Austria and Switzerland

Generally I wouldn’t use the word majestic. In fact I sort of have something against it, and judge people that use it as a little over the top. This is until late last week when we drove into Austria, and since to Switzerland. We drove from Venice to Innsbruck late last week and it was like driving through a set of moving post cards. The mountains that spring up from nowhere are nothing short of majestic. These monsters tower thousands of metres each side of the highway, which made me somewhat nervous thinking that at one stage, we’re going to have to climb one of these things in Cal which couldn’t possibly end well. On arrival in Innsbruck we found a brilliant brand new camp ground that which cost 30Euro a night inc free WiFi. Looking around this town, with the views that it has, and the proximity to some of the best skiing in the world, its little surprise that this town has hosted the Winter Olympics twice. We spent the afternoon/night sitting outside having an extended happy hour while looking at the incredible scenery.


The next day we headed toward a little town we’d read about on the internet called Appenzell. Known by some travel bloggers as the most authentic (old school) town in Switzerland due to the traditional dress worn and day to day activities carried out by the locals, we thought it was a must see, and it was. On route to Appenzell we stopped off at Vaduz which is the capital of Liechtenstein. The first thing we noticed in this town was the brilliant castle looking over the town which gives the place a definite fairy tale feel, the second were the exorbitant prices for food at the local restaurants, so we ditched the idea of lunch out, and grabbed some bread rolls from the local supermarket. Once back on the road to Appenzell, the roads quickly turned to a similar type of road we experienced watching the Tour De France. This was not good. Cal struggled his way up the mountain climb and at one stage came very close to being overtaken by a cyclist. Once we got to the top, we found an amazing camp site overlooking the Swiss country side and sat having drinks with the sound of cow bells in the distance. The next morning we used to discover this town called Appenzell, we found a beautiful little town which was described as a place where time seemed to have stood still for the last several decades. We had a coffee on the main street and people watched for a while followed by a spot of shopping and wandering.

Our next destination was Luzern which was a fairly short drive via St Gallen and Zurich. Luzern is one spot that seems to be a tourist hot spot for Europeans. The number of tourists from around Europe was reflected in the price of the camp ground, 38Euro! It was situated in a great spot though, 1 minute from the lake that Luzern is based around, and a 10 minute bike ride from the centre of town. We spent two nights here, relaxing and seeing the sites. We’re not surprised this place is so popular.

From one Luzern to another Lausanne. Our next stop was a few hours drive through what seemed to be incredibly flat land (considering where we are). This town is a definite must see when coming to Switzerland. If you’re a sports fan, this is the centre of the world for sports.... The home of the International Olympic Committee (We’re camped literally 100 metres from the IOC headquarters building), and many many other sports organisations. The town is perched above Lake Geneve which is a haven for the locals for all sorts of water sports. And while cycling next to the lake, you pass every different sort of sport field, court, ramp, ring, arena you could imagine, there’s even a Curling ring! Brilliant! We spent a day walking the streets and doing some shopping, then in the afternoon we headed to the Olympic museum which was one of the best museums we’ve seen in Europe. It had quite a hands on section which Andrew loved (Turns out he has a better reaction time off the blocks than Usain Bolt!)

Today we’re off to Geneve, hopefully to see part of the Large Hadron Collider! How cool!

A&J xoxox