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
1 of 8
Hike
Route 3 Alpine Panorama Trail
18 of 29
Hike in Every Swiss Canton
21 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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Visiting the HR Giger Museum and Bar in Gruyères + Gruyères Castle
HR Giger was a Swiss artist, most famous for his work on the Alien movies. This museum contains the largest collection of his work anywhere, along with his private collection of works by artists that inspired him.
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Hikes by Swiss Canton + My Favorites
This page is to keep track of which hikes I’ve done in each canton. And just for fun, I’ve picked a favorite hike to highlight for each canton.
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Repeat Roundup 2025
A list of the activities that already had a post on the blog that I did again in 2025 just for fun.
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German and Swiss German Film Recommendations
Part of learning German and Swiss German is watching movies in those languages. This post is a running list of films that I have watched with notes to help you decide if you want to watch them too.
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Biking the Bodensee Radweg – Stage 1 Konstanz to Überlingen, Germany
Stage 1 of the Bodensee Radweg Bike Route is 52 km and goes from Konstanz to Überlingen, Germany. This stage is mostly on asphalt bike paths and has 520 m of ascent and descent.
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Visiting the Foundation Beyeler Art Museum in Riehen/Basel
The Foundation Beyeler is a modern and contemporary art museum located in Riehen near Basel. We visited this museum for the Yayoi Kusuma retrospective held 2025 October 12 – 2026 January 25. This well curated exhibition made me want to keep an eye on this museum for the future. It truly was worth a visit.