Europe Trip 2009

After the local youths had finished entertaining us last night with the doughnuts in the car park, we actually had a very peaceful night sleep. A short drive today across the boarder into Luxemburg to a campsite to utilise there washing machines and internet access, oh and to fill up with fuel as it’s only 88 cents here where as in Germany it is 114 cents.

What a night, very little sleep as the lay by must have been used as the local hang out on the late night way home. Got up this morning and went outside to the aroma of urine around the van, someone had defiantly been taking the Michael! So after a quick wipe around the door handles we left heading towards the Rhine Valley. The Rhine Valley as described in the guide books is beautiful between Mainz and Koblenz, but I have to say I’m not sure if the events of last night are leaving a bad feeling towards Germany but the Rhine Valley is just a wide river with lots of traffic going up and down it, far from the beauty of the Gorges du Tarn in France. Once at Koblenz we decided to leave Germany and go to Luxemburg, so turned west and ended up at a camping-car car park in the middle of nowhere not far from Wittlich.

From Triberg centre we set off up the 160m high trek up the Triberger Wassefalle, which I have to say was lovely albeit not quite as spectacular as the billboards made out, but it was refreshing to walk in the trees amongst the nutcrackers sweeping from tree to tree. On our way back to the van we passed the shop of 1000 clocks, so we had to go in. The Black Forest region is famous for its trees, gateau and cuckoo clocks. The shop certainly lived up to its name; there were literally thousands of clocks of all shapes and sizes, a beautiful shop to walk around apart from the pushy German salesman following us trying to sell us a £2000 clock, “Vie ave vays and means ov making you buy our clocks!” . We continued northwards through the twisty roads of the Black Forest until we found an all weather toboggan run. After about seven goes we had all had enough and continued further north, unfortunately during a “discussion” on which direction to take next a flash lit up the van…..speed camera, and I wasn’t smiling! Our travel north went on and on as we struggled to find anywhere safe to park; eventually we settled on a lay by just outside Neckargemund.

Today we travelled up towards Bern. I think one of the other things that strikes me about Switzerland is that although wherever you are you are in the mountains it somehow feels not in the middle of nowhere, unlike the mountains of France. It could be that it is all kept so well and looks like it is all inhabited or the fact that the villages are all spread out and all your neighbours are visible but quite away from you, where as in France there are villages with houses close together then nothing for 20 km then another village. We crossed over into Germany at Waldshut and after a few navigational errors found ourselves on the right track heading to Triberg in the Black Forest Region.

We left Chamonix this morning heading towards Evian le Bains and Lake Geneva or Lac Leman as it is correctly known, then on into Switzerland. Lac Leman is truly quite a sight as it is more like a sea than a lake with motor yachts playing about on it. The scenery really changes as you head over the boarder into Switzerland, and I thing the main differences are not particularly the landscape but in what man does with it. The swiss houses are ALL beautifully kept, with flowers hanging from every window, every inch of the land is kept mown perfectly. Where as in England and France for that matter a farmer will cut the grass in his field leaving the edges and awkward slopes and corners to continue to grow, not in Switzerland every inch is mown to perfection. It really is quite some sight seeing the way they cultivate the land, some of the slopes that you see them mowing and then gathering the grass for hay it is almost impossible to imagine walking up them let alone driving a tractor up them. The down side to Switzerland is areas to park your camper van, they are almost impossible to find, we ended up parking in one of the very few and far between lay bys in the road just out side Oberwill.