Europe 2013: Switzerland to Austria

Switzerland

Switzerland is a very beautiful country and many parts remind us of New Zealand, snow topped mountains and amazing waterfalls, definitely a place to come back to.

The weather hasn’t been over kind to us, showers and low cloud cover has stopped us doing a couple of things, the zip wire was closed due to low cloud cover and nil visibility, it was -2 at the top, also the Jungfrau cog railway was a no go as visibility at the top was also nil, but hey ho there is always next time.

Instead we rode the gondola up to First and used the Trottibikes to get back to base, 4.5km and in places really steep, boy did my fingers hurt from using the breaks so much, but by the end we both ended up as speed freaks, we also did some scenic driving and visited some beautiful small villages as the pictures below will show.

All in all, Switzerland is well worth a visit and I know we will return, perhaps even in the Morgan so that we can drive a few more of the mountain passes.

Trottibikes

Scenic drive

Thun

It was closed, typical

Innsbruck, Austria

After a journey of 6 hours we arrived at our campsite at Natter see, we have a lake side pitch and all you can hear is the bird song, when the sun shines it is a truly lovely spot to spend your time. The camp site has the best showers I have ever come across on a camp site, the women’s block has amazing showers and when you come out it looks like a beauty parlour with all the hairdryers, mirrors and lighting. As for the kids shower, well, you have a large room with a push button and when you push it, you get thunder and lightning followed by the showers, just like warm rain, they also have TV screens in there playing cartoons for the kids, if I went in there I wouldn’t come out again.

Last night we visited the restaurant on site just across the lake and had a traditional Austrian meal, Snitzel (beef) with parsley potatoes followed by apple strudel and cream, well we are in Austria.

Today we caught the free bus from the camp site into Innsbruck, a 20 minute ride. Innsbruck old town is really quaint, 14^th and 15^th century buildings abound. A few pictures below to show you a glimpse of what we saw, never as good as seeing it in real life, but you will get the idea.