Rapperswil

Rapperswil stands on a spur where Lake Zurich narrows, with a thirteenth-century castle on the hill and an old town below it. It is called the town of roses: several public gardens hold some fifteen thousand plants across hundreds of varieties, including a garden laid out for blind visitors with scent and braille labelling. A wooden footbridge, rebuilt in 2001, crosses the shallow narrows to Hurden on the line of a crossing used since prehistory - piles found in the lakebed here date back thousands of years and belong to the pile-dwelling sites listed by UNESCO across the Alps. The castle holds the Polish Museum, founded in 1870 by exiles and unusual for a Swiss castle.

What you actually see

• Fifteen thousand roses - public gardens including one for blind visitors.
• A wooden bridge to Hurden - on a crossing line used since prehistory.
• A thirteenth-century castle - housing the Polish Museum since 1870.
• Prehistoric pile dwellings - the lakebed sites in the UNESCO listing.

When to go

June to September for the roses at their best. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The rose season is short - outside June and July the gardens are green rather than showy. The old town is compact. Weekend day-trippers from Zurich fill the waterfront. The wooden bridge is a modern rebuild, not medieval fabric.

Nearby

Ufenau island is offshore; Einsiedeln Abbey is inland to the south.