Leaving Switzerland

 

Friday 20th September 2024

Thankfully today was a much more enjoyable day after the stresses of the San Gottard tunnel yesterday.

It was cool overnight on the southern shores of lake Lucerne but blue skies and warm sunshine greeted us this morning.

Right nextdoor to the campsite is Eggberge cable car which goes up the mountain behind us.

It was too good an opportunity to miss, so I was straight to the ticket office with a discount card from the campsite.

The cable car rises about 1000 meters to a plateau where, strangely there is a small Hamlet of houses, a church and a restaurant.

No skiers in sight.

A variety of hiking trails then go off in different directions, from 4 to 9 hours hiking the information board suggested.

I walked up to the next view point and was puffing away, I can't imagine a 9 hour hike in this terrain.

The views were spectacular though and we'll worth the effort.

I've been up cable cars before and usually they are there to cater for skiers, but this one was totally for hikers, and I assume the few residents that appear to live there. 

I think some of the chalets were holiday rentals and there was the odd wellness retreat type place.

So it was a very enjoyable hour spent on the mountain, there was not a breath of wind and quite warm.

So after my decent, I set the compass and the sat nav to a little village in the Alsace region of France by the name of Oltingue, close to the Swiss border.

The Swiss motorways are a joy to drive on, smooth as a billiard table, no potholes and no ruts. Lots of tunnels though.

Oltingue is a very nice place to spend the night, parked up in the free motorhome aire behind the Maries office and a couple of horses in a barn behind us.

It's also next to the church with bells striking every 15 minutes, it's nice to hear at the moment, but I'll be hoping they stop at night.

We've had a walk around the Oltingue village and a long a small river called the l'll.

We also met two donkeys Tequila and Tequiero.

Meet Tequila and Tequiero

I've also managed to book Louis in for his worming treatment at the vets, essential if we want to come home. 

I realised yesterday, it needs to be done today or Monday, Tuesday is no good as it needs to be 24 hours before travel and we're on the shuttle at 0900 and the weekend gets in the way.

It's a bit of a nightmare predicting where we will be and finding a vets to do it at a time that suits. 

Anyway I got it sorted, he's booked in at a vets in Verdun on Monday afternoon, so that was a big relief.

Some photod of Oltingue . . . . . 

San Gottard tunnel 😲

 

Thursday 19th September 2024

We left our beautiful parkup overlooking Lake Como with my head spinning with options for getting over the Alps in one piece.

The obvious choice was the nearby Splügen-Pass directly north from where we we're on Como, and the shortest route, but looking on Google maps streetview and it's quite narrow and one of the lesser used passes, perhaps for a reason ?

The alternatives were the San Bernardino tunnel or the San Gottard tunnel which I'm familiar with.

The only problem is the Mont Blanc tunnel is presently closed, so directing more traffic onto the San Gottard tunnel.

They have a traffic light system that regulates the quantity and flow of traffic in the tunnel for safety reasons and there are usually lengthy daytime delays.

No problem though I, we'll use the pass over the mountain, as we did on our way south.

So we set off for the San Gottard pass which is a longer route but more familiar and less hairpin bends.

What is not realised is there are roadworks as well, closing the slip road to the pass.

So we were committed to using the tunnel and enduring the delays.

I think it added about an hour to the journey so I was feeling pretty frazzled by the time we emerged from the tunnel into daylight.

It's about 16 kilometers but feels like forever.

I didn't feel up to driving much more today, so after a quick groceries shop in Aldi, we headed to Camping Remo in Altdorf, on the southern tip of lake Lucerne.

It's a bit of a quirky campsite, complete with model village, model railway and even a model quarry with conveyor belt transporting gravel to the railway.

All the model buildings light up at night.

Camping Remo model village

Model quarry

Model railway

I had a walk down to the lake after tea and it's quite an attractive waterfront.

Also, next door to the campsite is a cable car going up the adjacent mountain behind us, I think I might take a look in the morning.

Fred Flintstones new model ?

This reminds me of Cocoon