Europe 2013: Italy, Switzerland, Germany.

Firstly sorry for the delay in publishing this blog, internet is either non existent or only 1 bar which will not load the blog.

Lake Garda, Italy 26^th 27^th 28^th 29^th 30^{th May}

We liked Sirmione so much that we decided to visit the town again, this time taking our bikes for a pleasant 2km bike ride to the town. We enjoyed exploring the town in more detail and had a pleasant lunch in an Olive Grove overlooking Lake Garda.

The following day we visited Desenzano del Garda and mooched around the harbour looking at all the local boats, the town wasn’t very big and nothing like Sirmione, but a nice day out all the same.

That draws an end to our Italian stay, we braved the traffic once again and decided to head north back into Switzerland away from the mad Italian drivers, tail gating is in their nature and as for pulling out directly in front of you without looking, I am just surprised that the accident rate isn’t a lot higher.

Sirmione below

Desenzano del Garda below

Acquarossa, Switzerland 31^st – 1st June

The campsite is very pretty with superb views over the mountain range which still hang heavy with snow.

We took a car ride up into the mountains, some 1950 metres high where we were above the snow line and the temperature plummeted to 5 degrees. The road is mainly made up of hairpin bends and quite steep in places, although the views make it well worth the effort.

All through Switzerland you are surrounded by waterfalls some of which are very dramatic, even over the local train station at Biasco, the next small town to Acquarossa.

The stay at Acquarossa was good but it was just a stepping stone on our way to Herbolzheim, Germany. To be honest there isn’t much to do in Acquarossa in the way of sightseeing, but it is great if you are into walking and biking.

Acquarossa campsite below

Biasco below

Trip into the mountains below

Herbolzheim, Germany 2^nd 3^rd 4^th 5^{th 6th & & 7th June}

We arrived on Sunday and the sun was shining at full strength yet again, we have been really lucky with the weather, most of the rain when there has been any has been at night, we have only really had one wet day and that was at our Venice stop.

Anyway back to Herbolzheim, yesterday we took a ride to see some of the local towns, firstly Herbolzheim, this little town is within walking distance from the campsite and has a few shops, nothing very special but nice just the same. We then travelled to Haslach and Hausach, Haslach is yet again a small town but nothing to write home about, however Haslach does have a historical part to it and some of the houses are quite beautiful and very old, we enjoyed our visit although it didn’t take long to walk around the town.

Freiburg

Today’s excursion took us to the town of Freiburg, a short 25 minute drive away. The University town is fairly similar to Southampton with its high street full of department stores, but it does have an historic area with a huge cathedral surrounded by an outside food market and lots of outside cafes and restaurants. We spent a few hours walking around the town taking in the scenery and soaking up the atmosphere, but to be honest we were glad to get back to our camp site as the weather is so hot an afternoon sat out under our awning with cold drinks was called for.