We popped over the border to see the ridiculously famous picturesque Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. It's only 120 or so years old, is picture perfect, surrounded by beer halls, sausage stalls, souvenir kiosks and people from all over the world. Amazing as a tourist destination. The waterfall near the castle is pretty, the hills are pretty, the castle is pretty, they even have some pretty horses to take you up to the castle. Now we're heading to Innsbruck for the evening. It's cloudy but not raining. (Sarah, I got your sms but can't reply!)
We were having our last supper in Switzerland with a glass of wine from Piemonte in a strange place called Heididorf when the clouds blew over in typical Alps style and the rain began. We rushed our fat little tummies over to the very clean and well equip toilet. Alas, the rain lasted but a moment, but now Albert is doing the dishes as I write. :) Now, onto Austria. We'll be there for about 5 days.
Yum! The cream was delicious. This town is famous for three castles positioned one after the other down the mountain side. We've visited one and posing for photos was tiring enough to require a sugar top up. It was market day today too so we saw local cheese and bread for sale. Last night we were caught in a drug bust. We'd just pulled up to sleep beside the campervan area when a van backed up behind us, another car on the side and then two police cars. The police proceeded to search both the van, car and people. We waited til it was over and parked between two protective caravans. We're just about to head out of Switzerland and into Austria for the night. We'll stop by, of course, in Liechtenstein. Beautiful weather here too!
Slate cottages along side glacial crystal waters, waterfalls, high peeks and sun shine. Speechless, almost. Tonight we sleep in Locarno and tomorrow onto Liechtenstein!
We breakfast here in Baveno, on Lake Maggiore. Finally it's beautiful weather and I we can get our summer clothes on. Albert is actually stripping down right now! We ate pizza last night and drove until quite late. This morning we took a look at the famous sacred mount of Orta with all it's statues depicting the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. Now we'll have a tour around the lake and head north to Locarno in Switzerland. We'll sleep there tonight. It's friday, so perhaps it's even time to put my party shoes on.
'Waa laa' is what he keeps saying. We're driving very slowly along part of the Tour de France. There are actually cyclists going up the mountain! It's amazing to see how steep it is. We ate galettes (savoury crepes) for lunch with fresh white wine. Delicious! There are patches of snow along the way and it's lightly spitting. The tourists are usually older and sensibly dressed. We haven't seen any Spanish along the way. We're happy.
What a life saver, hey? It takes the edge off the damp morning and even though the tent is wet and we have to pack it up this morning, it's all ok with a cup of tea. Today we're driving to Italy and planning to end up in Lake Maggiore. But first we drive around the the national park of Vanoise. Honestly, this place is spectacular and we've put it on our list of 'must come back to' spots. We were unlucky with the weather this time. They say the last 2 weeks have been wet and cold. Well, time to pack up.
It started off ok but it got colder and started raining the higher we went up the mountain. We climbed Montjovet and ate in the refuge. Beautiful, really, and worth it. But, well, on the way down it started hailing! We were beaten with ice, whipped with wind and lashed with rain. Now onto the camp site for a warm shower, a little walk in Bozel for a huge got chocolate and the biggest cake I can find.
