900 meters above sea level (about 500 meters above Zürich). You can get a great view from there, so we went up and while there snapped this self-portrait of The Geeks.


One of the trails on the Albis ridge is the Planetenweg, or Planets Trail. This is a 1.5-2 hour walk along which you pass scale models of the primary bodies in our solar system at a scale of 1 to 1 billion, starting with a large model of the Sun. It starts along the way from the Uetliberg train station and ends about 7.5 km away with a marker for Pluto's aphelion. Once LGG heard about this, she got really excited and wanted to go see Saturn. I told her that if she wanted to go to Saturn, she would have to walk a long way down the path (it's about 1.5 km one way), and she chirped out the title of this post. After a rejoinder like that, who were we to say no, so we walked off down the trail:


We arrived at Saturn about 45 minutes later, and LGG announced we needed to go see Uranus 'and the 8th and 9th planets, too, Daddy!' So on we walked toward Felsenegg, where there is a cable car down to Aldswil, where there is a train back to Zürich. We took our only major break at an overlook with a fabulous view of the Alps, while LGG munched on bread and crackers and we rested our legs.


In due time, LGG proudly reached the planet Uranus:


And in further time, we reached the marker for Pluto when it is at perihelion, and very shortly thereafter, we reached Neptune:


You can see the Uetliberg with its two towers in the background. Yes, LGG really did walk all that way -- about 4.5 km! -- one step at a time with only one major break and a couple of minor ones.

We reached Felsenegg shortly thereafter (6 km down the trail from the Uetliberg) and discovered that the cable car was closed for maintenance. Note to selves: next time, read the signs at the train station and make sure things are open! After a fair bit of "well, now what?" we decided to march on toward Pluto's aphelion, near the hamlet of Buchenegg, another 1.5 km on. We hoped to catch a bus down to the train station and head home.

Great idea, except as you're probably guessing, there's no bus at Buchenegg. Who needs a bus when there's a cable car at Felsenegg? Note to selves: next time, bring a better map and a bus schedule. There wasn't any other choice but to walk down the hill toward Sihlau, where we knew there was a train station, and hope there would be a train to Zürich soon.

LGG was clearly done for the day, so I handed off some stuff to ZMG and put LGG on my shoulders. After a further few km -- the distance is hard to guess since we no longer had the solar system to guide us and we were going down a very steep trail -- we reached Sihlau and yes! a train station. Even better, a train to Zürich was due in about 10 minutes, and about an hour after arriving at Sihlau, we were resting at home.

The lessons for the day were: (a) better maps, better schedules; (b) make sure the cable car is working before you walk all the way to it; and (c) the Solar System is a damn big place, even if you cross it one step at a time and take breaks!