We crossed the border from Austria into Liechtenstein around 7pm and were into Vaduz soon after. We stopped long enough to take some snaps of the castle on the hill above the main street, then drove up a hill just out of town for the night, where we got a really good view of the town below, before free camping for an early night.
Next day was a special day for us as we celebrated having been on the road for 6 months, but the weather wasnt in celebratory mood as a heavy storm had hit us overnight. We wandered into Vaduz for a look around, but there was nothing particularly startling. However, we did observe that about the main feature of the economy appears to lie with postage stamps and other local souvenirs. We drove up to Schloss Vaduz for a closer look – the place was really attractive, with lines of cloud drifting over the mountains. We split from Vaduz just before midday, with the weather clearing, and we even got some sunshine later in the day. Most of our drive was through Swiss territory – very lush, prosperous looking countryside, with dark brown alpine houses dotted throughout.
On arrival in Konstanz that afternoon, we made it straight away to visit the Lamms, a couple I had got to know quite well when they visited Fiji while I was working there, just over a year earlier. They had insisted that and visit them when we finally reached Konstanz, so we were happy to agree to that. Peter was away in France when we arrived, but we caught up with Gaby on arrival and again after dinner. We were joined for the latter visit by Julie and Peta, who had arrived a couple of days earlier and were staying at the local Youth Hostel. A record mail haul of 16 letters made my day. Peta and I did the right thing by Bob and Julie and we checked ourselves for the night into the local Youth Hostel.
It was a pretty inconsiderate crowd in the dorm of the Jugendherberge Kolpinghaus last night and neither of us got a heap of sleep. We were picked up by Bob and Julie at 9am and drove out of town for breakfast. We spent most of the morning looking
for for the four of us in hotels, campsites, caravans etc but had no luck at all. The weather, which was crummy earlier, cleared and we spent some time down on the waters edge of the Bodensee and lay in the sun for a couple of hours. After dinner, we all shot up to the Lamms as Peter and his mother had just returned from their trip to France. We discussed the Kombi, Nixon, travels, Fiji and how we would spend our time in Germany, before returning to the Youth Hostel at 10.30pm.
We had a late start next day after all getting a much better nights sleep. We went over to Switzerland to buy some food and petrol before making it back for a late brekkie. The weather was stinking early but cleared up and we spent the late morning again by the side of the lake. We caught up again with Peter and Gaby and took the ferry across the lake to Meersburg. There was a heavy downpour on arrival, but again it cleared. We walked along the vineyards that skirted the shoreline and past the castles on the hill, taking just over an hour
in all. We then returned to the restaurant where we consumed some great rusty coloured wine (a local brew apparently) and had a great ‘schnitzel unt salat. We were back at Konstanz by around 10pm in the drizzle and made it back to the hostel for a relatively early night.
We had a fairly inactive next morning, taking our time over breakfast and lunch, sitting in the van just yakking and catching up with Julie and Petas travel since we left them in Copenhagen. Lousy weather stopped any outdoor activity, so we finished up all our eats and made it over to the Lamms by 1pm. The seven of us (including Peters mother) then set out for Schweiz (Switzerland for you speakers!) in the Kombi. We travelled some 30kms beside the lake until we came to the small Swiss town of Stein am Rhein. We wandered around the town for a while, checking out the great architecture of the houses.
