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 . . . . .