Campsites,Switzerland #3of4

We followed signs to a camp that was closed, then found an open one in Mumpk. The price was to be 17 sf, but they never came to hook up the electricity, so they only charged 10 sf as we left this morning. We had a space right on the bank of the Rhine River.

In Lucerne the Lido campsite is along the lakeside, a few miles from downtown. We’ve stayed here a couple of different years. Right next to the campsite there was a recreation center with a swimming pool and acres of grass, and places to play games etc. We used the ice we had finally found in a restaurant, to make ice-cold lemonade, American style. I had a good discussion with the people next door, and with those a few doors away, who were from the USA — that’s unusual, only 6 or 8 times in 600 nights in campsites in Europe.

We found an occupied campsite near a covered bridge in Andelfengen, but the sign said “nur Dauer miten” which we figured out when they wouldn’t let us in, means continuous camping only, no overnight campers. Found another right on the Rhine River near Flaach. It looked like the River had recently overflowed its banks. We remember all the rain in the eastern part of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, in the past few weeks.

We looked at a couple of campgrounds near Grindelwald, and since it was off-season and they weren’t crowded, we picked the one with the best view from our window. When I rang the door bell at the office, a window opened on the second floor, and a very pleasant man stuck his head out the window, told us to help ourselves, and said he would see us tomorrow.

We crossed the border into Germany for a few miles, then back into Switzerland to the campsite in Basel We walked across the Rhine River on a large bridge, then came back on a small ferryboat that had a cable on a pulley connected to a cable crossing high above the Rhine River. This cable kept the ferryboat from floating down the river in the rapid current.

We had hoped to spend the night in the campground in Geneva, but although the campground was open, the man who owned and operated it had just died, and wife could not operate the electric system. Since it was so very cold, we went on to a small hotel in Vesnaz, just outside Geneva.