The wooden bridge at Rapperswil is the kind of crossing that makes you slow down on purpose. It stretches across the upper end of Lake Zurich, a footbridge of oak planks on piles, rebuilt in the early 2000s on the line of a medieval predecessor, and it joins the old town of Rapperswil on the north shore to the village of Hurden on the south. Pilgrims on the Way of St James have walked across it for centuries, and the modern version makes no attempt to be anything but simple and beautiful.
Rapperswil itself is called the town of roses, a title that comes from the rose gardens on the hill below the castle and the roses on the town's coat of arms. The castle, a rugged thing of towers and ramparts, rises above the harbour, and in the nineteenth century it became a home for Polish exiles, who set up a museum there that still tells the story of their country's struggle. The old town is a maze of cobbled lanes and arcades, with a long lakeside promenade where swans glide beside the walls.
As a start or photo stop, it is hard to beat. Park the bike by the harbour and walk out on the bridge for the view: the lake spreading east and west, the Glarus Alps sharp in the distance on clear days, and the castle watching over the town. Sunrise and sunset are the best times, when the water turns copper and the light picks out the church spires. Rapperswil-Jona, with more than thirty thousand people in the joined municipalities, has plenty of fuel and food, so supplies are not a problem.
The roads that leave from here head south over the Seedamm, a causeway with a long history as a crossing point, and then into the hills toward the Zürichsee's southern shore. Traffic in town can be heavy at weekends, especially in fine weather, when half of Zurich seems to head to the lake, so an early start gives you quiet streets and still water.