Week 2: Higher Grounds

The smell of pine needles. Wood smoke. Oiled timber to protect the wooden chalets against the elements. Sunshine. Rain. Wind. Cheese. Chocolate. Scary, really scary, mountain passes. The sound of cow bells down in the valleys. Fluffy white flecks bleating way up in the hills. But ultimately lazing on the northern shores of Lake Geneva. That’s how Week 2 of our European adventure will be remembered.

We drove 1006.3 km this week. From Enzklösterle, we headed south to the higher Black Forest and visited some of the iconic towns of the region. From there we headed into Switzerland for some lazy time at Lake Geneva and to prepare us for hiking in the Alps. After a quick drive-by through Lichtenstein, we ended Week 2 just over the border in Austria.

Highlights

Germany
We continued south to Schiltach, a pretty town with intact fachwerk from the Middle Ages. Here we heard the crazy tale of the execution of a witch charged with burning down the town in 1531. To this day they still celebrate the event in their annual town festival. A couple of hours here was enough for one last slice of Black Forest cake and a short walk around the old town. A short drive further we stopped in Triberg, the home of the largest Cuckoo Clock in the world (and as expected with the accompanying tourist crush). The last night in Germany was spent near Lenzkirch where we camped in the grounds of the Brauerei Rogg.

Switzerland
As we entered Switzerland the weather warmed up and we had two sunny days near Montreux on the northern banks for Lake Geneva / Lac Léman. We camped between Montreux and Vevey at Maladaire Camping – by far our favourite campsite of the trip yet. It’s a small, but vibrant campsite that attracts some really good people.

Moving on from the lakes just as the weather turned wet and windy again, we headed into the Alps! At Zermatt we stayed at a small campsite that’s seen better days and we soon regretted not taking advice from others to just wild camp above the tree line at Stellisee – perhaps next time! We spent one night being bitten by spiders and mosquitos at our little ‘basecamp’, before heading further up the mountains to do the 5 Seenweg hiking trail. A trail that should take 2 and 1/2 hours, but took us almost 4! Not that we were incredibly slow, but the trail signs didn’t always match up with the map nor reality. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

After all the hiking it was time to relax at the Brigerbad thermal pools in Brig and we camped at Thermal Camping right next to the pools. The site is definitely one of the great finds of the trip; an excellent laid back campsite with fantastic facilities.

One can’t go to Switzerland and not do one of the several mind-bending mountain passes. We did two; the seriously scary Furka Pass and Oberal Pass. At the top of the Furka Pass is the Rhone Glacier. It was sad to witness first hand by how much it has declined. Twenty years ago people walked across a short bridge right into a manmade ice tunnel from the visitor centre. These days, for a fairly pricey charge, one has to descend down a long and winding path to reach the current ice tunnel.

We made a quick detour through Maienfeld, aka Heidiland, and also Lichtenstein before heading into Austria.

Apart from a couple of sunny days at Lake Geneva, we’re still being followed around by damp and rainy weather. By the end of this week we’ll be in Slovenia and we’re getting more and more excited as we’re getting closer to the Mediterranean and hopefully some sunny and warmer weather.

Trip stats (Wk1 – Wk2)

• Current location: Vorarlberg, Austria
• Days on the road: 14
• Distance travelled: 1302.6 miles / 2 096.3 km
• Countries visited: Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria
• Cups of coffee: 30
• Pitched the tent 1 times.
• Camper awning pitched 8 times.
• Number of campsites: 10
• Number of hotels: 0
• Euros spent on fuel: 104.24
• Ausfahrt score: You will be spared the details, but the game was suspended. [Editors note: Petrus is the reigning Ausfahrt! champion for Germany, Switzerland and Austria.]