Thursday 14th July Bregenz to Lingenau

If you read yesterday's diary entry you will know that I wasn't exactly looking forward to today's walk. Well as usual I survived and after going without anything to eat last night I more than made amends tonight.

It did rain all night and was raining this morning but the weather gradually got better as the day went on. Not exactly sunny but only occasional showers. The ground and grass however were very wet and with the shoes I'm wearing you might as well put your foot in a bucket of water as walk through wet grass as your feet will get instantly soaked either way.

Today's first drama was that I couldn't find my hat. This is a sentimental blow as that hat has come a long way and would definitely have taken centre stage in a limited range of walking memorabilia. Not sure where I could have left it but yesterday it was smelling and I know that on several occasions I ripped it off my head as I became aware of the fact. Suspect it's feelings were hurt and on one of these occasions it decided to make itself scarce.

After leaving Bregenz the walk takes you towards Wolfurt. Went right into Wolfurt to get some money and food and was disappointed not to see any of the amazing posters which had been outside the Wolford Outlet shop yesterday.

After Wolfurt the route leaves the suburbs and climbs up a fairly step ridge before heading down to the town of Albershwende. The top of the ridge gave views back over Lake Constance, but although the steady rain had stopped at this point the weather prevented you seeing much.

Perhaps the most dramatic sights were the waterfalls from the small mountain streams which, after all this rain, were very noisy.

Albershwende is quite a big town, huge church, had accommodation and lots of places to eat. Was tempted to stop as I wasn't sure whether the place I had got booked this evening did evening meals. Instead I found a nice bench just beyond town, had two bananas and four Snickers. The Snickers were in a multi-pack and having lost my hat I was worried that loose Snickers might also go astray.

The Austrian signing system is essentially the same as the Swiss, although they use a lighter shade of yellow. As in Switzerland you often get multiple choice as there can be more than one way to get to the same place. I definitely went the long way to Lingenau heading downhill and along the side of the Bregenzerach (which flows back to Bregenz and along the side of which I had walked first thing this morning). This was actually a nice walk made even better by a whole series of installations. My favourite was the pencil but there were lots to choose from.

Bregenzerach

Dropped my pencil

Got to Lingenau at about 4. Very reassuring sign proving that I am on the E4 (and the E5 and the 04, the long-distance Alpine trail). The Gasthof Walderhof Christine booked for me was brilliant, huge portions of food and everyone very friendly and helpful.

Good if I knew what they meant

Wednesday July 13th Rhieneck to Bregenz

Being playing chess against my IPad and frankly it's a lot better than me. The fact that it doesn't need time to think is so unnerving, it just seems to pile on the problems and every time you solve one you seem to create two more.

That's what's been happening with the walk today. What was supposed to be a short and fairly dull sort of walk across a feature called the Rheindelta turned out to be a real pain and the day just got worse.

It's really raining, the worst day's weather so far by far, even worse than the day I came down from Canigou, or the day in the Gorge d'Ardeche. Was drizzling when I set of from Rhieneck and then it started to really pour down and rained all the way to Bregenz. Stopped for a few minutes just as I was arriving and then started again. Heavy rain interspersed with heavier thunder rain. Weather forcast is not good for at least three days.

The rain really started as I crossed the border. There is a dedicated covered bridge for the walk and the cycle trail and the border is marked in the middle. I hung around under cover for a bit hoping that the rain would ease. A light came on the video camera at the end of the bridge which felt a bit sinister so when the thunder rain eased to heavy rain I moved off.

The border

Border bridge

The trail basically followed the "coastline" and then cut inland to cross a huge drain which has clearly been built to reclaim the delta. Crossing the drain at Fusbach you're then invited to follow the coast around again but I declined the invitation and took the direct route through the suburb of Hard (I kid you not, there is another smaller suburb called Rain). It was a miserable walk redeemed only by the amazing posters for the Wolford outlet shop.

Bregenz by the way is quite a big place. Last time I came here it was by train and it's a lot bigger on foot. It has an amazing outdoor opera house which features huge sets that are floated on the lake. The rain actually stopped for a few minutes, long enough to let me have a look at the current offering - it's a production of Andre Chenier.

Open air opera house

Having tried two hotels, including the Ibis, and found them fully booked I started to worry. I went to Tourist Information and after a search on their system they were able to confirm that things were pretty choker. They started exploring options in the suburbs (including Hard but not Rain) and I started to worry that I could be making life difficult for myself for tomorrow. I suggested they try looking for a two person room and sure enough there was a place. I think the young lady who was doing the search was getting a bit fed up at this point so I didn't press too hard on the details, also my damp hat was smelling which made me feel a bit self conscious.

I then did one sensible thing but failed to do two others. I went and bought a map from a bookshop. My request for a map caused a lot of interest and in particular they tried to find a reference to the E4 long-distance walk on the Internet. My blog came up and I was able to show them what I was doing, they were very impressed.

The two things I failed to do was buy some food and get some more cash. The Gasthof I'm staying at doesn't do food, is way out of town, doesn't accept cards and doesn't have Internet. The slight upside is that I hadn't got around to eating my lunch and there was enough to stop me starving. The Gasthof also turned out to be way out of town in the right direction.

So what to do about tomorrow. Haven't booked anything and after today's experience that might not be sensible. The weather forcast for tomorrow is just as bad. If I was in a nice place the obvious thing would be to hunker down, but I'm not, I'm staying in a dump.

Without access to the internet, booking is a bit of a challenge so I sent Christine a text, fortunately she was about and she sorted it all out. I have a place in a Gasthof in Lingenau. Looks like I'm walking tomorrow.

As well as getting humiliated at chess by my IPad I'm using it to catch up on my reading. I've just re-read Mill on the Floss by George Eliot. Given the books ending, and the sound of rain hammering against the sky-light in the room I'm staying in, I'm glad I'm currently on higher ground.

Tuesday July 12th Romanshorn to Rhieneck

Last day's walking in Switzerland, over the border into Austria first thing in the morning. 16 days from one side to the other, not too bad.

Today was exactly the same as yesterday. Flat walking along the side of the lake. Looking at my fairly limited collection of pictures for the day, one of the many things they fail to capture is the mass of semi-naked bodies I was stepping over as I walked along. Not sure if my motives would have been properly understood so I kept my camera to myself.

The other thing they miss are the number of bikes. There are several long distance cycle trails around here, one seems to take you down the Rhine, and when you share the trail with one of these routes the bikes are literally flying past you all the time. I guess this is also the start of the holiday season, it took me three attempts to find a hotel that wasn't booked up.

The walk itself was not that much to write home about, very hot, lots of hard surfaces and my feet were again sore as I finished. It is amazing what a difference the surface makes, I was knackered after walking on the flat for 7 hours which on the face of it should have been an easy day.

Left Romanshorn at about 9. Actually had a brilliant nights sleep despite the proximately to the station. Dodgy breakfast, centre piece of the spread was a large bowl of rotting bananas surrounded by squadrons of tiny flies on guard duty. Romanshorn got better as you left it.

Romanshorn, better looking back

Just like yesterday the walk then took you through a series of resorts, Arbon, Steinach and Rorschach. Just past Rorshach, which was the largest resort, maybe at Staad, there was a huge railways works where the very same trains that have been flying past me on the local line for the last few days are built. The Swiss clearly don't let the Germans build their trains.

Marina

Staad

Bregenz, where I go tomorrow is at the eastern end of Lake Constance. To get to it however you have to cross the Rhine again (flowing into rather than out of Lake Constance). This involved an annoying walk south, and I think I have to go a bit further south tomorrow, before heading north east to Bregenz. The Rhine forms the border with Austria. Looked very slow moving and muddy today. Not sure what that post is doing, dodgy composition or what, I blame the heat.

The old Rhine River 

Monday July 11th Ermatingen to Romanshorn

When I looked it up on the internet last night Romanshorn looked like a nice place to stay but the reality of a hot sweaty room overlooking the railway station didn't quite live up to the billing. Really annoyed with myself because I hovered around a Gesthof about 90 minutes from my planned destination which was on the beach, didn't look expensive and had internet access. I could have gone for a swim. As it was I ended up staying in my second hotel on this trip which feels like it's in the hands of bankruptcy administrators. Staffed laid off, no real restuarant, a skeleton service.

The other thing I discovered on the internet last night is that the town/city of Konstanz (Constance in English), which I thought I was going through today, is actually in Germany. Most people presumably know this but for some reason it was a surprise to me. According to Wikipedia it left its lights on in the second world war and wasn't bombed as a consequence as bomber pilots, like me, also thought it was in Switzerland. The final piece of slightly weird serendipity is that the Zeppelin airship designer was born in Constance and there was an airship flying overhead today.

Airship above Konstance

You can see the sort of thing that was going through my mind today as I was plodding along, mainly along a footpath along the side of Lake Constance, occasionally inland through a town, and sometimes through a campsite amongst the sunbathers. Apart from avoiding the sunbathers, the biggest diversion was around the southern Swiss suburb of Constance (known as Kreuzlingen) and past the fairly informal border crossings into Germany. Again the signs were brilliant and for once a big conurbation failed to present any navigational challenges.

Konstance

Lake Constance

So really a coastal walk but nicer than the last coastal walk I did along the Costa Dorada. Definitely a better class of architecture. Saw my first robotic lawnmower, thought this was amazing, but then saw another two in short order. Now suspect that like the national location of Konstanz the existence of robotic lawnmowers is well known to everyone apart from me.

Ended up walking 30 kilometres and what with the heat and hard surfaces my feet were seriously complaining by the time I got to the nearest thing to inner city I've seen in Switzerland. Hard to sustain this impression given Romanshorn's lakeside location and the views of the mountains which, to the east, are starting once again to become prominent. Perhaps to hold onto it just a bit longer, and avoid the pizza the administrators at the Hotel were offering, I went to another establishment and had my first kebab since leaving the UK. Very nice but not a touch on the kebab you get on the Seven Sisters road on the way to watching the Mighty Spurs.

Sunday 10th of July Stein am Rhein to Ermatingen

It's very easy walking now, almost flat, and after the dash yesterday to Stein am Rhein I'm now a couple of days ahead of myself so I'm taking it easy. Navigation is also very straightforward, just keep the water on your left hand side, today the Rhine tomorrow Lake Constance.

The main part of Stein am Rhein is actually on the north bank of the Rhine with the border with Germany immediately to the east of town. My very basic and, for what it was, very expensive hotel was just over the bridge on the south side and before leaving this morning I crossed over to have a look around the impressive main square. Half timbered houses are covered in murals depicting medieval scenes. High above the town sits the Hohenklingen Castle which was built in the 12th century.

Stein am Rhein

Stein am Rhein from the south of the Rhine

So today was another hot sticky one (the thunder storms went on all last night) but this didn't stop the Swiss who were out on mass taking every sort of exercise imaginable. Occasionally I had to share my wanderweg with cyclists but mostly they had their own route which was just as well as there were hundreds of them. Many were carrying gear and the cycle network looks as well organised and extensive as the footpath network.

It's so hard not to impressed by how everything works and indeed how this is helped by everyone's impeccable behaviour. People leave their bikes unlocked and trains run along tracks not enclosed by fences. In the UK the bikes would disappear and the cables running alongside the tracks would be removed.

Open access railway

It's amazing how Roger Federer seems to typify Switzerland with both combining incredible success with charm and modesty, even to the extent that Switzerland only seems to make a moderate fuss about Roger Federer (imagine if he was English - "Tim" Federer).

Must admit some of this impeccable behaviour feels just a tad conformist to me. I preferred tennis when Conners and McEnroe were its stars and I find those unlocked bikes tempting.

Switzerland mixes rural sentimentally with the aggressively modern. Within a couple of kilometres I walked past an ancient farmstead where diners were being served food in a setting reminiscent of Amish barn raising in Witness (a favourite film of mine) and a whole series of futuristic houses all of which would qualify for a Grand Design programme.

Grand Design

Today's walk was basically a resort to resort walk (Underdorf, Steckborn, Berlingen) with lots of people in the water doing lots of water based activities. Got to Ermatingen at around 2.30 after walking just over 20 kilometres. Hadn't bothered looking for a hotel in advance but found one really easily and for once it was very reasonable.

Saturday 9th of July Bulach to Stein am Rhein

Was a bit worried about navigation for today. Had paid for a room in Stein am Rhien, at great expense, so had to get there, and although I knew the towns I was supposed to go through I didn't have an actual route. To make things worse the internet access in the hotel last night was very intermittent and the inability to find an official route online made me more nervous. In the end, with the limited internet available, google maps allowed me to generate a route, take a screen save as a map, and give me confidence that, even if it wasn't the right route, at least I would get there.

As I understand it the official route goes Bülach, Freienstein, Irchel, Ober-Buch, Dorf, Großandelfingen, Truttikon and Oberstammheim to Stein am Rhein. I ended up going via Neftenbach and Adelfingen. Not sure which is longer or better but I started at 7 and got to Stein am Rhein at 5.30, a 44 kilometre walk.

If it wasn't for the fact that I generated an alternative route, and then started to use it, I could have stuck with the correct route and got to Stein am Rhein without a map. The signs are amazing and there really does seem to be a waymarked network of footpaths in Switzerland that both connects all the significant settlements and is integrated with public transport. So when I got to Adelfingen, which I guess is about 20 kilometres from Stein am Rhien, Stein am Rhien was signed along with all the settlements in between. I did miss a turn once but instead of retracing my steps I just went to the next settlement and went on a slightly different route to the same destination.

It wasn't a bad walk either, more hard surfaces than I have got used to, but much better than I was expecting.

Out of the mountains Switzerland feels like the London greenbelt. Lots of very prosperous towns with strips of intensely, almost manicured countryside in between.

The architecture in the villages is now more German and Gothic. Lots of timber framed houses with the integration of farm houses with cattle housing inside the villages particularly interesting. The fact that cattle are still accommodated inside villages is perhaps one measure of the extent of agriculture subsidies in this country, another is the number of new tractors.

Typically village centre farm

Things that struck me in particular today was the enclosed bridge over the river just past Adelfingen (shades of the "The Bridges of Madison County"); the tendency to put faces on the sunflowers (shades of little weed in "Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men") and the naked man on the side of the river.

Covered bridge

Smiling sun flower

The naked man was hiding behind a bush, I was eating my lunch on a bench near the bush and he decided to reveal himself once he knew I was there for a few minutes. Did not help my digestion. Couldn't help but notice that he had a full body tan which is definitely something I can't claim.

Stein am Rhien is a gorgeous place, seriously German Gothic. Will have a proper look tomorrow when my feet have recovered. People were swimming in the river which can't be as treacherous as it looks.

If it wasn't for the expense, and the dodgy food, Switzerland would be the absolutely perfect place for walkers. The Hotel I'm staying in tonight has an Indian restaurant. It was busy, but had half the menu and was twice the price of any equivalent in the UK. I got one soggy popodom to start with and it went down hill from there on in.

Huge thunderstorm at the moment, was lucky that I had only had one when I was on the walk and was able to find shelter.

Friday 8th July Brugg to Bulach

Dielsdorf is the last town on Jura Howenweg and the European Ramblers Association web site doesn't really tell you how to cross 50 kilometre gap between Deilsdorf and Lake Constance. Menno, who commented on my original route, has given a list of towns and I will try and go from town to town using these stepping stones. Bulach is on that list and gets me within a long striking distance of the Rhine for tomorrow.

If you have ever been to Zurich than Bulach, where I'm staying tonight is just to the east of the final approach run to the airport.

The weather is a bit iffy at the moment. Last night was very hot and at about three o'clock in the morning there was an enormous thunderstorm and the evidence of the damage done was all along the route today.

I say route but I just couldn't find the Jura Howenweg coming out of Balsthal this morning. Sleepless night and the need to cover a lot of ground today didn't help matters but in the end I gave up and followed the local footpaths rather than get on the route proper. Basically I walked along the bottom of valley and of course the Howenweg sticks limpet like to the top, the "crest", whenever it can.

Walked along the side of the river to Baden, which looks a very prosperous town, past numerous factories and a lot of new building. Two of my favourite counter intuitive facts are that Switzerland's economy has the highest percentage of manufacturing for any country in Europe and its workforce the lowest proportion of graduates. The evidence of the first fact at least was everywhere today.




After Baden I decided to bushwhack my way to the top of ridge. As is usually the case going in a straight line up the side of a 600 metre hill is a lot harder than it looks (explains why they have paths) and the ground was particularly sticky after last night's storm. It was also hot and the horse flies were on patrol again.

Eventually I hit the trail proper and was able to finish of the Howenweg and march in Dielsdorf on the right route. Saw an interesting use made of a silage bale on the final descent. The penultimate town was Regensberg which was very picture postcard.









The last bit to Bulach was very dull but has to be done as I have big ambitions for tomorrow. Today's walk was 33 kilometres some of it in the right direction.

So I'm now yomping across the plain to Lake Constance and I'm trying to get to Stein am Rhien by tomorrow. I guess being so close to Zurich the hotels around here are extra expensive so I don't want to hang about. I'm one day ahead of schedule at the moment and after tomorrow that will be two days. Hopefully I can find somewhere a bit cheaper to hunker down for a bit. It's not just that the hotels are expensive, and I hate being in expensive hotels on my own, they are also not very good, food wise everything wise. Come back France all is forgiven!