On the road again

We were both awake early this morning, and starting to pack up slowly from eight onwards. It had been another cold night, and the drains did struggle a bit, but we knew what to do now. By ten we were ready for the off, but the motor mover on the shady part of the caravan had frozen, and we could not push the caravan backwards. So amazingly, Chris managed to hook the van onto the car, at quite an acute angle. He tried to reverse, but the snow was catching on the feet, so forward he went. As he had to go over a bit of bump, we lost one of the feet. But that was the only damage, thankfully.

Then we were off, waving a fond farewell to Randa, St Niklaus (and their giant Santa), the red trains, snow, ice, mountains, and a wonderful week in this picturesque valley.

Once we reached Visp, it was snowing, and this continued all the way along the valley. We followed the Rhone to Montreux, where we were singing along to Freddie, and then headed North. Just after Bulle, we found a very nice services, where we picked up some filled baguettes, and then onwards, listening to "Cabin Pressure".
 Chris now understands about "the lemon being in play"!

The traffic began to pick up at Fribourg, and even more around Bern. The views were very impressive, with the clouds sitting over the mountains. Sometimes it was hard to tell where the ground stopped and the air started. The motorways were so easy to drive on, but also a bit boring. We reached Basel with no problems, drove straight into Germany, and within thirty minutes arrived easily at "Camping Park Lug ins Land".

We found reception, but it was not open again until 6pm, but we did meet a very friendly cat. While we trying to translate the information posters at the windows, a gentleman stopped and began to tell us that we could choose our own pitch and just check in when the office opened. So off we went, found a very empty row, and set up the van. At which point, the cat arrived again, heading straight for the door.

Once everything was ready, we walked over to the office and booked in. The girl at the desk spoke very good English, and had the cutest colli dog we had ever met. There was a swing door in the office, and the dog kept putting his nose underneath it.
Back to the van for dinner and our first night in Germany.

Last day at Randa

The red train to Zermatt

Temperature last night was -12c, so had a problem with the sinks again, but we now know to put salt down the drain and lots of hot water. It was another beautiful, clear day again; hence the cold temperature. Had a slow breakfast, and then started to empty the awning ready to pack up.

BIG SANTA!

After lunch we took the awning down with no problem, and then headed out for our last local drive here. We headed for St Niklaus, where we at last had to chance to get a close look at their rediculously tall Father Christmas. To be honest, I think this is quite scary, especially for young children who are told that he is going to come down their chimney!!

St Niklaus from above

Grachen

We then headed up the other side of the valley to Grachen, which turned out to be lovely. It is just as you imagine a Swiss village, with its lovely wooden chalets, little paved streets and mountains surrounding it. This village is obviously expanding; there were building sites everywhere. But it is right next to some ski lifts, and you can drive into the village. So I think this could become more popular than Zermatt. Although you can not see the Matterhorn from here.

Picked up dinner, including some potatoes that I am really looking forward to trying, then headed home for our last meal in Randa.

A daytrip though the mountains

Train though Lotschberg Tunnel

Not such a cold night, and all the sinks stayed unblocked this morning. After doing our housework jobs, we set off for Interlaken. This meant, driving down into the valley at Visp, then West along the motorway for a few kilometres, then up into the mountains on the North side of the valley towards Kandersteg. A lot of this road is through a tunnel which was quite steep, and along galleries such as we had seen in the Simplon Pass.

Kander Valley

At the end of the road, we drove onto a car train, which would take us through the Lotschberg Tunnel. This proved to be much easier than we had imagined, although we were very glad that we had decided to not try taking the caravan through this route, as it would probably have not fitted very easily. Within a few minutes, the train set off. It was a strange experience, especially when we entered the tunnel and there were no lights. As we could not switch on the car engine, the car started to steam up as the temperature dropped. The journey only took fifteen minutes, and we were quickly off the train and driving through Goppenstein into the Kander Valley.

McDonalds exercise room

McDonalds play room

In this valley it was snowing, and there was a lot of snow already on the ground. As we neared the lakes, we found a new mini shopping centre next to the motorway, and am embarrassed to say that we had another McDonalds. But it was the poshest one we had ever seen. It was spotlessly clean, with a huge area upstairs overlooking the main road, with a children's exercise area and play area. The food was great, and although more expensive than Italy, cheaper than the bistro next door. We popped into the Lidl next door for some milk, and then drove onto to Interlaken.

It was still snowing as we left, but as the road dropped down, the snow turned to rain. The road took us right next to the lake, which seemed just inches from the road. We headed for the centre and found some great parking on the main road next to a park. The parking meters were very clever; each bay was numbered, you choose the correct number at the machine, put your money in, and then there was no need for a paper ticket, as the machine could tell you how much time was left in each bay.

The first shop we found was a chocolate shop, where we picked up a few bits. Then we walked around the casino down to the river, which was a very strange aqua marine colour. As we only had a hour, we circled back to the main road, past the Grand Hotel, tried to do a cache, but failed, in the park, and back to car.

We drove through the modern part of Interlaken, over the island and into the old part where we found another great parking right next to the river. Here we managed to find a cache, some munzees and lots of ducks. We walked along one side of the river, crossed it, and back along the other side, which included a old wooden bridge over a weir. We also found a nice little bakery where we picked up a few bits, and then back to the car. It was getting dark, so we set off back to the tunnel and home.
It was a very easy drive home, just filled up with fuel, and back in the Valais valley there was no snow or rain.

Route off the train

Water, water everywhere

A slightly warmer night last night, and cloudy skies this morning with some light snow. The bathroom sink was still full of water, and as Chris had his shower, the plughole there became blocked. In an effort to clear this we pulled out the plug in the floor of the bathroom, but this also filled up with water. Things were not looking good. We had breakfast and thought of a solution to our problems. Chris took the shower head off and forced hot water into the shower cubicle drain, which cleared that and the bathroom floor problem. We used the last of the salt and lots of hot water in the bathroom basin to finally get the water there to move. SUCCESS.

Traffic island decoration

View from Lidl car park

Now we could get on with the other jobs of the morning, and then it was lunch time. As the snow started to get worse, we headed out in the car to Sion, a city in the valley, where we could fill up the gas bottle and get some supplies. The snow was settling all the way down at Visp, and into Sion itself. The clouds themselves were hovering half way down in the valley. The LPG was easy to find and fill up, and soon after we found a Lidl to try out. What a strange place. Lots of unusual food, all muddle up, stacked haphazardly, but some cheap and local things to try.

On the way home, the rows and rows of grapevines looked very pretty in the snow, and as we climbed up into the mountains again, we found that the snow on the road had turned to ice and was causing a few cars some problems. One or two pulled over to the side, and the car in front of us ended up going sideways several times. We all took our time, and made it home.

The cloud rolls in

The vineyards in snow

Over the mountains we go to Italy

The temperature last night got down to -13.5c. Due to this, the LPG had begun to freeze as had the toilet chemical, and the bathroom sink was still blocked. It took us a while to get going as we needed the sun to come over the mountains, and then we could fill up the water and empty the loo before heading out.

Heading towards the Simplon Pass

Alter Spittel on Simplon Pass

It was another beautiful sunny day, and it was an easy drive down to Visp, along the valley floor to Brig, and then up into the mountains to cross them at the Simplon Pass. This was an incredible experience with amazing views. The skies stayed clear, the roads were easy to drive, it was not too busy, and it was actually easier to drive than we had imagined.

Impressive icicles

Lago Maggiore from Verbania

The border crossing was easy, we just had to stop before entering Italy, where a policeman came out of his office and waved us through. Once in Italy the road condition suddenly deteriorated, and we had a long drive through another valley until we pulled away from the mountains and found the lakes. We aimed for Verbania on the edge of Lago Maggiore. We were hungry and thirsty and pulled into a free car park right next to the lake for a break, where the temperature was a balmy 11c.

We carried on driving North along the lake, but a lot of the restaurants were closed, and there was no obvious place to stop, so we turned round, and headed back towards a McDonalds we had seen. Rather embaressing to have a burger in Italy, but it was cheap and they had loos. Also, the cheapest fuel we had found was across the road.

We decided to go and have a look at the lake from the other side at Stresa, so drove thought the rush hour traffic, and headed South where we saw the most amazing view of a full moon over the mountains, so had to pull in and take photos. Along this coast where some huge hotels, which were all closed up for the season. It did feel like you were going back in time, perhaps to an Agatha Christie plot. In fact apparently Queen Victoria liked it here, and at some point the Orient Express was re-routed through Stresa. We found some very nice parking on the waterfront and went in search of caches and munzees. Very pleased to say that we found our first (and only) cache in Italy, and several munzees.

On the lake are also three small islands, with large houses on them, and when these all began to light up, the placed looked almost dreamlike.

Islands in Lago Maggiore

It was time to head home, and the drive back was quite easy. The views of the mountains in the dark, with their tops covered in snow and a full moon were impressive. Then, as we headed down the other side, the beautiful town of Brig, all lit up looked just like a scene from a Christmas card.

A day of rest and housework.

Last night's temperature dropped to -11.5c, and during the day got up to the staggering heights of 0.3c. We still had a basin in the bathroom blocked, and then the kitchen sink began to stop emptying. Chris managed to open the front locker box, with the help of hot water, and tried pouring hot water back into the caravan through the waste pipe, all to no luck. So we had our showers, filled up the water tank and had a think while we had breakfast.

We found it amusing that Chris phone's weather forecast app believes we are at Folkestone Ski Centre. We are therefore very impressed with the facilities here; it is all so lifelike!!

It was a gorgeous morning again, and we had planned to go to Italy for the day, but we could not ignore all these water features in the van. So decided instead, to head for the closest town of Visp, where there was a supermarket and buy some salt. This, we hoped, would melt any ice that was stuck in the waste pipes.

Visp is at the beginning of this valley, just 30 minutes away. It was nice to finally see the route that we had driven up in the dark on our arrival. The views were still stunning, but as we dropped in altitude, the temperature increased and the snow disappeared. We also saw the new road that is being built, which the Sat Nav (Penelope) wanted us to originally drive on. It is a tunnel which misses out Visp, a bridge that crosses the valley, and then another tunnel which continues East, avoiding Visp. Basically just a bypass, but with the added difficulty of digging through a few mountains.

View from centre of Visp

At Visp we thought of leaving the car at some on road parking; but as we were not sure what the signs meant, we though it safer to park in the multi-storey. Although narrow, this turned out to be very nice, and just a short walk away from the food shop. Here we found the salt we needed, a huge bag of toilet rolls (far too expensive, but cheaper in bulk), some bread, chicken and salad. We had problems finding the eggs we wanted, but when we did eventually find them, we were surprised to find trays of hard-boiled eggs for sale. Not something I have seen for sale in England, which made me begin to think of what you can buy where? Ten years ago, it was very difficult to buy fresh milk in France, and sliced bread was impossible to find. But now, both are available. In France, it is easy to find huge bags of plain crisps at very cheap prices, but in the UK you have to pay stupid amounts of money for crisps with strange flavours. The same goes for yoghurt, which in France you can buy by the bucket load, but in England you can now buy in a reasonably sized pot which lasts a few days, but a few years ago these were non existent. Ofcourse Joe already knows about the many more flavours of Tic-Tacs you can find in Europe, compared to Great Britain.

Once back at the car, the parking was the reasonable charge of 1 CHF, and we headed home for lunch. While we ate, we left the dissolved salt solution sitting in the sinks, and before we finished out teas and biscuits, the kitchen drain made a wonderful gurgling noise, and the water disappeared. Success, although the bathroom one is still blocked as I write this. During the afternoon Chris did some clothes' washing while I did some OU study. At three o'clock the sun went behind the mountains, and the temperature began to drop again. The washing that is hanging up in the awning is already frozen, but it is dry!

Return to Zermatt

The temperature last night dropped to -4.8c, so this morning the bathroom sink would not drain, the outside water barrel had frozen and the front locker box was jammed by ice. So it took us several hours to sort ourselves out. It was a beautiful day, the sky was blue, so we headed for Zermatt.

Time to sunbathe?

We left the car in the wonderful underground parking next to Randa train station. With its incredible huge steel doors which open automatically, this car park is probably the best one we have ever found. That was the good news, the bad news was paying for the train tickets to Zermatt, which cost a staggering 56 CHF which is £36, for a 15 minute journey (return = 30 mins). But the train just arrived as we payed for tickets, so on we hopped. The trains had certainly improved, with great big windows, seating higher up, and all very new.

The square at Zermatt had not changed, where the train pulled in. It was nice and quiet, apart from lots of mini electric taxis that buzzed around the town, sometimes at quiet a speed. We walked down to the river, which was still running slowly. We then found a wonderful bistro, where a very pleasant lady asked if we were British, and then spoke to us in very good English. We had a great lunch there and then followed the river up to the church and on to
the main road all the way to the end of village.

A very tired Santa

The weather was brilliant, and the views even better.

We had a pleasant stroll back along the main road, and found an ice rink with a very friendly cat who really, really wanted to make friends.

As it was still only 4pm, but it was starting to get colder, we decided to get a train up into the mountains, to Gornergrat. There was only a couple of us on it, and as we pulled away from Zermatt, the views of the Matterhorn were very impressive.

It was great fun riding further and further up into the sky, and at the very top we were actually in the clouds. We had about 10 minutes to walk around at the last station, but at minus 17 degrees, we did not stay long. The journey back down the mountains meant that we could see the Matterhorn bathed in the last remnants of daylight, and Zermatt all lit up.

We finally caught the train back to Randa, and after collecting the car from the very safe car park, we returned to the van to watch "The Sound of Music".