Europe by Camper

[syncro up]

First time poster in this section.

I’ve often passed a lunch hour or two flicking through the great adventures people post on here, so I thought I might offer up our rather modest contribution of our recent road based tour of Europe by VW campervan. Its perhaps not the usual mud plugging or desert based expedition usually posted up here. But I’m sure you will soon tell me if I’ve posted this in the wrong place.

Here’s a taster, if you like it… I’ll post more.

We covered 11 countries in 10 weeks,
drove 5,500 miles,
burned just over 1,000ltrs of petrol.
All by a 1987 2.1 VW T25

 

[syncro up]

First to introduce ourselves, we are a family or three. When Abby was about six months we bought our current camper, a '87 T25 Devon Moonraker.

Thanks should go to several VDubbers for giving me the push to go and undertake such an adventure, we discussed this opportunity at length and came to the conclusion we would be mad not to take this opportunity. The opportunity mentioned was our honeymoon. We had looked at the usual beach holidays and then safaris in Kenya but these were all coming out in the thousands for a little over a week. Hence the seed was planted and we started to explore the possibility of taking this honeymoon money, adding to it, and turning it into an extended campervan honeymoon. This required two things, money and time! With the savings well and truly raided, and 4 weeks holiday and 6 weeks unpaid leave secured from work. It was all arranged, Now we just had to plan 10 weeks' worth of driving around Europe. The route came together reasonably easily, like a join the dots of places we'd like to see. Certain places had to be cut out as they didn't fit the route, others were extends to take advantage of where we were and when. And that's that, we had a clockwise journey through Europe, avoiding the places close to home as we can go there anytime.


But before we could depart on the honeymoon, there was the small matter of the wedding first. You can probably guess that with a camper van honeymoon, Vws featured in the wedding as well, our wedding cars were two spity busses and a stretched beetle. These were a big hit and went down a storm. I now feel the need to add a beetle to the garage.

The wedding was on the Friday and we left for the Newcastle to Amsterdam ferry on the Monday.

We had chosen to leave from Newcastle for a number of reasons, yes it was more expensive than driving to dover, and despite the long term nature of the holiday, squeezing every ounce of available time out those 10 weeks was important, so instead of driving south to come north in Europe, we took the overnight crossing to Amsterdam.

Waiting to board.

After a quite crossing, we arrived in Amsterdam early in the morning and got straight to it. Driving on the right is daunting to start with but it gets fairly familiar quite easily. Our first main stop in Europe was Hamburg in Germany so from docking in Amsterdam we headed around the coast towards Hamburg. On our travels we see an abundance of windmills, the landscape is poker flat in all directions and the drive, our gps is telling us we are below sea level. Even although we are on the motorways, every so often there are flashing lights at the side of the road to warn of a lifting bridge up ahead over a water course.

Lifting bridge.

This is novel at first but after the first half a dozen, it becomes a little tiresome. We filled up at a motorway service station with what would be the most expensive fuel of the trip at 1e73.9.

Windmills galore.

We had a stop for lunch then continued on, Abby fell asleep in the afternoon, so instead of stopping in Groningen, we continued on to Grossenkneten where we find a campingplatz out in the country side. We get to make out first call to a non English speaker when we had to phone a contact number at the campsite for service. A Scottish accent over a mobile line to a German speaker can be a little difficult, thankfully they did have a little English so we understood each other and we got directed to a camping pitch. The campsite standards were good with a lovely clean shower block and a kids play area. This overnight would be our first time with the new sleeping arrangements. We had recently bought a cab hammock for Abby, and despite our best intentions, it had remained untested until now. Thankfully Abby took to it well, although I had a sleepless night, trying to sleep with one eye open just in case
something did happen.

Cab bunk.

The following morning we packed up and found a little bakery in the next village for some lovely breakfast rolls and doughnuts. We then set the sat nav to avoid motorways and took the scenic route to Hamburg through Bremen.

Village church.

Older windmill.

Would you like to live in a house like this, imagine trying to put up shelves, nothings straight.

Our campsite in Hamburg is of the city centre type, its literally a campervan car park (Wohnmobilhafen) with hook up and a toilet block which were very shappy. But the location is right next to a MacDonald's and within walking distance of the city centre. We walked into town the next day and found a nice Italian restaurant for some lunch opposite the main railway station. Then halfway through lunch, the restaurant three doors down was evacuated by the fire brigade, which added some excitement to the meal. We took a bus tour around Hamburg which was a great way to see around the city. Hamburg has a lovely variety in the architecture and lots of involving waterfrontage including a very large and busy port. After some time wandering around the water front, we walked back to the campsite and watched Shrek on dvd before bed.

Hamburg water life.

Hamburg Art.

Next we headed to Wolfsburg, I had always wanted to see the autostradt and this was the chance. On arrival in Wolfsburg, the centre is dominated by the long building of the VW factory. At the autostradt and the first building you go into is very space age and super techy science centre like building. While the displays were very impressive, talking about sustainability and energy usage. All the interactive displays had members of staff standing around in suites and trainers/comfy shoes, this gave the whole place a feeling of being constantly watched, indeed we were requested to move on from certain displays because of Abbys age. Overall the building and its contents are very impressive, but the cold German welcome and overbearing level of supervision really ruined this experience.

Autostradt glass towers.

We had a walk around the other buildings including the iconic glass towers and even caught a water fountain display to music in the main square which was given comedy value by the stiff breeze which had kicked up. The only car of any age in the whole centre was a mark 1 golf in the gti display building. Wolfsburg autostradt is a nice place to go to say you've been there, but there are far better VW heritage display at the VW museum and are much more friendly and welcoming.

 

[syncro up]

On route to Berlin, Germany

From Wolfsburg we headed off to Berlin. With no real idea of where to stop we got a vague campsite location and set off on what should have been a ten minute journey off the motorway. Half an hour later we arrived at a deadend in a single track country road, previous to that we had been directed down a tiny one road village street which had been dug up for complete renewal (down two feet below road level). We chanced out luck with the syncro and were doing well until we got to the very end and met a pile of excavated material 8 feet high which had been dumped across the road. So unable to turn around because of the trailer, we had no option other than to reverse back down the 600 meter or so, much to the amusement of the locals who had come out to watch. We then detoured around the road works by driving through what appeared to be a farm yard.

Abandoning all hope that our intended campsite even existed, we managed to find another using the sat nav which actually existed and proved a lot simpler to locate. Although on the rural road towards the campsite, there was a sequence of three speed bumps, the first two were totally flat but outline painted to look like speed bumps. Now we weren't travelling that fast, but because the first two bumps had been flat, I fully expected the last to be flat also, so had started to go a little faster… the third one wasn't flat, this speed bump cause the trailer to get some air!

Lovely campsite with natural swimming lake and play park

The campsite turned out to be a lovely little site with the owners living at the entrance. The site had a beautifully clean toilet block and has a natural swimming lake with its own kiddies section and play park. This must be a very popular site in the high season, but were lucky enough to be practically the only people here just now.

Berlin, Germany

The 1936 Berlin Olympic Stadium

Moving on the next morning towards Berlin. Within Berlin, I miss a turn for to our campsite and turn down another street in order to come back, the street is narrow and had parked cars down one site, there was one car at the other end and I was most surprised to see him accelerate his car down the road as quickly as possible to meet us right in the middle, resulting in forcing us off the road and up the grass verge. Now I don't speak any german but you don't need a translator to understand his messages. It was slightly humerous to hear the pause in his rant when all we could enquire was ‘speak English?'. It became evident that we had driven the wrong way down a one way street. He eventually recognised his verbal abuse was utterly wasted on people who could understand, and he managed to squeeze past and continued on his way. I didn't blame the German driver for his behaviour, we have idiots like that in cars all over the world, but his brash behaviour towards a foreign vehicle was poorly judged and archaic in execution, which simply cause me to be so much more nervous and cautious over the next few days until my confidence returned. Ironically the campsite we were trying to reach turned out to be a deplorable excess for a campsite; an under serviced, over priced quagmire of a place, we couldn't wait to leave the next morning [it was Sunset Marina Campsite for those wishing to avoid it].

The Olympic entrance structure.

Our trip around Berlin started with a look around the Olympic stadium and entrance building, this monolithic structure is hugely imposing in its shear size and surely meant to intimidate the visiting athletes. From there we found a spot to park up in the Tiergarten area which was easy as it was Sunday, we then cycled into the centre of Berlin and visited the Siegossaule, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag with its fabulous glass domed roof, although the ques were to long to interest us in waiting to go up.

Brandenburg Gate

Reichstag.

We then cycled to the Holocaust Memorial Site which is an arrangement of 2,711 unique concrete obelisks, this also included the Jewish visitor centre, within which were many pictures and letters from Jews, which clearly shows many were well aware of the faint which awaited them. A short distance away from the Holocaust Memorial site is the location of Hitlers bunker, and the site where he committed suicide. Ironically this is nothing more than a billboard in the corner or a dirt car park for a mediocre looking block of flats. We then returned to the camper via a section of the Berlin wall and Check Point Charley, which looked like a tourist mock up, with (dressed up) guards charging to get your photo taken with them.

Section of the Berlin Wall

Our day long tour of Berlin had been very interesting and much more enthralling than expected, perhaps because we were looking at fresh history, which most living people can still relate to, for example I can still remember watching the TV the night the Berlin wall came down. I would definitely recommend a visit to Berlin, it's a welcoming and very interesting city.

Beetle advert, beats the red bull minis we have over here.

We just had one more must do before we left, Berlin is renound for the Currywurst, a fried sausage/hotdog with curry sauce. One of the top currywurst eateries was on our way out of town so we stopped off and had our fill. If que's are anything to go buy, this is definitely one of the most popular destinations, and we agree as it was delicious if a little strongly flavoured.

Curry 36, you cant argue with ques like that on a rain afternoon, must be the best.

Little Switzerland Region of Germany

From Berlin, our route took us south through Dresden and into the little Switzerland region of Germany, this would be our first taste of hill climbing roads and switch backs. Although small in scale than the Alps, this area appears to be a mecca for winter sports lovers.

Wash day, thankfully drying wasn't a problem, the sun was strong enough to give sun burn.

The scenery up here is beautiful, we find a campsite just out of the Altenberg and spend a day or two just relaxing and catching up with the tasks of washing clothes and we were blessed with beautiful sunshine to relax in.

COBB with smoking pellets… smoking…

We have a COBB oven and use this quite time to experiment cooking with the added smoking pellets. The roast was one of the best I've ever had, very juicy and tasty, although we bought it pre-marinated, so can't accept all the praise for its success.

Hhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm tasty.

Next, into the Czech Republic

 

[meafordmike]

Great trip so far. Please post more.

 

[syncro up]

And into the Czech Republic, border marker

Czech Republic
Next it was across another border and into the Czech Republic. Immediately at the border the towns changed. We were on the minor roads away from the busy motorways, which took us through some very run down and frankly dodging looking towns and villages, not the sort of place you would want to break down. We also dropped all the altitude we had gained yesterday and were now in a very fertile agribusiness type of environment with massive combines and tractors working to bring in the grain harvest. This didn’t at all look like the scale of farming we are used to in Scotland, this was big business farming.

CZ Farmscape

We eventually got on to the larger motorways and made out way to Prague. When we got there it was about 1pm and hot, around 35oC, our campsite was in the suburbs and fairly well protected from any relieving breeze, so for the first time ever, we chose a camping pitch based on the amount of shade it got rather than any other criteria.

Prague
Despite being a Euro tour, during the course of our journey, we would cross into several countries who do not use the Euro currency, and CZ was our first such country. Camping all set up, we went out for a walk after getting some directions for the nearest cash machine, this turned out to be opposite a tesco, the size of our urban tescos, not the hypermarkets, which we didn’t go in, partly because this really didn’t look a nice part of town, and partly because we couldn’t find the door, I kid you not. Having located the cash machine, I then went about trying to use a foreign cash machine for the first time on the trip, luckily there was an English language button but unluckily I had no idea what the exchange rate was, so when confronted with an array of values, I chose what looked like a suitably large one at 400koruna and was most impressed when it all worked out successfully. Problem is 400koruna isn’t actually that much as we found out later whne we cycled to the Lidl next to the campsite. About 30koruna makes up £1 so I had managed to withdraw £13 from the cash machine and been charged for the pleasure. Oh well, you live and learn, thankfully Lidl takes credit cards and we can go back tomorrow and get a more suitable value of money out. At Lidl we stocked up, limited only by what we could fit in the cycle panniers, along with two essential tubs of ice cream, with conveniently wouldn’t keep in the fridge so required immediate consumption.

Prague sculpture

Our tour of Prague was interesting. It’s another beautiful and historic European city with magnificent historic architecture. We started at Wenceslas square, from where you can look up the mall to the hugely imposing building of the national museum. Then on to the Astronomical clock and the old town square.

The Astronomical clock

The views from the top of the church tower were unlike any British view due to the dominance of the red tiled roofs.

Prague view from the church tower

Prague view from the church tower

We then wandered around the old town, over the bridges and found a little deserted play park, but Abby had fallen asleep by this point and could not be roused. About this time the temperature seemed to jump from warm to uncomfortably hot, So we walked back into town, over the bridge and found a delightful little ice cream parlour.

Prague water frontage

Charles Bridge, very touristy

After our ice creams we found a small shopping mall and went in to find toilets, while in their the heavens opened, and there was torrential rain with thunder and lightning. We then had a lightning strike just to the rear of the building which instantly and temporarily made everything brilliant, blinding white. Quite a terrifying if brief experience, not least because of the amount of electric trams which operated in the vicinity from over head lines. Thankfully the metro startion was immediately next door so we ran for it, within the 15 second its took to go from door to door, we were soaked. Thankfully, and unlike any Scottish rain, this was still warm so we dried quickly. Heading back at the van and mercifully it had almost completely stopped raining by the time we had to get off the train. We then treated ourselves to a steak dinner at the campsite restaurant, mainly because that was the only place you could get a wifi signal.


On leaving Prague we stopped to fuel up and also to get a vignette, we should have got this tax disc like necessity when we entered CZ from Germany, but naivety about where to get one and the quality of the towns we were passing through meant we chanced our arm and carried on. We passed many police check points, but luckily they were all stopping people going the other way. But today we would be legal, it only costs about £10 for ten days so it’s not expensive, unlike the Swiss one which you can only buy for a full year and then need to buy a second one just for a trailer.

Kostnice Ossuary, CZ
All fuelled up and legal, we left Prague heading for Austria, but first we had a stop scheduled for the church of bones, Kostnice Ossuary.

Pavement outside church

The church

This places has to be seen to be believed, a small chapel like building, which in the four corners are four massive piles of bones and skulls. There is believed to be between 40,000 and 70,000 skeletal remains within this chapel.

Bone pyramid, one of four

Along side the pyramid like piles of geometrically laid out bones, are beautifully laid out and artistic arrangements of ornate decoration, using only human bones. There are chandeliers, wall hangings and a coat of arms, complete with a bird pecking a skulls eye out. We at first were unsure about taking Abby into to such a place, but far from being spooky or sinister, this was a beautiful and amazing space to be in. Definitely worth the detour.

Bone chandelier

Bone coat of arms

This is a close up of the bottom right of the coat of arms, see the bird pecking the eye of the skull!

When we left the church it was now early afternoon, we had been on some smaller roads during the day, but were now motoring on what you would call a motorway towards the Austrian border, we are now at the most easterly point of our trip.

This particular motorway we were using in CZ had a different form of construction to British roads, instead of a long strip of beautiful smooth tarmac, the CZ roads are built from strips of concrete approximately 3 metres wide, the difference would probably be unnoticeable had we been in a modern car, but... You see the three meter wide slabs have a small grove between each slab, this gave the trailer a little bounce everytime you went over one and travelling along the road at 80kph must had coincided with a resonance frequency to do with the wheelbase of the trailer or similar. Because our trailer was bunny hoping down the road. It was constantly bouncing, getting both wheels off the pavement by an inch or two. Not only was this somewhat distressing, but there was nothing which could be done, we tried slowing down, speeding up, running half on the hard shoulder, nothing helped. We suffered over an hour of this and were both a quivering wreck by the end of it. Luckily the trailer seemed none the worse for the experience, and our new and home build roof rack still seemed to be in place, we just lost two bolts of a bike rack which were easily replaced with a cable tie.

As we progressed to the Austrian border, the road had been reduced to a single carriage way each way, on approach to the border we were aware of several police men at the side of the road pulling cars over who had just entered CZ, apparently not having a vignette over here is a good source of revenue for the local police force. It was very fortunate that we ran into CZ via a back route and never saw any of this or they would probably have fined us as well.

 

[syncro up]

Austria – Part One
We crossed the Austrian border, what there is of it these day, and immediately stopped at the petrol station on the other side to get our Austrian vignette this time (7€50 for ten days). We arrived a beautiful new Vienna ring road around 7pm after a long days travels.

Border post

Driving with trams on the outskirts of Vienna

We found the campsite which again is in another urban location but this time in the nicer part of town. At first glance it appears really full with all the spaces well pegged out, you're told to go find your own space, we went round twice before we spotted a gap and got a cracking we spot off the road. That night we went to bed to the sound of eastern European polka music… the same song over and over again! Quite catchy really ;-)

Spanish Riding School
After a lazy start we made our way in to Vienna to have a look around. We saw the Stephansdom which is the church with the intricately detailed spire, we meandered around the pedestrianised shopping area full of designer brands and street performers.

The Stephansdom

The Palace, the left half is the riding school, the right half, the opera.

Then visited the Spanish riding school, if your into that sort of thing (and I am), it will not disappoint. We took a tour of the stables and saw in the tack room with the white saddles and into the stable block. Our timing was a bit off as we had arrived during the performing horses holiday month.

Tack Room

The stables were currently home to the younger horses brought in for schooling and development. Next was a trip to the arena itself, we were sat at ground level which really gives an impression of scale to the building. The architecture is beautiful and intentionally devoid of colour so as not to detract attention from the performance. While we couldn't watch a full performance due to the horses being on holiday, we are able to buy tickets for tomorrow mornings demonstration of young stock. This included several carriage teams and the young stallions and then separately the young foals coming in to do a natural performance of running around and having fun.

Inside the famous riding school arena

The square to the rear of the riding school

Its now the following morning and we are making our way back from the centre of Vienna out to the campsite having seen the performance in the riding school, we stop off at a market for dinner supplies only to find everything is shut up... it was Sunday afterall. We have come to realise that most of Europe still obeys a Sunday shut down, everything outside of the city centre at least. We have to resort to buying some supplies at a nearby petrol station and walk back to the van, by now its mid afternoon and well into the 30's, we are all knackered by the time we get back to the van. The temperature continues to rise and later on, the van thermometer hits 42oC, I am useless at these temperatures and resort to hiding in the van with the fan on and the curtains shut. An hour later and its dropped to 30 oC and the wind had picked up, another hour later and its raining heavily, and continues through the night, at least it is warm rain. We have an evening of dvds, chocolate and Asti.

Linz Austria
From Vienna we leave for Linz and the KZ Mauthausen former Nazi concentration camp where thousands lost their lives, the weather is still suitably wet and miserable for the occasion.

Exterior of the camp.

The camp is of a grey granite construction ironically providing picture postcard panoramic views of the surrounding land. Inside the camp, only some of the building remain but they give a feel for the terrible events which happened here as a matter of course. There also appears to be an ongoing effort to restore and increase the areas of the camp open to tourists.

Model of the camp, only half a dozen buildings now remain.

View down camp ‘main street' looking towards the main gates.

View along one wall of the main gates

Several of the rooms were raided prior to liberation to hide some of the events, others remain very much as was. There are laundry rooms and showers, along with the gas chamber, dissection room and the hanging beam.

There was little to see in the gas chamber, and it really didn't feel appropriate to be taking photos so heres one of the plaque.

The dissection room consisted of a room with a sturdy wooden table and a drain in the middle of the floor, perhaps because this room didn't have the light on, but this room had a very bad feeling about it. The shower room is still entirely intact and was used for cold water treatment, essentially killing through exposure to extremely cold water. This again had a very surreal feeling about it; you can walk through the doors and see what for many, must have been the last thing they saw.

The shower room

A bedroom mock up, only less crowded

Reading several of the accounts from prisoners, it is unimaginable that these events took place, and so recently, yet alone that certain member of the Nazi SS actually seemed to relish and take pleasure in this continued brutality and fatal treatment.

The monument garden immediately outside the main gates.

To lighten the mood, the next morning Abby plays around the campsite on her bike. In ten minutes she goes from not being able to pedal to cycle up and down. Then a wee girl from the neighbouring van comes out and they cycle up and down together for a bit while we pack up. This was a lovely camping community moment.

 

[syncro up]

Austria – Part Two

We are now travelling from Linz right into the Alps, to the south of Salzburg. We are now getting closer to the mountains and the road either goes up or down, never flat, and involves travelling through a lot of tunnel, 6 so far today with the longest being 3km.

The excitement of approaching the Alps was tenable

For a section of the road, we travel alongside a raging river which is a muddy brown colour, we don’t know if this is normal or not but it seems to be very fast and aggressive.

Our supply of Euros is getting low so we look to stop off at one villages we are driving past now we have left the motorways. Using the preloaded banks on the GPS, we drive past our first attempt, move on and the second attempt is a special bank where you need to swipe a card simply to make it through the door where the machines are, and the third attempt diverts us down a little road which darts under a railway line with only 2 metres of clearance. We are 2.4 high so this isn’t going to work and we have to back out, thankfully it’s a quite road. We get our last option at the cash machine in the village adjacent to the campsite and it works. Looks like some of my previous ATM fails may have been my fault, I was trying to withdraw 400 euros, which is over the UK cash machine limit of £350. When I try to withdraw 300 euros it consistently works fine.

Aren’t all villages as picturesque as this

We head to the Sportcamp site at Bruck, this is one of our extravagance as its rather expensive for a campsite but appears to be akin to a five star hotel and also has the advantage of getting us out into the country, which is why we came to the Alps afterall. The entrance building, restaurant and all the shower blocks etc are pristine and very alpine in appearance. We are booked in for four nights and the total is 156euros.

We set up camp, go for a cycle around the site and then put the awning up as there is intermittent rain (think this is the only time on the entire trip we erected the awning). We then climb inside with the heater on for a relaxing evening.

Light rain last night, beautiful sunshine today

The following day we decided to cycle to one of the swimming pools in the near by village of Zell-am-see. Swimming and outdoor pools seem to be big in this part of the country, we stick to the indoor variety. The main roads in this area are still fairly busy with traffic and trucks, although we do manage to avoid most of the traffic on our 45 minute cycle. We take the satnav to direct us but this runs out of battery half way through, really should have charged it last night. Regardless, we find the pool and its busy. The pool its self is big, about two thirds the size of an Olympic pool, but with half of it roped off for the spring board. Diving seems to be very popular hear as there is a queue of young individuals waiting to throw themselves off the end of the spring board. There is also a childs pool and a flume right as well as two decks of sun loungers… indoors and the usual sauna and steam rooms.

There is a café by the pool and we get schnitzel and chips, the portion of chips is enormous, the kids portion could easily feed an adult. Not complaining though.

We leave after a few hours and the cycle home is much less adventurous as we now find the cycle path we should have been on the first time. It’s a beautiful strip which skirts around the lake front.

Cycle back along the lake front path

Back at the campsite and we get ice cream and buy a wifi pass for the rest of the day, only problem is they don’t tell you its only valid on one machine and we have the ipad to update and the laptop to upload photos to facebook. The pass cost 7euros so wasn’t cheap but the lady on reception is indifferent to our situation, I expected more from a premier service. Grrrr.

Back at the campervan and the wasps seem strangely drawn to our awning, we must have 10 to 15 of the crawling all over it. Very odd, must be some good Scottish sap on it or something.

Grobglockner Alpine Road

Coincidently our chosen campsite is very handy for one of the well known Austrian alpine roads, the Grobglockner.
http://www.grossglockner.at/en/hochalpenstrasse/

This ribbon of beautiful tarmac takes us from valley level up and over the mountains to the Grobglockner glacier. We take advantage of the good campsite base to leave the trailer behind for this section and make the route a big loop. It would turn out to be a very big loop.

Our campsite elevation is at 750m ASL, this will become relevant later on. Shortly after leave the campsite we are already reduced to third gear. Then it’s the toll booth, 29 Euros for the privilege, well worth it. And instantly the road ramps up to a constant 12%. There are many, many cyclists attempting the climb, some already look in trouble, others look like they do this every weekend. There are also a large number of motorbikes doing the climb… significantly faster than we are!

Toll Booth

Climbing

Still climbing

The views are stunning as the road continues to climb and climb. There are plenty stopping off points for the obligatory photographs.

We had a great day for it

Snow blower

Not far from the top, we stop for lunch at a stone built roadside exhibition and café. We park right next to the picnic tables and the views across the valley are beyond picture postcard.

Isn’t this why we have camper vans?

Our ‘view’ from the lunch table. Have you ever been asked if you could build a house anywhere, where would you build it? I’d be right here!

We are going up their, with the road clinging to the rock face

Almost their, and not much of the mountains left

After lunch we continue to climb but can now see the top. We have already broken through 2000m ASL, a small detour up a tiny road takes us to the very summit at an elevation of 2572m ASL. The road on the last section of the climb is cobbled and the chamber in the switch backs is very noticeable, as is the shear drops off the edges, which are protected by little more than 10 inch high concrete stones. Certain downhill views are stomach churning.
We were at 750m ASL this morning, we have climbed more than a vertical mile in a few hours! Not bad for an old van.

The top

Just to prove it

We just came up that. The building you can see is a café and exhibition centre and where we stopped for lunch

Still snow this high up in the peak of summer

Avalanche tunnel, also gives an idea to the gradient of our road

After going through the highest point, the road then continue on, undulating, towards the ‘end’ where the Grobglockner mountain and glacier are. Ironically this beauty of nature is marked by a multi-storey car park. Suppose space is a premium on the side of a mountain.

The end car park

The Glacier at the end of the road

That was the easy part done, we climb easily in second gear and 3,000 rpm, downhill would be a different story. We had hours of descending in front of us, we tried engine braking but this require letting the engine go to 4,000 rpm in second gear, a level which its never gone before. First gear was another option but this was too slow and we quickly developed a queue, well, a longer queue than normal. End result was a combination of the two, second gear and intermittent braking. All went well so cant have been doing that badly.

The view taken in, we turn and head back down the road to about half way where there is an option to loop around rather than simply retrace our steps. We take this and descend into the valley and drive through a mountain via a 5 mile long tunnel which is a lot easier than going over the mountains.

Going the long way home

We left the campsite at noon, had an hours break for lunch and get home around 8. Its been a long day of intense driving but what an experience. Highly recommend to anyone.

 

[BirchHill]

Great write up, keep it coming!

 

[TwinCruiser]

Congrats on your marriage!!

Thoroughly enjoying your pics + write up....keep'em coming!

Can you post more pics of your trailer? Any pics of the stretch Beetle?

Safe travels!!

 

[syncro up]

Congrats on your marriage!!

Thoroughly enjoying your pics + write up....keep'em coming!

Can you post more pics of your trailer? Any pics of the stretch Beetle?

Safe travels!!

Yup will do.

 

[syncro up]

Austria – Part Three

Moving on from Bruck to Innsbruck area.
Before Leaving the Bruck, we head to the Maximart supermarket which we cycled past to go swimming the other day. Boy is it massive, its got everything from groceries, sport stuff, luggage, café, bakers and a hair dressers. While that doesn’t sound much for the UK, our local asda has most of that, on our tour so far we have pretty much been shopping out of Lidls and Pennymarts which are fairly small establishments, but this was such a revelation so we stocked up.

Life in the valley, original looking water wheel

Life in the valley

On the way to Innsbruck, we are going via the Krimmler Water falls. This is a 380meter tiered waterfall which has a water based play area and exhibition at the bottom and then a good quality pathway up to the top. As it turns out, we didn’t have enough people puff to make it all the way to the top before it got too late, instead we walked to about 2/3 where there is a café and stopped for a feed before heading back down.

Krimmler Waterfall

Krimmler Waterfall

Krimmler Waterfall

The waterfalls themselves are huge and easily seen from a distance. Up close they are beautiful and inspiringly powerfull (and loud), although you do have to pay to use the path. We had some rain and thunder while we were climbing, but this only added to the atmospheric experience. We don’t get back to the van until 6pm and the map shows another mountain pass in our way, with fresh memories of yesterdays stunning views and shear drops, we decide its better not to try the pass late in the evening when were all tired, instead we camp at Krimmler and move on in the morning, and very glad we did.

Camping with the Waterfall in the background (the white line to the top right of the smaller tree)

http://www.gerlosstrasse.at/en/
This new pass is the Gerlos Aplinstrabe and thankfully is only half the scale of the Grobglockner. Our highest point is ‘only’ around 1600m (valley is around 1000mASL) and the roads only 10-15 miles long but still contains the ubiquitous switchbacks and long grinding gradients. We really must make a point of coming back here in the winter to see how the locals cope with these mountain roads in the winter!

Only a tourist would stop to take a picture of cow.

We have a leisurely decent into the Town of Gerlos. On the way down we are stopped by the stereotypical chocoloate box, brown and white cow standing on the road with the bell around her neck.

Alpine traffic jam

Shortly after this we take an opportunity to pull over and check the map and stretch our legs. Unintentionally we find ourselves in Alpine paradise. The mountains towering all around us, sporadic dark wooden Alpine chalets clinging to the high slopes, and the cows clanking their way down the road. This was a waw moment!

Beautiful vista

We also noticed a cable car in the village which was obviously still running up to the mountain top. We went to investigate and found it can take bikes and riders to the top, and you ride back down the mountain. How great is that, mountain biking with minimal effort. We decide its two good to pass up and get ready, its about 1pm and were showing 22oC at the bottom of the cable car which is feeling really hot. The bottom of the cable car is at 1270m ASL and the top at 1867m ASL so it takes quite a while to get to the top.

Cable car to the top

At the top we get the amazing view you’d expect, but we are surprised to see a farmers shed and about thirty of the brown and white cows chewing the cud, all with their bells on, which causes quite a beautiful racket when theirs thirty of them all at it.

Cow pasture

Not surprisingly the ride back down the mountain is crazy steep for this first bit and on lovely loose gravel which makes the turns interesting. At one point further down, we stopped and dropped some water on the disc brakes only for it to violently hiss and immediately evaporate/boil off. After a good while we decend to the small tarmac roads for the chalets and eventually we are back at the van. What an awesome wee side adventure. This feels like why we have the van, we saw something we liked, so we stopped and explored using what we had. Result!
Cable car for us and the bikes cost 15euro.

Local farmer hard at work, we never saw a ‘normal’ tractor in the high Alps, instead they use these squat machines which I guess have a much lower centre of gravity and are more stable on the slopes.

We continue on to Innsbruck and gradually the roads are getting bigger until we end up back on the motorways. One little incident along the way. At one point we hear a big whoosh noise not unlike a release of pressure, and a truck who was hammering up behind us blasted his horn so we thought we had blown a trailer tyre or something. Pulled over to the hard shoulder and had a look around but everything seemed ok. We continued on none the wiser and still don’t really know what happened, thankfully everything seems fine. The only thing shot are my nerves.

We stop at a village around the Innsbruck area and it seems a lovely place but rather sporty and religious judging by the enormous gym we drove past and all the spires visible over the roof tops. The campsite has a lovely elevated position and gives great views over the valley and onto the mountains. I go for a cycle through the quite back roads to a spar on the sat nav only to find its shut. Oh well.

Campsite… with a view, shame the facilities weren’t up to much.

The following day we continue on towards the Austrian/Liechtenstein border.
This is a fairly easy day of motorway driving. The road keeps to the valley floor and uses tunnel after tunnel rather than mountain passes. We must have driven through 15 tunnels today, the longest of which was 15kms and we drove through that one twice (by accident). I had attempted to come off the motorway to allow a pee stop, instead the exist I took went straight onto another motorway and into this tunnel, which then meant we got to drive it going the other way as well as we were now on the wrong side of a very large mountain heading for Italy. Lol.

After a great feed at a motorway services (they are much better than what we have in the UK) we find a campsite on the sat nav which is 220 meters away, rather sceptical with our stroke of luck we head to it. What we instantly find out is that the next exit off the motorway is several miles down the road, so our 220metre away campsite takes about half an hour to get to as we drive down, only to turn and come back on the rural roads. But what a find, this place is large, fairly empty and spotlessly clean. We park up near the big play area and end up larking about on the tight rope which was set up. The facilities and staff are excellent and the cleanliness really is beyond clean, its OCD clean! However this comes at a price, 27.50 euros for the night. Ouch. Although this includes a local tourist tax, and you pay for the electricity you use, each plug in has a metre and its read before and after you leave, with the box locked in between times. [This was Walchs camping and Landhaus – Vorarlburg] http://www.landhauswalch.at/campingplatz.html?&L=1

Walchs campsite

Walchs campsite. Note the ‘static’ caravan in the bottom right. You hardly ever see what we would call a static caravan, instead they take a tourer and add an extra room and roof to it.

 

[pillguy]

Keep the stories coming

Enjoyed the stories and the view of Europe through an independent lens. What is a vignette that was needed in Austria?

 

[syncro up]

A vignette is similar to the UK tax disc. It's a payment to the government to use the road network, they seem to be used in countries which don't have toll roads. Austria and the Czech republic are good because you can buy them for short duations, like a week, Switzerland on the other half, requires you to buy a full years worth, and then a second for the trailer as well :Wow1:

 

[syncro up]

Liechtenstein and Switzerland part One

With a flexible timetable, we had planned to take advantage of the facilities and play area at Walchs campsite and have an ‘off’ day to stay put and Abby could play. Instead, it had rained over night and the ground was now saturated, so we took the hint and headed for the Liechtenstein border.

By this point of the trip, we are on day 22 and have just clocked 3,000 kilometres.

Not having gotten to play at the campsite today, we decide to find another swimming pool for some recreation and time out the van. This we did without too much hassle, and even find somewhere to park our double length vehicle, albeit taking up four spaces, thankfully that part of the carpark was empty. The pool is large and again has diving boards, flumes, baby pools and loungers. And despite having a large indoor area, it has an even larger outdoor area with more pools including a laned Olympic sized pool and play areas and shallow kids pools. But its too cool today to be playing outdoors, so instead we stay indoors and break up the pool time with another fried lunch by the pool.

We eventually get on the road about 2ish and are in no real hurry. We are aware that we need to get Swiss francs (CHF) for Liechtenstein, but are unaware that we have chosen to travel on an Austrian and Liechtenstein national holiday, therefore there are no supermarkets open.

The only picture we have of anything Liechtenstein-ish

Liechtenstein
The Liechtenstein border appears out of nowhere, and before you know it, we’re in another country. We manage to find a cash machine and get out some francs and then go to a spar to get some groceries only to find its shut. Confused as we know its not a Sunday, we continue on and route to a nearby campsite. This campsite is in the most unlikely place, literally in a town centre, up a back street and round the corner, the area opens up to an exhibition area, and there it is. Probably only 75 metres by 100metres but its clean, green, well tended and there’s space. Good find, especially as its only minutes to cycle back into town and get some food.

View from the campsite just in Switzerland

Now having said that the spar in Leichenstein was shut, we should probably have thought it odd that everywhere here was now open. We managed to get groceries, had a fast food diner and walked around a cycle shop marvelling at all the extortionate prices on very normal bikes. It wasn’t until the next day, when we were checking out of the campsite that we learned we were already in Switzerland! Apparently the border was just a few hundred metres away but we never saw any indication as we (presumably) passed it. Although this does explain why the shops were open and item here are so extortionately expensive, and I mean extortionately expensive! Certain items were easy to compare: two corn on the cob £5.60 here, about £2 at home, 300g pack of chicken, £8 here, £3.50 at home, well known fast food chain, two adults and a kids meal, £30 here home, £12 at home. We are literally looking at treble the price of groceries, curiously though, the price of fuel almost exactly matches that of home at £1,30/ltr petrol.

We have three stops planned for Switzerland, but if these prices continue, we may have to rethink the plan and jump out early.

After the beauty and serenity of Austria, I’m ready not to like Switzerland, surely no-where can be worth these prices?

 

[syncro up]

Switzerland
We leave our Swiss border campsite and start heading south towards our first proper stop off at Lucerne, unsure of whether we are driving in Liestenstien or Switzerland for the first wee while. The drive to Lucerne is an easy motorway jaunt, we pass through a number of tunnels but none very long. We do have a slight incident as we come into Lucerne though. We are on the motorway about to come off on a slip road, the signs show the slip road forks further up but I’m unsure what direction/lane to take, by the time we figure it out (the sat nav told us) and I went to pull into that lane, the traffic up ahead had started to back up and I couldn’t stop in time. Thankfully the queue in the other lane wasn’t as long and I managed to pull back into that one and stop. That was a close one, fortunately I had been sitting in the middle of the road so that helped when moving lane. That’s more than enough drama for one day, I managed to get across into the correct lane further up the road so its all good. The temperature by this point is in the low thirties. Well outside it is in the low thirties, driving a stationary greenhouse with the windows down and no breeze in a traffic jam in the centre of the city, it feels a lot hotter.

Our campsite is just back from the lake front and around the lake a bit from the city centre, on the way in we notice an outdoor swimming area across the road from the campsite, this looks very inviting after a hot and sticky drive through traffic.

We check in to Lucerne Lido International campsite. http://www.camping-international.ch/web_final/camping_luzern_news_e.html Its 97CHF (£78) for two nights with plug in. The Swiss for some reason don’t use the round blue international camping plug, but thankfully they recognise everyone else does, and for a deposit, they will loan you an adaptor. The site is large but organised and has pretty good services including shop and cafe. It’s Swiss expensive but I’d definitely recommend it, if for nothing else than its location, its right across from the lake and easily linked to the town by a walkway and cycle path.

Lido dive tower with a line of kids waiting to throw themselves off it

We go across to the Lido, the lake front swimming area, to cool down and relax while its still so hot. The campsite gives reduced entry to the Lido (12CHF to the 3 of us). The beach is a course sand to gravel affair and reasonably long. There is also a restaurant/café area where we have lunch and get beset by wasps, a children’s swimming pool and play area and several pontoons out in the water along with a tall diving tower. Its well kept and well attended, the beach is particularly busy. We go in for a swim and then play in the sand with buckets and spades. The water is cold on the toes, but when you’re fully in, its actually pretty nice.

The weather has definitely turned in our favour, its still warm enough to sit out in shorts and t shirt well into the evening.

Campsite art work

All done by the three year old, honest 

The following day we head into Lucerne on the bikes to have a look around. In the weather section I’ve written HOT HOT HOT, which may give you some idea of how we are fairing. Lol.

There is a path right into town which follows the lake front. It’s a beautiful ride and very well kept. Almost the whole way, there are people sunbathing or swimming in the lake. At one point there are long large steps down into the lake and this seems to be the place where the serious swimmers collect.

In town and boy what a place. Lucerne is full of historic building and wee back streets and then has the river running through the centre of it all. The river drains the lake and is controlled by a system of removal boards and a weir which gives some impressive standing waves and currents. The lake its self is massive and full of pleasure boats and their very own paddle steamer. There are several bridges across the river, many in the old wooden style and superbly decorated with carvings, paintings or flowers. Lucerne is a visually utopia. Everywhere you look its jaw dropingly beautiful, whether it’s the lake, the old town, the river or the mountain back drop.

Lucerne Architecture

Lucerne Architecture

No one two buses but one. I thought it’s pretty cool.

River with control gates

This is on the bridge

Lucerne Architecture

I hope this give some impression of the force of the water coming out the lake, the standing waves were massive!

River frontage

More bridges

Lake frontage

And across the lake

We cruise around town, crossing over the bridges and eventually stop for ice cream and to buy some quality Swiss Chocolate which has to go straight into the fridge to stop it melting.

Quality Swiss chocolate, weighted a ton and near impossible to bite through once it had been in the fridge

Later we go back to the lake front and play in the water (but not the Lido this time so its free, difference is here its rock and silt versus nice sand at the Lido). The water feels good after cycling in the sun. Abby and I swim, she has her armbands on but climbs on my back for a bit. The further we swim the more she progresses up to my head and the more I sink in the water.

The following day we cycle back into town, at the lake front you can hire a variety of different small boats, we opt for the only one without an engine due to the prices. So we hire a pedalo with a slide on it for an hour and slowly paddle our way out into the lake, not going to far from shore mainly because of the number of large paddle steamer. We peddle for 20 minutes then stop and jump/slide/dive into the water. It’s fabulous and just the right temperature again. You cant see the bottom as we’re far enough out, but its still beautifully clean and clear. Our only regret is booking it for the one hour, as before long it’s time to head back in but its been so much fun. Two hours may have been too much as its very hot and the sun is quite intense to be out in the lake with no shade.

Getting a little too close to the paddle steamer while on the pedalo

We go back and spend the afternoon at the Lido. By about 4.30 it clouds over and theres a few spots of rain but it doesn’t come to anything. But were already packed up and heading back to the van by now. At 8 that night its getting dark then the sky and light turns yellow and everything looks amazing. We can now see the lightning off in the distance and then out of nowhere, its got very windy all of a sudden. The wind is very strong and is bringing some of the branches off the trees down, which are all around the campsite. We get heavy rain and some close lightning but by and large, the storm passes just to the side of us. The speed with which the storm moved and the effect of the yellow light and the strong winds appears apocalyptic in nature and amazing to witness, its all over by 9.30 and we go to bed.

Tomorrow we must leave this little part of heaven and move on in search of further treats… on to Interlaken. ..

Our next camper, yea right, bet he can’t just turn up and ask for a space!