2010/5 France Alps

What do we do when we arrive in France – Supermarket tourism; and so we did at Bourg Saint Maurice in Savoie. Can’t resist all the goodies, the local specialities – andoulliette & fromage de tete for Joanna, duck & salami for me, cheese for us both and then of course the wine. We buy the casks, since in France they do put good wine in casks (5l of Bordeaux appellation controlee for 15 euro)and then we are not constrained by the contents of a bottle! David has also noted the proliferation of high alcohol beers, and had to test of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First stop Val d’Isere, the thriving ski station, not the village David knew 45 years ago but still a great spot and a super camping spot just out of town with fine views. Walk one in the Vannoise Park was a cracker, clear skies, fields a riot of colour, no not a riot but a pattern of delicate small flowers with deep colours. We have spotted so many flowers but did not find Edelweiss – maybe we should have brought Julie Andrews along!  We saw marmots every where – some shy, some not, a bearded eagle from afar and a herd of Ibex very close. A lot of camera clicking.                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                           The walk was a climb up to the sources of the Isere river at 2700m near the Italian frontier (lunch spot), very tiring but a half litre of wine at the refuge on the way down helped a lot, why can’t the parks in NZ have similar huts with refreshments?

Another walk was helped by taking the chair lift up and wandering the long way down through forest and flowers.  Thence up and over the Col d’Iseran at 2704m to the Maurienne Valley.  Down to Bonneval sur Arc, when David was last there in 1963 there were cows stabled on the ground floor and living space above, in this village that was isolated all winter. Now a thriving little village with tourists and boutique shops selling salami and cheese etc. Walks over the next few days to villages now  abandoned or being revived, and up to the snow line with impressive peaks and glaciers, on the Italian border - all in the Vannoise National Park and its neighbour the Park de Grand Paradiso. Walks were interesting and challenging, finishing with a three refuges (with refreshment of course) walk high above Termingnon with such a towering panorama of glaciers and mountains.

 

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed the Vannoise here with its wide valleys, meadows, clusters of old stone houses. One walk to the Evettes refuge and a ‘cirque’ of glaciers was postponed due to thunderclouds and is on the list for another year.

We have been lucky to find a series of beautiful campsites, almost always with the sound of rushing water. Waterfalls by the dozen, in fact you know you’ve seen enough when you can say waterfall in 6 different languages. We were able to make better use of our portable Camping Gaz bbq this year, a dinky little thing that folds up very neatly.

 

Then a change of focus – the Tour de France cycle race mountain stage was passing farther down the valley. So a night 5m from the railway line near Modane. We took up position at the foot of the Col de la Madelaine descent at the village of La Chambre, jostling with the crowd who managed to slowly spoil our great view we had established with folding chairs etc.  No help from the numerous police standing around blowing whistles. First the razzmatazz of the publicity cavalcade then the riders hurtling down near the end of their 200kmride over 4 mountain passes with over 3,500m of climb, together with police outriders, support vehicles (which had more trouble taking the corner than the riders).  The atmosphere was unique but ‘been there seen that’. Everywhere there are cyclists from all over the world, going ahead or following after the racers,or just crawling up impossible hills. We also have never seen so many camper vans and after a thousand had descended from the Col we decided to go to the summit of the Madeleine and lo and behold another thousand still there for us to find a space overnight at 2000m altitude. Learnt hat the Aussie Evans lost the yellow jersey and apparently all chance of regaining it on the climb up the Madeleine. Our Kiwi came in at 160 something out of 187 but did come second in an earlier stage.

 

So thence to Chamonix – suddenly we are in a valley with lots of tourists, many English and climbers plus bus loads of Japanese going up to the Aiguille du Midi and to the Lac Blanc.  Chamonix is a lively town in a special setting, wall to wall sports shops – we were sucked into buying another two vented day packs; now 7 packs in the van (and dozens at home). We moved up the valley to Argentiere where Joanna spent 6 months over 30 years ago as a chambermaid by morning, an intrepid skier by afternoon and not too many details about the evening but we did enjoy an evening in one of her favourite bars.

As for walks we made one at the end of the valley up near to the Swiss frontier and then back down the valley.  Next day on the south side with a telepherique assisted start and then climb to an impressive look over the Argentiere glacier, refreshment in a refuge but the 1200m descent with lots of zig zags = lots of kilometres was a drag - nothing to do with feeling the effects of the night before of course, but getting old – too tired to go back to the Savoy bar for the happy hour! (two pints for one). Third tramp was on the north side with telepheriqe start to walk to the Lac Blanc. One reason was to replace an old photo in our garage at home – not to be, as lots of cloud swirling around Mont Blanc – another year. However we did discover that it is on the programme for the ‘Alps Tour’(see name tag) of Japanese as  they file past with regulation dress and matching hats.

 

Many telepheriques, chair lifts etc run in summer not only for the tourists but for the legions of mountain bikers (called VTT in France) who are released at the top, don their armour and hurtle down bouncing and skidding to the bottom.Then there are the parapenteurs, the climbers with rope, snazzy crampons and ice picks (note it’s time to throw mine out).

Chamonix is crowded, touristy and totally commercialised but it still has a charm, which of course is why it is so popular. There are so many things to do, different walks combined with trains, telepheriques  and delightful refuge lunches etc and it isn’t hard to get away from the masses at all.

So to the end of the Alpine circuit. We have done 25 substantial hikes (Some more substantial than others) all carefully logged by Joanna. This of course doesn’t include some long bike rides and hours of trudging around towns doing our urban tourism bit. We are really fit (by our standards, not Tour de France riders’ standards – could be something to do with our drug of choice) and looking forward to the ski slopes in NZ in about 2 weeks. But first we have booked a channel ferry for 5.30am on the 21st (ferry prices at this hour are a quarter of the cost at a civilised hour). So a thousand kilometres and then a week in the UK to catch up with family and friends, fix some minor works on the van etc etc..

European Alps goodbye

2010/4 Rest of Northern Italy

From the mountains to the plains, we changed from 5 degrees to 35 degrees, and clear air to haze(which lasted for a week) all in the space of a few stressful hours. We thought that the trip down to Verona would be a lovely jaunt along an alpine valley then a quick whizz down the motorway. How naive and ever optimistic we are. Sure the valley was lovely, but the road works were hell, and all the other thousands of cars thought the same. The motorway from the Brenner (busy) Pass was chock a block with trucks that like nothing better than to tailgate defenceless woman drivers and turn them into nervous wrecks. After getting through that we spent about 2 hours faithfully following the satnav directions around Verona to no longer existing campsites (NB we need to update our Italian sosta campsite) book. HOWEVER when we finally made it – brilliant. The sosta was a few hundred metres walk from the centre of town and Verona is a lovely city.

We mustered our last remaining drops of energy and headed to town for the evening. We love the Italian evening  promenade thing. Actually managed to see most of the sights that night. Next day set off for more tourist torture. Discovered that Aida was on at the old Roman arena that night and managed to get seats. Spent the day seeing the sights – Juliets’s house etc. Plus several hours at a WIFI site – a big problem in Italy as they have new laws all about terrorism that make it difficult for foreigners to get on WIFI easily. Something that we don’t really understand – we think we do when they tell us but when we go away and think about it, we wonder what on earth it is all about!

Well Verona is charming. We were very happy wandering and visiting cafes. Aida in the arena was stunning.  The set was a total extravaganza. It started at 9.15, ended about 12.30. Our marble seats in the plebian area, near the top were bone-achingly hard, even with our double cushions. But we were happy. It was magnificent.

From Verona we travelled west, lunched on the shore of Lake Grado. Dabbled our toes, but too cold. Moved onto Lake Como. Made our way through the town to find the sosta at west Como. It was awful. Just an old truck yard full of wrecks and barely a human to be seen. Joanna put up some serious resistance  (unlike her usual compliant self!) and we moved on up the lake to Menaggio. 34kms which took an hour, but what a spectacular drive. The lake was sparkling,full of boats, crowds of people. Found a camp on the shores of the lake and being evening set off to promenade again. An elegant town, as most of Lake Como appears to be.

Next day we headed into the hills – very steep walk but interesting, through historical village stuff. Lots of ancient work related remnants, some not all that old – mills, forges, lime kilns. Had a bit of excitement when we had to cross a fast-flowing river where the bridge had been washed away. David crawled across what was left of the bridge that had been slung across the water. Joanna got her gear off and walked across. Got the adrenaline going. Next morning had a swim in the lake. Unfortunately the haze had made it up the lake and we could hardly see anything.

Set off on a bit of an Italian lakes tour. Lunch at Lake Lugano, Coffee on the shores of Lake Maggiore and finally dinner at Lake Orta. Orta is by far the smallest of the lakes but has a charming medieval town – Orta san Guilio, with an equally charming island close off shore with a monastry. Joanna’s sister Sue spent time in Orta 35 years ago on her OE and has been trying to get people to go there ever since. Well we have now and it was lovely – although seems to becoming a bit of a museum piece and not really a living town anymore. No cars allowed in the town and camper vans are banished even further out so we got our exercise riding or walking up and down the hill.

Did a motorway hop to Aosta. So quick and cheap in Italy. David had been fretting about the rear lights not working, so decided this was the place to sort it out. Found an interesting sosta right in town that seemed to have several families of resident gypsies. They were very friendly but we were fascinated with all the goings on. While van electrical fault was being traced we headed up the new Pila telepherique, right out of the centre of the town up a thousand metres. We did an extremely rigorous walk(for us) straight up the downhill ski run - another 600 metres. It was stunning, a beautiful day, wonderful scenery,and a very good ski area. Some days we just can’t believe how lucky we are.

Side lights fixed and off to the National Park Grand Paradiso, just off the Aosta Valley. Very picturesque,towering mountains, pretty villages. Full of hearty, hiking sorts – we rather fancy that we are part of the scene at the moment. Did  a  hike up one of the valleys. We noticed a definite lag in our pace and reluctance to attack the steep bits, but it was when we noticed that the unfit looking day trippers in unsuitable shoes were looking more spritely than us, we realised that it was time for a break. Took 2 days out in a delightful little campsite in the village Valnontey. David managed to tick off everything on his list of jobs to be done (first time I have ever known that since we have been married – it usually grows!), we sat in the sun, checked out the village bars, visited the Alpine Botanical Gardens. All very therapeutic. The wildflowers have been magnificent on this trip. An amazing array that any home gardener would be proud of.

Our energy restored we explored another valley the next day before heading off for Courmayeur,right beside the Mt Blanc tunnel. Both of us have spent time in this area in the past, so enjoy revisiting, but always amazed at how little we remember. I am beginning to think that it won’t be long before we could just keep going back to the same place because we don’t remember anything anyway. From Courmayeur we made THE trans Mont Blanc trip on several telepheriques across the Alps to Chamonix. The weather was perfect and the views of Mt Blanc and surrounding peaks incredible especially from the high points of Hellbronner(3462 metres, Matterhorn in the distance) and the Aguille de Midi(3842 metres). We were both impressed to see the path we had taken many years ago down from the Aguille de Midi – Joanna to ski the Mer de Glace and David on various climbing expeditions. It hasn’t improved at all over the years – a narrow path along a ridge with precipitous drops on both sides. We watched climbers with crampons and roped  together. Joanna and David  did it in ski boots and carrying skis. Scary. Back to Courmayeur by bus through Mt Blanc tunnel. Had a great day. Recommend the trip. We have now been to the top of the highest peak in Germany (Zugspitz) and been very close to the highest in Italy (Grande Paradiso) and the highest in the France/Alps (Mont Blanc).

We are now (6 July) in a sosta at La Thuile, a little resort on the Petit St Bernard Pass – onto Val d’Isere later today. The end of our Italian sojourn,much longer than intended, but all good with Dolomites, Adriatic coast,grand Opera and the Grand Paradiso National Park.

We are looking forward to French bread – Italian is unreliable, and all sorts of other gastronomic delights.

2010/3 Italy Tirol Sud/Dolomites/Fruili

12 June and we are in Italy.  However this is the part of the Alps that was bitterly fought over in WW1withtraces of trenches etc in all the passes as a record of the fighting that must have been conducted in some very very inclement weather. Ceded to Italy after WW1 the area now is bilingual with such incredible differences even in the names of villages such that the bus timetable has two columns for the names.

Turned east from the Brenner Pass about 20km to San Candido then onto find a parking spot – the sort we like –  reserved for campervans at no charge, near Sesto. With info from the tourist office and our Lonely Planet Hiking in Italy planned our treks. Fortified for trek 2 with a bratwurst  (50 cents extra for a curry bratwurst which proved to be just curry power shaken on top). Eating it Joanna said I looked just like a gnome from a cuckoo clock! – that from a frau with (the rest has been censored) !  Trek 2 was what we thought was ‘down’ the valley through meadow etc, proved to be a few kilometres along the river then up, up, and up before the down but scenery beautiful.  Up past farm yards, a Red Riding Hood house, to a very moving little chapel set in the woods to remember the victims of the war and a message of hope for  peace.

Trek 3 was to be a longer slog in the mountains to get close to the regions iconic Tre Cime de Lavaredo -3 outstanding rock formations (one of which David climbed in an another life), however clouds descended, thunder, lightning and lots of rain set in.  So we gave up and headed for Cortina through the cloud. 

Settled into a camper stop  (actually an old airfield) just out of Cortina – felt positive as the clouds swirled around and lifted to give us glimpses of  the amazing rock formations that surrounded us. However – not to be. It rained all night and a visit to the tourist office in Cortina next day confirmed what we suspected ,that we were in for a long period of bad weather. Did a quick tour of the town, coffee and cake in a cosy cafe, bought yet another umbrella and made the big decision to head south for the coast. Leave the mountains to all their clouds and rain.

Made it to a small resort – Grado – a sort of mini Venice – well it is set on a lagoon, with canals lined with pleasure craft, half way between Venice and Trieste. Has all the usual Italian beach resort features that us Kiwis find a bit difficult, like paying to sit on the beach,  then a bit more for the chair and the umbrella. Of course we don’t- can’t bear the idea, so take our own chairs and umbrella to the free beach,even though it is vastly inferior, and the water only comes up to your ankles after wading 100m. However we have taken  quite a fancy to Grado, free place to park with water and dump does help. Have made a side trip to Trieste, with a walking tour of the town. Wow, what a complicated history. A couple of village/coastal walks and now back at Grado. A phone call to the tourist office at Cortina tells us that bad weather is still set in. Seems this is over much of northern Europe, with disastrous floods in France. So we will keep soaking up the sunshine,swimming and riding our brand new bikes (upright ladies models, 7 gears plus basket at the front) around this super-flat countryside.  A bike ride to Aquileia, once a large and important Roman town with a basilica that has a fantastic third century mosaic very well presented with elevated glass walkways.  The Italy/New Zealand football game was entertaining watched outside a cafe. Our smiles at the end of the match were met with a stony silence, wonder why. The Italian press next day said - ‘Italy flop’.

Decided we must move on but low and behold the mountains appeared and half way to Verona we made a phone call to Cortina tourist office, which confirmed good weather, so North we go to our airfield.

Stan ground her way slowly in first gear up to the parking at 2320m altitude beneath the Tre Cime rocks.  David of course chose a round trip combining both the suggested routes in the guide map.  Well we made it from 10.30am to after 6pm passing Refuge Lavarado,  lunch in a delightful Refuge Pain di Cengia,  (how can we get NZ to adopt these wonderful catered mountain refuges?),  a stop at the closed Refuge  Locatelli with fantastic views over the Tre Cime. And a bonus was the family of marmots playing in a meadow, like oversized, cuddly meerkats.  The recent snow made the traverses very exposed and overall Joanna found the walk ‘challenging’ (a carefully chosen word). It’s Joanna speaking  now – in my defence I have to say that I coped easily with the fitness side of climbing up and down 6 to 700 vertical metres but it was the slippery snow on precipitous traverses that had me in a semi panic.  However it was exhilarating and I loved it even though it wasn’t always obvious at the time! We spent the night up there with marvellous evening and morning vistas of the Dolomites to compensate for the minus 5 overnight. Next day a    relaxed walk up a very pretty valley to the Refuge Ra Stua set in meadows with cows and horses. Once again we were reminded of the horrors of WW1, with evidence of Austrian and Italian trenches and frontlines on both our walks. Back to our airfield park and the 24th we quit the Dolomites to head South.

Goodbye the mountains (and Grado/Trieste) - hallo the plains and the lakes.

2010/2 Bavarian & Tyrolean Alps

We have had a fantastic few days at Gamische- Partenkichen in Bavaria.The weather has been brilliant, a good variety of things to do and good company.  We started with our trip up the Wank. An appealing name, even if they pronounce it differently! It’s Joanna’s idea of mountain walking, take a cable car up the really steep bit, then meander about amongst the meadows and the wildflowers.   Coffee and apple strudel at one of the numerous mountain refuges. Annoyingly David loves the hills, so there is much discussion over routes taken and a bit of compromise. It’s amazing how you spend hours trudging to these places, feel like you’ve really got away from it all, then you look around the back and there is a car. However we love it, it’s the only way to get a decent beer or apple strudel up there and it makes it accessible to most people and they use it. Every day there are hordes of people out there – striding up and down. We’ve even seen men in lederhosen.

We settled into our stellplatze (campervan parking place with limited facilities, but much cheaper than camping grounds – called aires in France, sostas in Italy – a brilliant European thing that NZ could do with.) Also met up with Frans and Cynthia again. Next day we set off on a rack rail up the Zugspitze – the highest mountain in Germany (2996m). It is hard to believe when you look up that a train could get up there – but it does, thanks to efficient German engineering. You take a cable car for the last hundred metres to the peak. All very impressive. The weather was brilliant, not a cloud in the sky. You can step into Germany & Austria, and see Switzerland and Italy from up there, but have to say that the mountains all looked much the same. We did a walk through the fresh glacier snow up there to a viewpoint with a precipitous drop of several thousand metres into Austria.

On the way back Cynthia introduced Joanna to the Deichmann shoe shops. Managed to spend some money there immediately – so did she!  Then back to the stellplatze for a Bavarian evening which involved beer plus lots of bratwurst, other meats and salads plus entertainment by 3 brothers on their piano accordions, in traditional dress. Was good.

Next busy day was a walk through the very dramatic (thanks to all the recent rain)  Partnachklamm gorge with waterfalls descending everywhere through the midday sunshine. Followed by a long walk up through meadow and forest to stop for a beer at a hotel and Joanna descended by gondola while David walked down.

Thence in and out of Austria to Fussen and another top stellplatze. It is interesting that we have noticed the different types of people at the different stellplatzes. Gamische was a mixed group,some quite young, enthusiastic hiking types. Here in Fussen it is a bit like a retirement village, Joanna being probably the youngest person here. They all ride bikes and hang about the place a lot. The most brilliant thing about this place is its close proximity (about 50 metres) to 2 supermarkets, a Deichmanns and other assorted shops where we can spend heaps. Campsites are usually miles from shops. Visited the town on foot (regretting that we have no bikes this trip) and up to the famous and much photographed   Neuschwanstein Castle of King Ludwig II- unfinished as he died at 40.  Managed some side walks around a lake and down through a gorge to fill in the day.

German supermarkets are not a patch on the French ones but items like herring roll mops are so cheap as is all alcohol. Australian shiraz in original (screw top) bottle for 2 Euros ($4), Williams pear liqueur for 10 Euro, and cheap grapefruit or lemon beer – quite refreshing and only 2.5% alcohol – good when driving and Joanna has given the grapefruit beer an exemption on alcohol free days. It sounds awful but it is really very refreshing – a bit like Radler beer at home. We only seem to be able to find the budget supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi Sud. They have a very limited range of products and the centre aisles are full of a wide assortment of stuff ranging from radios to clothing – all sorts of little knick-knacks. Things you can’t do without. We are missing the French cheeses already but every country has some new little delight – like the rollmops and bratwurst. Yum!

From Fussen we moved over the Fern Pass with fantastic alpine views , including the Zugspitze. Spent a few hours in Innsbruck then onto the Stubaital Valley – off the Brenner Pass highway. We settled in quickly to a campsite at Neustift and hounded the poor souls at the local Tourist office. We discovered that there were only 2 mountain huts open, so quickly selected one, packed up and set off for a night up in the Sulzenauhutte.  It was a steep ascent of about 650 vertical metres, but not difficult, spectacular scenery and a myriad of wildflowers. In about a week the slopes there are going to be covered with bright pink azaleas. Also fantastic waterfalls thanks to all the recent rain.

We love these serviced mountain huts. They go to amazing amounts of trouble to wine,  dine and provide you with a warm, comfortable bed so far up a mountain. All supplied by flying foxes. Sulzenauhutte, where we stayed is run by an Austrian guy and his Australian wife, so we were able to ask heaps of questions. David allowed a beer and a rest for about an hour before he dragged Joanna further up the mountain to visit a lake – all very pretty and lots more wildflowers. We really felt we had earned our evening meal with plenty of beer to assuage the thirst then a bottle of wine with difficult conversation with a German couple from Munich. We are not particularly enamoured with the German fondness of dumplings – the whole menu was pretty stodgy, but somehow it seemed suitable.

The long walk down the next morning – then bus back to the campsite. A casual walking day ( David’s idea of a casual walk involved 10kms up a valley!! We are getting fit.) followed plus restocking the beer etc before heading off to Italy over the very impressive Brenner pass with its huge viaducts, trucks and more trucks up to the summit and glide down into Italy (although all signage etc in German)