Day 3: Switzerland

 

 

 We awake at our campsite after a lie in and wonder if when the woman said 8am to pick up our bread at the front desk whether she meant from 8am or until 8am. It is now 9am. I wander over and pass the natural pool and briefly contemplate a dip. It is 10 degrees Celsius outside. Our bread is waiting for us.

 We wander into Salzburg the small town up the road.

 Meandering from shop to shop we find the two that we now look for in the mornings: the baker and grocer. Above: many a sausage, but nothing else.

 Salzburg has some great buildings.

 This includes someone cutting a hole in their roof and fitting an observatory.

 It really is a peaceful life in small town Germany.

 We pass a front garden with all sorts of garden ornaments and I think of my sister and her family in their VW camper van.

 We take lunch at a rest stop and pull out all the food that we bought. Custard pastry, fresh buns, some sort of chocolate yogurt we decided to try (turns out we think it is chocolate pudding), fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and of course CHOCOLATE!

 Then we head off for the Swiss border. We can see the Alps up ahead of us. Thankfully we have the Vignette sticker on our vehicle. This costs 40 Swiss Francs at the border but lasts for the year. One must have it to drive a car in Switzerland on the motorways.

 In Switzerland, as we enter Basel, we are almost immediately driven into a tunnel. I am  soon to learn that in a mountainous country like Switzerland, the Swiss have decided to burrow into mountains. There are tunnels everywhere. Tomorrow there is one 15km long on our route (although we skip it for the less direct more scenic route).

 We have driven into the centre of Switzerland rather quickly as it is a small country. Here we stop just outside of Lucerne and catch a glimpse of Lake Lucerne. Does this bear any relation to Lucerne dairy products in Canada? I don't know.

 Another item that comes with our van is a European parking timer. In Europe there is timed parking. One must buy a timed wheel (pictured above) and set the time one left the car.

 A second amazing feature that is allowing us to camp off-season on a whim every night is the Camping Card ACSI. We ordered a £13 membership from the Netherlands to the UK which lasts a whole year. It allows you to camp off season from 12-16 Euros a night across all of Europe. It is so easy to use as it comes with a map book of all the countries which is dotted with numbers that correspond to campsites that are in the ACSI program. Then you look up the number in the catalogue and read all about the site, what it offers, how much it is and a description of it along with directions. The cheapest season is the low season of September. October sees many campsites close.

 Nigel in front of Lake Lucerne.

 The country is beautiful. it is a series of mountains which are mostly forested with a lot of green patches where you see smatterings of Swiss style houses.

 In the distance you can always see the high alps with snow on them. It is getting colder by the day and we are told it is unusually cold for this time of year.

 We stop at Lake Lucerne from another direction (also called Vierwaldstättersee) and I take A LOT of pictures because it is so stunning.

 Heidi? Are you home?

 We finally hit the town of Meiringen within a stones throw from our next campsite.

 We notice half the town walking around in period garb.

 Then Nigel notices this sign: Sherlock Holmes Pilgrimage.

 We finally set up camp in a valley surrounded by mountains beside the village of Aareschelucht (with the campsite bearing the same name).

 Nigel cooks us a nice Risotto which we share with a fellow camper from Germany who arrived late on a motorbike.