Europe by van Day 28

We had a few disturbances in the night with vehicles circling around and parking. When we woke we saw the huge area was full and we were blocked in. We were able to reverse onto the cycle track when nobody was in it to manoeuvre ourselves around all the parked vans. Most of them are German with some Austrian and Belgian but we’ve yet to see a UK. It was only a few miles to the many car parks serving the two castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. It cost €13 to park. There were people on bikes wearing orange jackets directing cars to a spot. Others came to the van area and insisted we park up in a certain way within the designated slot.

From there we walked up to the nearest castle, Hohenschwangau. We enjoyed the view and the gardens before making the trek up to Neuschwanstein, the fairytale castle build by Ludwig II. (Apparently featured in Chitty Chitty bang Bang). Loads of tour buses were disgorging their passengers who followed their leaders’ flags and stood in line either for the horses and carriages or the special castle buses. They were mainly middle-aged Americans or Chinese. The Germans were like us, walking. Some were even cycling. My estimate for visitor proportions in Bavaria is around 3/5 German, 1/5 USA and 1/5 Chinese (Cantonese speaking). There’s masses of walking and cycle routes.

We took the bus and horse/carriage road to walk up to the castle which towered over us. We walked round its side and took the path for the Marienbrucke bridge which I’d read offered the most picturesque view. We reached it just after 2 buses had unloaded so had to queue to get on the bridge. ‘Only’ 200 people were allowed on the wooden footbridge at a time but nobody was there to count. It was quite nerve-wracking on the bridge as it wobbled a bit as the Chinese pushed past people elbowing their way forward before deciding which part of the bridge would allow for the best selfies. Eventually the crowd thinned out and I took my blip before being shoved aside by more people coming on, while we were trying to make our way off the bridge. Mr C is fed up of the crowds. We’re not really suited to mass tourism I know.

Google let us down this afternoon. We had earmarked a P4N spot in Vaduz, Liechtenstein but she kept trying to direct us into Switzerland where we’d have had to pay a fee for a week to use the roads. We wanted to go via Austria. We managed that but once in Vaduz she first of all sent us down a street now closed off due to building work. After extricating ourselves from that she sent us on a single track road built on top of the dyke protecting the town from the Rhine. Thankfully we didn’t meet any vehicles. I spotted a van and a few cars parked down to the right. We were able to turn off the dyke and got down to the car park. It was also on P4N and had the advantage of being free.

Mr C needed a walk to unwind. I remembered nearby there was the only wooden covered bridge going over the Rhine, built in 1901. We were able to walk the mile along the dyke to it. It was quite unique. As we walked over it we came to a sign saying Liechtenstein on one side and Switzerland on the other so we had a walk in Switzerland too.

Today we drove 125 miles and walked 6.5 miles. A long busy day but very interesting.