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.

Day 2: Germany and German Bakeries

 Note the blue line was yesterday's journey and the pink was today's. Today we head from mid Germany down to the Black Forest.

We found our campsite late at night last night and now wake up to an amazingly green and peaceful setting in St. Goar am Rhein, Germany. Did I mention our Crazy Camper (http://www.crazy campers.nl)? It is very cheap compared to renting in the rest of Europe or the UK…but you don't get a choice of designs. Nigel wasn't sure about being given the butterfly van. I liked the cow one as it looked like we might be delivering fresh milk.

  At the camp there is fresh bread you can order the night before at. Hearty German bread delivered warm to the campsite. We order 4 multigrain buns. Yum.

 The camping site, Friednau, is a wooded area that has a small creek 800m from the river Rhine that runs the long length of the campsite. One odd thing about the campsite is that the dish washing facility is in the women's washroom. Go figure! We discover this as Nigel wandered over to wash the dishes.

 We camp at the very top of the field at the last electrical outlet. It is a great setup. We have a double bed inside that converts into a table and seat. It has a fridge, double ring cooker, a sink plus is all equipped with what you need (chairs, outside table, 2 outside burners, fuel, dishes, etc). You can pay for further things like a tent, bedding, etc. (Note the castle on the hill overlooking the site above).

 We drive down in the morning to the village of St. Goar (note the Rhine on the left). Today I am driving.

 What a nice tiny town. The majority of the houses are up a steep mountain face behind the shops.

 I had made a note of a couple of shops to visit today when everything would be open. One was the bakery with all the German cakes!

 And all the hearty German breads! The other was a little grocer. Food shopping in other countries is a window into another culture.

 We head off south down the road through small German towns heading for the Black Forest. We stop at one rest stop to discover a toilet that has a little arm that comes out from the back, rotates the toilet seat in a complete circle while cleaning the whole thing.

We stop to eat out buns in our camper van while it rains outside. It turns out Nigel is so car sick trying to navigate that we decide that we will switch back to me navigating and him driving.

Did I mention the Rhubarb Strudel (already half eaten in the picture above) and the decadent (and giant) Black Forest Cake oozing with Kirsch. The taste just stays in your mouth it is so decadent! (and cheap at 3.50 Euros for both).

 Back on the road. "Ausfarht" = exit. I say it out loud every time we pass one. I like the sound of it. Nigel may go mad at some point.

 We begin to climb as we near the Swiss boarder. The temperature begins to drop and the houses look built for a lot of snow as the roofs change to steep slanting styles.

 We arrive at our German campsite, Sulzbachtal, just on the outskirts of Sulzburg. It is located at the foot of a hill with surrounding vineyards. It is a short walk to the village of Sulzburg (which boasts a natural pool) which we will wander tomorrow. Good night!