We've just had a surprise visit from The Netherlands! Our friends were supposed to spend the weekend in Copenhagen, but their flight was changed and they couldn't accommodate their schedules anymore, so they decided to come to Switzerland instead. A couple of days before they came, they asked us if we would have some time for them and since we didn't have anything planned we happily agreed to spend the weekend together with them.
Saturday was a party night in Zurich and Sunday was left for spontaneous activity depending on how we would feel in the morning. We were all fitter than expected, so we decided to show them one of our favorite places in Switzerland - Talalpsee.
Hidden deep in the mountains, Talalpsee is not a spot where many tourists would come, hence it's the perfect place if you want to go for a walk, enjoy the sun and the views, have a beer with locals or simply admire your surroundings.
In the past, only the left side of the lake was open to public but this year they opened the right side as well, so it was the first time for us to see it from a different perspective. There are also quite a few BBQ spots around the lake, so you can easily spend a day.
Talalpsee is situated in the canton Glarus at 1086 m above the sea level. There is a hiking trail from Filzbach which leads directly to the lake, but we didn't have a lot of time, so we opted for a few kilometers long drive in the forest. The road is narrow and next to cliffs, and it's a scary experience when you drive here for the first time. This was not the case for us but our friends expressed their concerns 🙂
Once you get to the lake you forget about the drive anyway... the view of Schijenstock (1923m) will take your breath away..
On the right side is the mountain called Nüenchamm. It's a long massive rock formation located between the Linth valley and the valley of the Talalpsee. It starts here and continues further to the left.
There are more than 20000 military as well as private bunkers in Switzerland and a couple of them are located in this area - one of them you can even see on the picture - can you spot it?
I was surprised with the weather as I was not even sure if there would still be snow or not but we were welcomed with almost 30 degrees Celsius! It looks like we came during the best time of the year as everything was green and lush. It looked like a postcard.
The walk around the lake is only about 1 km long but you can continue to Spaneggsee if you prefer some serious hiking. It takes about 4 hours to get there and you would need to conquer 450 m in elevation.
We met some people who returned from Spaneggsee that day and told us that it is like another world there. It was cold and there was still a lot of snow. They looked exhausted from their trip while we were enjoying drinking our beers.
I was surprised to learn that swimming is permitted here. The lake is only 2.3 m deep, so I assume that it gets nicely warm in summer. We will for sure visit it later this year and try.
These yellow flowers were everywhere. Usually, I see similar flowers which are tiny, but these were 3 to 5 cm big. I have never seen them before. It's maybe the tiny ones enjoying their life so much that they can't stop growing. Who knows..
The green and blue colors go together perfectly! This weekend I've tried to combine them in my outfit for the first time and can confirm that it works with clothes too 🙂
Look how pretty they are...
When I see scenery like this I feel grateful all over again that I can live in this country. It's like having holidays every weekend.
The Mürtschenstock is a mountain massif of the Glarus Alps overlooking the region. Its highest elevation is at 2441 m above the sea level and unfortunately we couldn't see it from the lake but what we saw was impressive too.
Are you tempted to swim here too?
These are some pictures that don't need to many words. I hope that you will enjoy them.
After our walk we still had some time before their flight and we wanted to spend it outside instead of at the airport, so we went back to the small mountain restaurant for another beer. We were sitting on the terrace, enjoying our cold beverages and talking to random people until we saw dark clouds approaching us. It all went so fast that we ended up running back to the car. We made it on time! And no, I'm not talking about that small fluffy white cloud that you can see here 🙂
And here is our weekend crew! We had so much fun!
Thank you for reading!
Cheers,
Martina