Switzerland
july 2022
3 weeks by camper. Lots of hiking in amazing Switzerland.
But even more! We drove through 13 countries, walked and hiked in many of them.
All these adventures in this arlicle too.
July 16, 2022 Finland-Sweden
For the first time in my life I got a normal summer vacation. All 4 weeks, all at a time, and even in the summer! Not like a couple of weeks in the spring or autumn, or some days in addition to May Day, Easter, or even to Christmas.
Intoxicated by such unexpected happiness, I could not stay at home even an extra day. Although the ferry from Naantali is only at 11 o’clock in the morning and it would be possible to go on it in the morning, having a normal sleep in your bed and home-made breakfast, but staying inside four walls even for a few hours was already unbearable. We decided to leave at night and sleep somewhere halfway.
It was as if I was a wild animal locked in a cage and one day they accidentally forgot to lock the door. The most stupid thing you can do is stay, even if there is still plenty of food in the bowl, and it’s cold and rainy outside the door.
This time I will try a new traveling format. This is my first camper trip, and I don’t understandyet whether we will get along in character, whether I can cope with its whims and demands. Will I get tired of it? I’m not a homebody at all and I like discomfort and frequent changes of environment. I sleep better if I have a new bed every night, and even better if it’s a travel roll. And here I am, like a snail, with my house everywhere. Well, we’ll see.
The ferry takes me west along a winding route between hundreds of islands. The route goes past Åland and very soon the coast of Sweden will appear. Somewhere on this stage of my trip, my Beeline SIM card suddenly gets a text message: Welcome to Malta!
What? Malta? Is there somebody in the sky who decided to make new plans for me?
The whole day is a constant moving, 8.5 hours ferry + 600 km on wheels. It’s tiring, I tell you. There are a lot of interesting things along the way, but there is no time for sightseeing in Sweden. Though the landscapes changing outside the car window are pleasing.
Scandinavia is a camper’s paradise. In any parking lot, on the beach or on a hilltop overlooking the lake, you stay all night for free.
We spent the night on the outskirts of the town of Jönköping, located on the southern shore of the huge Lake Vattern, in the colors of the white nights it looks like some kind of Mediterranean resort.
July 17, 2022 Sweden-Denmark-Germany
Europe looks small on the map, but come on! I’ve been moving for 2 days already and it seems I’m not much closer than at the start! On this day we took 2 ferries: from Sweden to Denmark and from Denmark to Germany, and almost 700 km on the ground.
A special stop along the way is my favorite Danish Roskilde, where I’m already for the fourth time. For me, this is a mandatory point on a European road trip, no matter how I enter Denmark, be it Göteborg, Helsingborg or Malmö.
July 18, 2022 Germany: Wuppertal, Mosel valley, Eltz castle
My original plan was to skip the German part of the trip as soon as possible. On the way there were previously visited Lübeck, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Köln.
But I had one special location planned in advance. I would even call it a “fad”. I follow a lot of travel bloggers and, if I find something particularly interesting and unusual in their stories, I mark it on the map so that next time I’m nearby, I’ll visit! Some points on the map have been waiting for me for years. And this was exactly that day to open my dreams piggy bank! Meet Wuppertal!
This town has the world’s oldest suspended monorail! For more than 120 years, blue trains have been flying over the city! They actually fly! They reach speeds of up to 60 km/h! The city stretches along the valley of the Wupper River. This monorail was built over the river back in 1901; today its length is about 13 km – it crosses the entire city from east to west. This is ordinary public transport for locals, it runs like the metro – once every 3-5 minutes. In short, I’m absolutely impressed.
For those interested, you can read more here.
As for me, all the time I had this children’s song from old Soviet cartoon in my head. My finnish readers know it well too:
Kaunista, kaunista, kaikki on niin kaunista
Kaunista päällä sen junan sinisen
Seikkailuun matka vie
Minnepäin näyttää tie
Matkaamme päällä sen junan sinisen
Only 600 km today. All plans to skip Germany failed, because Germany is indecently awesome! At first I devoted three hours to flying trains, and then it was simply impossible to turn onto the autobahn from the Moselle Valley! Mostly, of course, I looked from the car window, because if you stop in every village, you can drive 300 km for a couple of weeks – such a picturesque area! And of course, we couldn’t help but stop for a short walk around the wonderful Eltz Castle.
Vineyards give way to towns with narrow streets, castles, and ancient churches. All this is reflected in the leisurely flow of the Moselle, which strives to join the majestic Rhine and bring memories of the wine road to the North Sea. I was so carried away by the Moselle that I deviated from the intended path and stayed for the night in… Luxembourg! Because its border with Germany runs along the Moselle river.
I spent the night in a tiny Luxembourg village with a sweet name for every traveler… Schengen.
July 19, 2022 Luxemburg, France: Alsace, Switzerland
The morning didn’t start well. I was woken up at 7 a.m. by a helicopter, it was circling over a neighboring field, spraying some kind of crap over the vineyards. I got ready so quickly that I didn’t even take a photo of my overnight stay in Schengen, though the place was worth it. I parked somewhere, in front of the Europe Center, from the window there was a view to the border of three countries: Germany, France and Luxembourg. It turned out that I don’t have a single photo of Luxembourg from this trip.
I was in a hurry to see Alsace. I love it! Well, look at these photos! Isn’t it a fairy tale? Even at almost +40 it is nice. Well, the car showed up to +47 today. Here you can stop at any village, any town – everywhere there will be fairy tale houses, buried in flowers. For example, below are photos from small towns of Eguisheim and Obernai. I didn’t have strength to travel to big cities like Strasbourg or Colmar in such heat by a huge camper.
Before entering Switzerland, I had to resolve many everyday issues. Drain the gray and black water, add new water, and fill the drinking canister. There are places in France where you can do it all for free. Even take a shower!
There are no toll roads in Switzerland, everyone just simply has to buy a vignette… an annual one… for 40 francs! It’s like a road tax. You have to look for places to buy it! Furthermore, Switzerland is not in the EU, therefore mobile communications and the Internet here using my SIM card are extremely expensive! I had to go to Basel and look for mobile operator stores in order to stay online. This is how the whole day went.
Well, I’m already in Switzerland! With everything you need and even an open bottle of wine. Back in the free parking lot with the view to green mountains and sound of cicadas and jingle bells!
July 20, 2022 Val de Travers
Today was my first trail in Switzerland. I didn’t intend to go at all, but since I needed to acclimatize a little at a lower altitude and get my blood flowing after a long period of inactivity, I left it in the plan. I didn’t regret it!
They write reviews – they’re delighted, I look at the photos – it’s boring looking. Now I understand that photographs are generally far from reality, how different the camera is from eye perception. The reality is so beautiful that photos only spoil it. Val de Travers – 14km, a technically difficult trail with a climb of 750m, but this climb occurs in the first 4 km of the path. Stunning views for tens of kilometers, like an amphitheater for giants! And a long descent through loose stones. Well, we were lucky with the weather. There were rainy clouds flying around, which made it possible to feel comfortable at +27-30.
Later there was a mountain alpine village, where we were caught in a hailstorm. People ran for cover, and the horses and cows were completely delighted, both of them galloped like mountain goats.
Well, in the end I arrived in the vicinity of Zermatt. What tomorrow? I have 3 routes and the choice depends on the weather in the morning and how much I am ready to pay. If Switzerland is expensive, than Zermatt is the most expensive place in Switzerland.
July 21, 2022 Zermatt
Zermatt is a fairy tale in reality! This is my dream come true! Switzerland, as I imagined it and that’s exactly how it turned out to be! On this day I felt like the happiest person in the world. And probably the richest. I wouldn’t trade this one day for millions. You see this magic place on my photographs. Even made on an inexpensive mobile phone, they are beautiful, aren’t they?
Now a little portion of reality. First, entry to Zermatt by car is prohibited. You can get here by train, live here in the hotel for astronomical prices and travel on foot or by electric car. We were very lucky to find a parking spot at the hotel in the nearest village, for which we paid 15 euros per day. This is without any amenities, no water or toilet. And since we arrived on the 20th and left on the 21st, we paid 30. The train to Zermatt costs 26 euros. For reference, it takes 15 minutes. Next we had to climb to the Gorngerat station. It cost almost 70 euros! But boy, this is not your typical elevator or gondola. This is a real alpine train! A train slowly climbing steep slopes! With huge view windows! For a lazy traveler, it would be enough to go up and down by this train and walk for a couple of hours at the top. But we are active and also greedy to pay for the way down. Therefore, we went down to Zermatt with our feet, periodically winding along the slope for better views.
My total is 18 km in 5 hours. The climb is only 250m, but the descent is almost 1700!
This time I am not providing a link to the trail. Even Alltrails gives out 140 of them here. We just walked down on a whim, turning towards the lakes, walking around them, somewhere down towards Zermatt according to a simple map.
This was the most expensive and most impressive trail in my life!
July 22, 2022 Valais, Blatten
In the morning we walked an 18 km trail along ancient water conduits, they are called suonen here . It’s like the levadas in Madeira, medieval structures for distributing water along the slopes of the mountains. I walked along them for more than 100 km in Madeira and wanted to walk at least one in Switzerland to compare. Here the flow is much faster, the water, like in all local rivers, is milky white. There is less humidity, although there are waterfalls and even a 1600m tunnel, where I was so frozen that my fingers were numb.
My rating is 4 out of 5. This is an unusual trail for mainland Europe, the levadas are perfectly preserved and are still in use, pastoral village landscapes along the way, forest stages of the route with hundreds of butterflies and super-powerful rivers with waterfalls. And, most importantly, a few nerve-wracking moments. The passages over the steep cliffs were so scary that even I was ready to turn back. I’m deducting a point for the most variable value – temperature! I got a day with official +38, which means it was actually more! You can read more about the Swiss levadas, for example, here.
After that we went again to the Alps. We drove to the town of Blatten and even higher to the little settlement of Fafleralp. There is only camping, parking and… the start of many hiking and mountaineering routes. The time on the clock was 16:30 and there was no choice left for me! Because it’s too early to sleep, and there’s nothing to do “in the middle of nowhere.” And I set off on the second route of the day alone towards the glacier, along the river descending from this glacier. It was already late for hiking and along the entire route I met only 5 people. But I got to meet not only the local cows and sheep, but even chamois (alpine antelope)!
11 km in addition to morning 18. I came back and fell exhausted. But I couldn’t really sleep either. There was a terrible roar from the mountain river, plus the cows don’t sleep , bells were ringing all night, and at 6 o’clock in the morning helicopters were added. I don’t know what they are building here in the mountains, but they dragged some piles and boards with a cable.
July 23, 2022 Blatten - Lötschberg tunnel - Spietz
The morning was pleasant with rain and coolness! For the first time the day promised to be cool. Well, by the standards of this trip of mine, below +30 is already cool! Since I had already covered the main trail in the evening, I had to choose from less known, but more difficult ones. The choice fell on 5 lakes trail, which promised to introduce me to different types of alpine lakes located at different altitudes. The 17 km long route was marked as difficult and expected to take 7 hours. It included two lakes visited the day before, only the paths leading to them were different. It seemed to me from the description that I would quickly run through it before lunch. This route is not on AllTrails, we spotted it locally on the information board.
It was a wonderful run through three Lakes; I liked the trails even better than yesterday. Then the track led in the other direction from the parking lot. The fourth lake promised to be the most interesting. The high mountain lake Blaws Seelin, which is located directly below the glacier and is fed by the waterfalls of the constantly melting glacier. The lake is at an altitude of 2570, I had to climb from 1860. Moreover, the path is only about 3 km. Only at that moment I realized, with such an angle a relaxed walk would not work. At the turn there was a sign that, due to numerous landslides, the trail was temporarily officially closed, not maintained, and passage along it was not recommended.
Here we go! Well, I decided to run a little and see how it really is… The beginning was moderate difficult. Then came a couple of landslides. Climbing through washed-out holes up to 1.5 m deep, littered with cobblestones and soft mud, is another kind of pleasure. I even thought to turn around, but almost half of it was completed, I go forward, meet a couple who have turned around, then a group of professional climbers overtakes me, they go to the glacier even higher. I cheered up and tried to follow them.
After that there were traces of real landslides, with gaps up to 3-4 meters wide. There was no more path. Only here and there you can see stones with visible markings. The main thing is that the direction is clear – UP! It took me half an hour to climb the last kilometer. When I saw this lake, I almost burst into tears. Such lakes are not pastoral pictures among greenery and reflections of snowy peaks. This is a real mountain lake, gray, austere, gloomy, hard and as cold as just melted water can be.
The lake may seem small, but don’t believe the picture below. It’s about 250m to the glacier and the snot in the background is actually a powerful waterfall! Then there was toughness on the descent. The descent is always more difficult than the ascent. But at least here I didn’t have to look for directions. Need I tell you that after the descent I didn’t go to the fifth lake.
Along the way we petted local cows. They are so well-fed, fat, and healthy here. It seems that if you touch the udder, milk will immediately spray out of it… Or even condensed milk! Or most likely already sweet whipped cream!
When I was planning my trip at home, the path straight through the Alps from south to north did not surprise me, well, a tunnel is always a tunnel. The length is 15 km – probably in this part of the world this is also the norm. We headed towards the tunnel, but the navigator led me straight to the sign “ticket office”, where the road ended without the possibility of even turning around, and the voice from the navigator commanded: “continue by train.”
I didn’t know how much it would cost, but I had no choice. I have to travel through the Lötschberg tunnel, where trains carry only escorted vehicles, the drivers are in the car. And the cars in the open areas of the car transporter! This tunnel is over 100 years old. It is an attraction in itself, and for a tourist to drive through it is like visiting a museum! It costs only 28 francs (about 30 euros) for all the fun. Later I calculated that I saved a lot of money and time than if I had taken a road detour to Spiez.
July 24, 2022 Lauterbrunnen - Grindelwald
I have to admit, I am tired! Oops, did I say that myself? Not physically, it’s hard to knock me down physically. In organizational terms. Switzerland is an expensive country and for those who are not in a hurry! Despite the fact that I have a camper for the overnights and self-cooking with rare exceptions.
The question is, where does the money go? And time? It may sound funny – for transport. For example, today I arrived in Grindelwald. This is the end point of the road. Well, there is a road along a valley along some river and all of a sudden ends, a vertical wall goes up. Naturally, there are a limited number of parking spaces. All paths are at the top. You can only go to the top by gondola. Or rather, not quite like that. You can climb with your feet, but just to get to the beginning of the view trails will take a day, or even more than one. You can’t park next to this gondola, you have to go lower into the valley, to another town, look for parking there, get to the gondola by train, and only then the gondola itself. If I say that on some trails the total cost just to get to the beginning of the trail can be over 100 euros? Only after paying 100, you get to walk up the mountain for several hours under the scorching sun at +35.
If I had to add hotels and catering food to this, then for such a trip I would have to sell at least a kidney. When preparing for the trip, I looked at the prices and planned the trip taking them into account (that’s why I have the camper). But! Even for this crazy amount of money there is a lot of inconvenience. How do you like a train that takes 15 minutes and costs 26 euros? Is this second class, no air conditioning, and standing only? So, not only money, but time, spent for all these stupid things made me feel sad!
So all in all, it’s starting to get annoying.Though I see a lot of relaxed, wealthy Europeans around, they just don’t initially worry about the cost, so they live in hotels that are conveniently located, don’t look for parking, but go straight to a good train, and stuff like that. Apparently, the Swiss government is of the same opinion as the Kamchatka official, who called budget travelers “unnecessary roaming locusts.”
OK, I’m the one complaining. Look, for two days in Blatten I walked along the paths with free access. But to get to the real top places, which are on screensavers in phones and on the covers of magazines – this is not for “locusts”!
But the views here, we must pay tribute, are worth both money and time.
In the morning we visited Instagrammable Lauterbrunnen, this is exactly the town where waterfalls fall right in the backyards of residential houses. But on our visit, in hot July, the waterfalls turned out to be quite scarce. But we managed to find a laundromat. And then we went in the parking-train-gondola mode to the fabulously beautiful Grindelwald and back the same way. There was very little time left for the track. Therefore, we walked the most popular short trail of 6 km, and we walked a couple of kilometers to the side to admire the high-mountain lake from a different angle.
July 25, 2022 Aare gorge - Susten pass - Bavona valley
In the morning, for a nominal fee, we visited the Aare gorge, next to which we spent the night. To be honest, I love sights like this. Because in natural conditions you can rarely see nature this close. Without all these built paths and hanging bridges an ordinary person would never see with his own eyes how strong the water is, how it wears away the stone, and in general, how pathetic we are to it.
After we headed to the Italian part of Switzerland, which was not in the original plan and… as usually happens in such cases, by chance or by God’s providence I drove along probably the most beautiful road. For me, the Susten Pass is even more beautiful than Transfargaras, recognized as the most beautiful road in Europe.
I admired the views so much, it seemed like it should last forever! Glaciers, forests, dolomite rocks. And the hallmark of the pass is Lake Steinsee, fed by a melting glacier! A creation of nature of extraordinary beauty. In the photo everything may seem small, but if you look closely, to the right of the lake there is a parking lot for buses, they are like specks of dust. The lake is located at an altitude of about 1900, and the height of the glacier is 3400m! Now do you understand the size of the objects in the photo?
I was even upset when the navigator suddenly brought me to the autobahn and the beauty ended. After leaving the most beautiful road, I found myself in the Italian part of Switzerland. Yes, it is different, hot, fussy, cramped. I really don’t understand how they can be one country, these French-, German- and Italian-speaking people… They are so different, they live so differently within the same country. They conduct business differently, build houses differently, and even look different.
Let’s get acquainted – the Bavona Valley!
Here we visited a couple of charming villages.
The heat is almost 40, swimming in the backwaters of an icy mountain river, rain with thunderstorms at +35 and soaring roads – this is the second half of my day. It seemed that everything was getting better. I even camped for the night next to a photogenic stone bridge so that I could swim instead of shower in the morning. But then some older woman drove up in a car with a police sign on it and said in three languages that wild camping was prohibited in the entire valley. Naturally, of the three languages she spoke, there was neither English, nor Russian, nor, at worst, Finnish. But I also understood in French-German-Italian that it was time to get out before we get a ticket. Moreover, this woman gave me a piece of paper, a map with a spot marked “camping”.
Well, you can’t call it camping. Fenced parking with a dry closet and trash can. There was a parking machine that did not accept cards or even bills. Only coins! In the 21st century! And the cost is 24 francs! It’s 25 euros, OMG. I think this is robbery! Moreover, two days ago, for 25 euros I was at a campsite with a kitchen, shower, and the ability to flush the toilet, water and refuel.
There was no choice left, an adventure was planned for tomorrow right here. Due to the lack of coins and without any possibility of making an exchange at 9 pm, I had to download some kind of parking application. Thank God it was in English. But this bastard ripped off 3 francs more!
Places in Bavona valley:
July 26, 2022 Bavona - Italy: Como
Since we were sent to spend the night somewhere far away, in the morning I was in a hurry to catch the gondola leaving at 8 a.m. This place is not very popular for hikers, there are only a few gondolas per day and they are not intended for tourists, primarily for workers servicing hydraulic structures on the high-mountain glacial rivers and lakes of Robiei.
I had my snack quickly , changed clothes, but I couldn’t find my trekking boots… And suddenly I had an epiphany! I left them outside in the evening to air out. And when the policewoman drove me away, I left without them! Thanks God, the boots were where I forgot them. It’s true that someone drove over them. Perhaps even me while leaving. The boots themselves had not smelled the scent of roses before that night, but at night, it seemed, some kind of animal, or even more than one, came to mark them. However, I had no other pair. The ascent in gondola lasted about 25 minutes, all this time the people in the gondola looked around in surprise as to who could smell like a smelly dog.
The trail itself, as always, is beyond praise. There are no sharp peaks here, but there are 5 lakes at different heights from 2000 to 2500m, and as you pass the trail they open up into terraces. Stunning views and very few people. I definitely recommend it. 14.5 km, elevation gain 930 m. Technically the trail is not difficult, but the length and heat were tiring.
After a rather tiring trail, I had almost no energy left, so we decided just to go for a short drive. Ok, not just a drive, of course. The border with Italy is 50 km away, the car’s tank is almost empty, and if some stranger mouse visited our refrigerator it would be disappointed. Shouldn’t we go abroad for food- and gas shopping?
The difference in the cost of diesel is up to 60 cents per liter. Well, the food itself, the most basic things: bread, cheese, eggs, bottled water – at times. And for the evening I bought prosciutto, goat cheese, cheap wine for 2 euros and apricots from a granny selling them along the road.
Along the way, I wanted to explore the western coast of Lake Como from the window and spend the night somewhere on the border with Switzerland.
But the weather began to deteriorate immediately at the border. At first a strong wind blew, which at +35 was even perceived as positive, and when we crawled out of Lidl, the sky was already black. It was possible to drive for about 40 km and we had to look for a place to spend the night. Luckily there was a cemetery on the very shore in some ancient town. We were very lucky! Such parking lots are always free and open at night. The last photos show five-star views from my “hotel”: Stormy Como and the cemetery.
Once again I was glad that I was not in a tent, but in a camper, and set myself a festive table with candles. I slept poorly and little, thunder rumbled all night, lightning flashed, and there was hammering on the tin roof as if it was a war outside.
July 27, 2022 Como - St.Moritz
By the morning the storm had calmed down, at 7 o’clock in the morning I looked out of the window, and it was a wonderful sunny day. We headed from Italy back to Switzerland, towards St. Moritz through the stunningly beautiful Maloja Pass.
There we stopped and walked along a “children’s” trail of about 8 km, admired 2 lakes against the backdrop of pastoral landscapes in the cool +18, petted the local goats, and later just relaxed in a campsite on the outskirts of St. Moritz, preparing for tomorrow’s conquest of a new peak for me, 3262 m .
July 28, 2022 Piz Languard - Davos
It rained for half the night and the temperature dropped to 12-13 degrees! By morning the sky was densely overcast. Or rather, the cloud simply lay on the ground and enveloped us from all sides. But we are in the mountains, where the weather changes instantly!
Today I’m going to conquer the peak of Piz Languard, 3262m. First, the clouds are above me, then I’m in the cloud, then I’m above the cloud, then the clouds play with me, revealing the view, then again hiding from me the beautiful Diavolezza, a glacier 10-15 km from my path.
I wouldn’t say that the climb is difficult, but gaining 1000m in the first 4 km is not a lazy walk. The length of the trail is about 10 km. The views of the glacier (if it opens) are amazing! We experienced cloudy weather and the landscapes changed dramatically.
By the way, this is my highest peak, which I reached with my own legs by that time!
Afterwards, descend to St. Moritz and move to Davos through the beautiful Fluelapass pass. Davos itself is a completely unremarkable village. Even aesthetically, it is not at all an alpine village with wooden houses surrounded by flowers. In the very center of the city is the famous congress center. Parking near it is free after 18:00 and I took advantage of it. Eh, I was late for the World Economic Forum; it took place a week before my arrival. Rumor has it that breakfast is good there. Yes, and the company at breakfasts can be interesting. Therefore, I went to the first kebab shop and made a normal worker-peasant durum, supported the local Kurds this way.
I spent the night in the town of Fläsch with a population of about 600 people. During my half-hour walk around the city, I seemed to have met everyone. The town specializes in winemaking. Very picturesque. Especially in illuminating the lightning of an approaching storm. Here it looks eerie and is accompanied by strong winds and black clouds with thunder and lightning. And then the rain pours down and again there is peace and silence after 15 minutes. Not like our St. Petersburg rains, they arrive unnoticed, quietly, and then torture you for a week!
On occasion, I popped into the store for a fresh loaf of bread for the morning. At the same time, I asked the price for eggs: for 6 pieces – 4.30 francs. That is about 4.7 euros. That is 80 cents per egg! Scrambled eggs won’t go down my throat for that kind of money. I’ll have Italian leftover jamon with Parmesan for breakfast and wash it down with red wine – much cheaper!
This day’s trail was a combination of two tracks suggested by Alltrails. First to the top along the first path, descent and return along the second, with views of Diavolezza.
July 29, 2022 Pizol - Liechtenstein - Austria - Germany
Here in Switzerland I am constantly afraid that I have broken some rules. Ok, I look, is there a sign here that you cannot be in a car at night, but what if there is some kind of law for the entire canton? Then you yourself are a fool. Ignorance of the law does not excuse you from obeying it. Therefore, it is better to leave early.
The clouds lifted and I headed to one of my most long-awaited trails! Pizol in the Sardona region! The mountainous tectonic region of Sardona is a UNESCO heritage site, and although I am not particularly knowledgeable about the layers of tectonic plates, walking the trail of five lakes, each of them a different color, was a dream for me.
The cool morning forced me to put my jacket in my backpack – for good reason! The cost of going up to the start and going down from the finish of the trail is 50 euros! This, of course, is a hefty price tag, but the climb was almost 1500m. To make such a journey on your feet would mean leaving at 6 am and arriving at the beginning of the trail by 12, dead in the trash. So here I am on the trail, one gondola and two elevator stages later!
The first three lakes were passed in 2.5 hours with a gain of 700m in partly cloudy weather. The color of the lakes is really visible only in the sun. The first one is absolutely transparent! The second is milky white. The third one is turquoise blue! And then a cloud descended and the malachite green and black (also transparent, but everything was in the reflection of the rocks around – that’s why it was black) were not so impressive. At the end of the journey, the hurricane-level wind even began to blow and we ran to the elevator. When I moved from the elevator to the gondola, it started to rain. But when I ran from the gondola to the car, it was pouring like a water fall!
The trail is truly one of the most beautiful in Switzerland. It took about 4.5 hours, including the run down the last section.
The tracker showed 12 km, ascent 680m, descent 930m. This very beautiful trail was perfect for the finnish of my Swiss tour.
After that… I had a day of four countries! I looked at the forecast and decided that there was nothing to catch on the trails today or tomorrow. Which means I have to visit the neighboring country! Moreover, I have never been there before! And God forbid, 10 km to the border. Honestly, who knows the name of the capital of Liechtenstein? Don’t worry, I didn’t know either! Wasn’t ever interested! It turns out that this is the city of Vaduz.
Needless to say, I drove through it all in 15 minutes without stopping once. No, not Vaduz, but Liechtenstein! From southwest to northeast… I only woke up in the Austrian city of Feldkirch, where I hurriedly stopped off to eat something traditional. Kebab, 2 times cheaper than in Davos, melted my heart. A message was sent from my home mobile operator that I am now in the EU zone and can be online and make unlimited calls and internet according to my home tariff. And I can also pay in euros, and not rummage around for francs! Yes, it was like I was in my homeland! I wanted to run barefoot through puddles without an umbrella!
After eating, I continued driving forward, looking for a place to stay for the night. And when I stopped, I realized that I was in Germany! Guys, I’m the one who checked in in 4 countries today!
July 30, 2022 Germany: Oberstdorf
Today we just walked around the outskirts of Oberstdorf and admired the scenery of the Bavarian Alps. Oh, how soulful it is in Germany! There are few countries in which I find a feeling of “home”. Oberstdorf is a center for winter sports and has hosted the World Ski Championships three times, most recently in 2021. Among the meadows, it is difficult to find winter pictures of ski slopes familiar from television broadcasts. Nowadays, cows graze on the site of the ski trek.
And the food and drink here is so tasty and cheap! A schnitzel with beer on a terrace overlooking the mountains cost me less than a kebab and coke in the cheapest non-air-conditioned eatery in Davos. In summer, Oberstdorf attracts climbers and hikers. And today the town was full of life. Naturally, in such places you need to shop for sports and travel equipment, which is what I did. I seem to have spent everything I saved on overnight stays during my vacation.
There were no mountain trails, rock climbing or summiting today. We just walked around the outskirts of Oberstdorf and admired the clear lakes and meadows.
I’m spending the second night in a row on the Riedbergpass, at an altitude of 1400. Completely free in the huge parking lot of the ski center. A very good place!
July 31, 2022 Germany: Oberstdorf
Since the day was cloudy, the colors around were not rich, but menacing gray. Today the mountains showed character. I walked along the border of Germany and Austria, the mountain range separating them.
I was already stomping down when I heard the sound of a helicopter. I was frozen in place for 30 minutes. Observed the rescue operation. Looks like someone fell from the trail. At least they took a person below the path I had recently walked along. It was impossible to take your eyes off the work of the professionals at their best. Three times the helicopter hovered next to the rock and lowered the rescuer, but the wind did not allow the rescuer to land to the mountain ledge. The helicopter flew off for a new approach with the rescuer dangling on a rope for at least 10 m. So the helicopter carried him for half an hour. My heart was already sinking, it seemed that in just a moment the rescuer himself would be smashed into pieces on the rock. Very brave guys. And, judging by the fact that no one was smashed in the end, they are professionals!
There are a huge number of marked trails in the Oberstdorf area. We went through a combination of the two. We went up to the top of Fellhorn by elevator, walked along the border, walked around the lake on the Austrian side, climbed to the top of Kanzelwand and walked down the second trail. It turned out to be 14 km, elevation gain 700 m, descent 1500.
Today I completed the hiking part of my trip with a walk through the cloudy, cool Bavarian Alps in the Oberstdorf region. As a result, in 11 days I walked 173 km, with an altitude gain of just under 8000m! And the descent is over 10 km. And pleasure cannot be expressed at all in numbers.
Well, I’m heading towards the house. Little by little. Today I am spending the night near the town of Fussen. Last time I rode a bike here and drove around the city itself, what a shame! It’s cute as hell! Well, it’s simply a sin not to photograph the famous Neuschwanstein Castle along the way. That’s why I love Bavaria, because they know how to have fun. No matter how I arrive, I will definitely find myself at some kind of celebration. Last time I went to the gay pride parade in Munich. That was fun! This time there was no less fun at the harvest festival.
Bavarians still wear their national costume, sometimes elements appear in everyday life, but if it’s a holiday, then this is simply a mandatory attribute. Just try to wear a classic suit or evening dress – they will laugh! I felt very uncomfortable; at the holiday everyone was staring at me.
The first time I was in Bavaria, it was a business trip and it happened to coincide with Oktoberfest. The inviting company gave us a party and every single German was in national costume! Then I asked the girl secretary a question. Is this really not the kind of show for us? She was surprised. How else to dress for a holiday, like you go to work? She replied that everyone has one, and not just one set: winter, summer, everyday, holiday. She also asked if I really didn’t have my own national costume at home. I had to admit that I don’t keep either sundresses or kokoshniks in my wardrobe.
August 1, 2022 Germany: Wies, Romantic road
I want to write about one church separately. The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche). In 2019, I cycled from Munich to Venice. Then I was simply stunned when suddenly, in the middle of “nothing,” among the fields in front of me, a huge white church of gigantic proportions grew up! And there is no town or village nearby. But then it was during the day, and there were quite a lot of people, whether they were tourists or pilgrims, as many call themselves, it’s not for me to judge. This time I was early in the morning for the opening, without a crowd.
But even the appearance of the church is nothing compared to the interior! The first shock from the size of the church and its strange location passes, but once inside a person simply loses the sense of reality from the luxury and wealth worthy of the richest royal palaces of that time! This is where Rococo is at its most bizarre, in contrast to the simplicity of the surrounding pastoral lands.
And the history of the church is like this (some facts from Wikipedia):
It is said that, in 1738, tears were seen on a dilapidated wooden figure of the Scourged Saviour. The legend of this miracle resulted in a pilgrimage rush to see the sculpture. In 1740, a small chapel was built to house the statue but it was soon realized that the building would be too small for the number of pilgrims it attracted, and so Steingaden Abbey decided to commission a separate shrine. Construction took place between 1745 and 1754, and the interior was decorated with frescoes and with stuccowork in the tradition of the Wessobrunner School. “Everything was done throughout the church to make the supernatural visible. Sculpture and murals combined to unleash the divine in visible form”.
The inclusion of the church in the UNESCO World Heritage List (1983) made it famous outside Germany, and in 1985-1991. it has been carefully restored.
And of course, shots from different points of the “romantic road”. The road itself is not very romantic, but the towns along it are a sight to behold! And I only stopped in three, but there are dozens of them! The road itself is about 350 km long from Füssen to Würzburg.
For those interested, read more about the romantic road, for example, here. Three years ago I covered a third of it on a bicycle as part of my “Via Claudia Augusta” tour. And again I can confirm that it’s much better on a bike, more informative and more comfortable. Perhaps, if I miss the flat rides, I’ll ride the entire romantic road some day.
August 2-4, 2022 On my way home (Dresden, Poland, Lietua, Latvia, Estonia)
Dresden.
I went to Dresden to have a snack on the way and do some shopping. I don’t like being in big cities while passing through – it takes a lot of effort and time and you still don’t really have time to see anything properly. But not at this time! While still driving through the outskirts with typical Soviet architecture, dull, although carefully maintained in a German way, I noticed sharp black spiers in the distance. And the closer you get to the old city, the more impressive the picture opens.
To my regret, the Zwinger palace complex, the most precious pearl of Dresden, is now under restoration; the entire courtyard with flower beds and fountains is blocked off, but even in this form it is beautiful! They say it was built to surpass the beauty of Versailles. OMG! It is better!
Dresden became a revelation for me. I put it on my list of must-visits for a long weekend, 3-4 days during the off-season. Well, and the richest collection of the Dresden Gallery (what survived after all the wars, evacuations, cleansing of “dirt in art”, etc.). And if they go to the Louvre for the Gioconda, then in Dresden it’s Raphael’s Sistine Madonna. There is also something to see nearby. For example, driving past I noticed the domes and towers of the city of Bautzen. Or a complete suburb of Dresden – Pirna.
Poland.
What can I say… It’s a big country. No, the country is too big! Driving through it is a difficult task. It’s hard not to fall asleep from boredom. I spent 2 nights in Poland. Not far from the German border and next to the Lithuanian border, near the city of Suwalki.
When I entered Poland from Germany, I felt sad. In contrast to Germany and very fresh memories of Switzerland.
The surroundings of Wroclaw turned out to be very depressing. Our attempt to explore the surrounding area and drive along rural roads was unsuccessful; the asphalt was of such poor quality that we were afraid that all the locks and water and gas connectors would shatter into pieces. Still, the camper requires more careful handling.
But somewhere you need to unwind a little, you can’t just drive all day. And although I’m not a fan of visiting capitals, I decided to drop by Warsaw! My relationship with Warsaw did not work out. It didn’t grab me. We walked right through the center and returned in an hour. Maybe another time? Although, I’m unlikely to come back here again.
In Suwalki, for the first time in my entire life, I had to change my place of overnight stay. There is a long beach with a promenade on the lake. Several km. And along all of this there is a lot of parking. In the evening at sunset there were a lot of people, but that’s understandable. But I didn’t expect that after midnight there would be a spontaneous disco, karaoke and auto racing. Therefore, at 1:30 I had to leave the place and look for the nearest quiet parking lot where truckers rest. Severe, but quiet.
Well, for me, Poland is a country of unusually beautiful sunsets. For two evenings in a row, nature arranged enchanting light shows for me! Or maybe it’s like this every day?
Baltics.
We only stopped in Kaunas, where we rented scooters and rode around the familiar streets for an hour. And we couldn’t drive past the mountain of crosses nearby, in Shaulay. It’s a very unusual place. We were so tired that even in Tallinn we didn’t go out into the city, but went straight to the queue for the ferry.
RESULTS.
Throughout the holiday I tried to turn off the calculator in my head so as not to spoil the feeling of the holiday. It didn’t always work out. But I tried! And so on the Tallinn-Helsinki ferry I added up the numbers. On this trip I traveled through 13 countries!!!! 6900 km on the speedometer, we spent, scary to say, much more than 1000 euros on diesel alone, much more – it’s actually almost one and a half thousand! To this add 4 ferries – another 300 euros. Vignette to have the right to drive on Swiss roads – 40!
Every other day we ate once somewhere fast food, the rest of the time we cooked ourselves, so there was a good saving here. No view restaurants in the mountains, no steaks. Only a couple of times in a village in Germany and in Poland I ate normal restaurant food… but I was talking about prices in Switzerland, almost a euro for one egg. So there was a lot of money spent on food too!
But the most unpredictable expense item for me is parking, mandatory trains and lifts. It turned out, scary to say, more than 500 euros per person!!! For example, when heading to Zermatt, you must take into account that this is a village without transport. There is a road on the map, but it is only for service vehicles. We have to go by train. The result is a budget: parking in the town where the train comes from – 15 euros per day, train 2 stations 15 minutes – 26 euros, Alpine train (count the ski lift) 70 euros. Total 110 euros and then you still have to walk 18 km on your own. People commented to me that I could have just walked instead of paying, since I’m such a lousy climber. It’s possible! But the trails would take not one day, but three, four, or even five days to climb, walk, and descend. God forbid, I would only walk two trails in 3 weeks! Why to travel that far, save money and see only 2-3 places?
Zermatt is just one example! There were, of course, cheaper routes. For example, Blatten. I walked there for free for 2 days. So if anyone gets ready to go to Switzerland, feel free to ask, I’ll tell you what it costs and how to save or where to go cheaper.
You can leave your comments on this story in my blog
sign up for the newsletter
Fill this form if you want to be informed
about the new publications in my blog.