Summer in the Alps - 2005 - Saturday 6 August - Verdun to Gohren (Bodensee)

Saturday 6 August - Verdun to Gohren - Bodensee (by Martin) 

We decided to speed up our pace a little by taking a motorway route. So we left the misty campsite at 9 am after enjoying their nice chocolate croissants, and headed in fair weather past Metz and on towards Strasbourg along the A4. We left the motorway before Strasbourg and headed into Germany via the Rhine near Achern. Then minor roads through villages brought us to Renchen, where we enjoyed a coffee outside in the sun, and we bought the ingredients for an alfresco evening meal. Nice clean village.

Renchen

On past Offenberg, heading for Villingen, we found a picnic lay-by and enjoyed lunch on our own personal picnic table. Pate and blue cheese with tomatoes, a nice brew of tea, etc in the sun. My sun hat came out for the first time (a new Tilley hat replacing the one that fell apart in the Pyrenees and was recently replaced free of charge). 

Still a cool start to the day - 11°C (it was 9°C yesterday) - but the car's sensor is a bit erratic and may read low. The straightforward journey was complicated by our very old small-scale maps. We seemed to shoot through the Black Forest (maybe I slept) before getting lost around Geisingen. 

We eventually found Bodensee and went up the north 'coast' which was full of holidaymakers. The first campsite at Nuss which we stopped at looked very full, so we continued on to a 38 hectare site at Gohren, a sort of tented Center Parcs. It was crammed full of people but we were found a muddy spot next to a moss clad permanent caravan. "If the owners turn up you will have to move." It was a dark, dank position - quite claustrophobic, but strangely secluded.

The pebbly beach did provide a good open spot for an alfresco evening meal - salad, salmon, bread, etc with gulls, hawks, divers, swimmers, etc to entertain us, and threatening thick clouds over the nearby Austrian Alps. 

Adjourned to a bar to see Paula Radcliffe lose in the 10000 metres World Championships, then bedtime. 

Rain in the night.

Our 306 mile route can be worked out from these two images 

(as always, click on them for a better image)

Next Day