We decided to change today’s the route at the last minute. Looking at the map, there were two options in terms of route to the destination near Stuttgart, (International Camping Schwarzwald). The shortest was the original planned route at 4hrs 23 minutes. It was only when we sat down to dinner last night though, that we started to think about the other route. It was a little longer adding 40 minutes onto the overall journey time but from looking at the map it looked like it might be more scenic. Maybe we could squeeze a little more time in the Alps 🗻 before we said farewell to them.
Whilst 5 hours and 10 minutes is a long time to be driving, we though what the heck, we were in no rush. So decision made! 👌🏻
We were right to choose this route. The Alps so far have been something else but today in the last of the Alpine part of our trip was breathtaking. Just Wow.
The route took its down into Innsbruck and then west towards Telfs and the Albergpass, through the Alberg Strabent Tunnel (5000m long) and then to the highest point of the trip at St Christoph 1800m above sea level. Then a long and at some parts nerve racking descent down the other side. Then continuing through Lichtenstein, along the shores of Lake Constance, across the German border into Black Forest (Schwarzwald) country.
We said farewell to Edelweiss around 9:30am. We decided to do it a little differently this morning because we figured Eddy would likely need two fuel stops today (I haven’t been letting him go much below 1/2 tank. We decided to get a start on the journey then stop after an hour or so to top up Eddy with fuel and maybe grab some breakfast and a coffee ☕️ at a service station. So roughly an hour into todays route, we stopped at a service station just after Innsbruck Rossenberger. It was decent enough for a service station, just what we needed really.
This is when things began to get interesting. As we headed west towards Lichtenstein 🇱🇮 and Germany 🇩🇪 The terrain was becoming more and more Alpine 🏔 again. A hefty climb up into St Christoph was really testing Eddy to the max. We were down to 2nd gear at times and pulled over several times to allow cars to go by. If you have read my previous blogs, you will remember me mentioning Eddy’s engine temperature. Well today was the same. Despite us being at the highest point of our journey so far and there still being lying snow ❄️ (plenty of it too) Eddy’s temperature was at its highest 95 degrees C. It’s really quite amazing though, as soon as his engine is under a little less stress, the temperature goes straight back down. There was nearly a 20 degrees swing between the summit at St Christoph and at the bottom of the crazy descent, 95 at the summit and 77 at the bottom of the descent.
We couldn’t resist a stop at St Christoph, it was so beautiful. We go out the van and walked around for a bit taking in the scenery and stretching our legs a little. It was however freezing up there, Mrs and I are not sure exactly what temperature it was outside but it was definitely jacket weather and as I said, there was plenty snow ❄️ hanging around.
We continued west towards Liechtenstein 🇱🇮 and down towards Lake Constance (another beautiful part of the journey. Not quite Lake Garda but lovely nonetheless. That was then time for stop number two. Eddy needed another top up of fuel and we were a bit peckish. There was a Burger King next door to the petrol station so we thought we’d go for a look. We were please to find the menu is exactly the same as at home. 😁 So Chicken strips for Mrs along with a Sunday to finish off, Chilly Cheese Bites for me and an Onion Ring chaser. 😋
The terrain was flattening out by now but as we headed towards the German 🇩🇪 border and Black Forest country, but the weather deteriorated somewhat. The rain was heavy and relentless, Eddy’s wipers were full blast for a while. Crossing the German 🇩🇪 border was no bother, didn’t even get stopped. The last 100 or so miles of the journey towards Stuttgart was a bit draining though as the heavy rain continued and there wasn’t as much lovely scenery to keep us interested.
So, because we’d stopped to take in the scenery at St Christoph, we finally arrived at home for the night, International Camping Schwarzwald at 18:10. We checked in not problem, set up camp and headed out for a wander around. We walked into the village (about 3/4 of a mile), mainly looking for a bin for our rubbish but this is Germany and they recycle everything it appears. I am not joking when I say no roadside bins anywhere to be seen. 🤷🏼♂️
We again opted for the easy (and incredibly good value) option for dinner tonight, Home made Pizza at the campsite restaurant. 10 💶 each, can’t be bad really.
At this point I will apologise for the lack of decent pictures in tonight’s update. Considering how beautiful some of the journey was, I’d like to have uploaded more pictures but the cellular signal here is waash and there is not campsite Wi-Fi. 🤷🏼♂️🤨
Tomorrow’s route to Cologne takes us north past Frankfurt and is around a 4 hour journey. We have no idea what to expect tomorrow, we will see what transpires. Auf Wiedersehen for now.