The lake promenade comes from the corona lockdown

The right bank of the lake in Zurich has been fully accessible again since Saturday morning. Not only walkers and athletes, but also restaurants and dogs have longed for the end of the lock.

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This is what normality looks like. Joggers with buttons in their ears, their gaze straight ahead, trot across the lake promenade. Cyclists are happy about the space away from road traffic. An older couple drove specially from Stäfa to Zurich on Saturday morning: They would have been looking forward to walking along the lake to Bellevue.

The right bank of Zurich was the longest blocked off from all green areas for virus protection. On the other hand, the regime had been relaxed a month earlier. On Saturday shortly after six o’clock it was time at Utoquai. Employees of Grün Stadt Zürich in equally colored work clothes opened the barriers from Bellevue to Casino Zürichhorn.

Slow return

If there were still doubts, the lockdown finally showed how important the lakeside facilities are to the population. The city police and the responsible city councilor Karin Rykart (gp.) Had received countless letters to finally remove the barrier.

The lakeside was not stormed, but rather gently seized again. A group of young women did gymnastics in the park. An angler cast out the rod. He cannot confirm the assumption that the fish bite better, since they haven’t seen bait here for almost three months.

In front of the Badi Utoquai no queue formed like at the same time in front of the ticket office of the zoo. Swimmers had had access for a long time. Now the deck decks are open again. You should also keep a distance of two meters there, it says on a notice board.

An elderly passer-by turns out to be an epidemiologist and psychiatrist. She lives in the old town and is happy that both lake shores are accessible again. She doesn’t think much of the official recommendations. In the past few weeks in particular, more exercise would have been important for people, she says. The virus does not like fresh air, but it does accumulate in closed rooms.

The Italian water dog of a resident from Seefeld almost doesn’t want to leave the park anymore. Both enjoy the regained freedom twice. Otherwise there would be too much garbage, broken glass and cans in the morning, she says.

A couple of swans have been comfortably settling on a piece of lawn for weeks and are cleaning their plumage extensively. The more people approach, the more suspiciously the animals look back. You have to get used to dividing the bank again.

The pump station is also operated again

The kiosk and the Pumpstation restaurant are now open. There, the tables in the front row to the lake are separated from each other in the morning by an improvised wooden structure with a piece of plexiglass. It does not look convincing, and it is already removed at noon. The economic police were there, says managing director Baba, and said that this was not sufficient as protection and did not look good (although the official representative apparently expressed himself more heartily).

But the police suggested simply moving the tables further apart in both directions of the Utoquais to keep the distance. They were “meganett”, says Baba. In the corona phase, the catering establishments are allowed to expand the public space that they otherwise use, with the same number of seats.

Michel Péclard, whose chain includes the pumping station, is only positive about how unbureaucratic the city is. He said the previous day that the pumping station and the kiosk would open despite the uncertain weather forecast. The state had helped them, now they too had to make their contribution.

Péclard runs a number of restaurants on the left bank of the lake from Fischer’s Fritz in Wollishofen to Badi Richterswil. Business is going very well everywhere on the water. But in the city center you can still feel the home office and the lack of tourists. Ante Corona currently only has about 30 percent of the guests.

Open only to watch

Baba from the pumping station is confident. He bought for CHF 24,000 and prepared for the reopening on Saturday night until 3 a.m. There is only one thing that worries him: that young people, as has happened repeatedly in the past year, become violent.

The Utoquai with crowds of people in a confined space is not just a hot stone in terms of corona. The barriers are open but not yet removed. They stand ready like a menekel so that the right bank of the lake can be closed again if necessary.