Welcome!
Welcome to Square Lily Pad! My name is Karen and I live in Switzerland. I love the outdoors and this website is simply a place to share what I love.
Every post on Square Lily Pad is based on my own personal experience. Be it hiking, biking, or visiting a museum, each post provides my personal account of what it was like along with detailed information about how I did it so that you can learn about how to do it too.
Multi-Stage Trail Progress Tracker
Bike
Bodensee Radweg
5 of 8
Hike
Route 3 Alpine Panorama Trail
20 of 29
Hike in Every Swiss Canton
24 of 26
Completed Trails!
Bike
Route 5 The Mittelland Route
7 of 7
Hike
Route 2 Trans Swiss Trail
32 of 32
Route 47 Zürich Zugerlander
2 of 2
Route 67 Dreiland Wanderweg
3 of 3
Route 84 Zürichsee Rundweg
10 of 10
Latest Posts:
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Six Year Blogiversary
Happy six-year Blogiversary to me! As of today, I’ve been writing this blog for exactly six years and so it is time to check in on how it’s been going.
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Swimming, Biking and Running the Zürich City Triathlon
The Zürich City Triathlon is held in downtown Zürich every June. This year (2026), I participated in and completed the Sprint distance category – 750 m swim, 20 k bike, and 5 k run. The swim takes place in lake Zürich and the bike and run are along the shore, so a very flat course.
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Hiking Stanserhorn to Wirzweli
This 6 km hike from the top of the Stanserhorn to the small town of Wirzweli has 102 m ascent and 749 m descent. The views on the trail are fantastic, however, the first half of this trail is very steep.
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Hiking the Waldrandweg – Oberdorf, SO to Grenchen + Dinosaur Footprints
The Waldrandweg is a 12 km hike with 200 m ascent and 420 descent that goes from Oberdorf SO to Grenchen. Along the way, this trail passes an old quarry where a large number of dinosaur tracks can be seen.
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Hiking the Alpine Panorama Trail – Stage 20 Schwarzsee to Jaun
Stage 20 of the Alpine Panorama Trail (Route 3) is a 12 km hike with 720 m ascent and 750 m descent that goes from Schwarzsee to Jaun. I loved this stage! The views were truly incredible!
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Hiking the Alpine Panorama Trail – Stage 19 Guggisberg to Schwarzsee
Stage 19 of the Alpine Panorama Trail (Route 3) is a 16 km hike with 660 m ascent and 740 m descent that goes from Guggisberg to Schwarzsee.