Switzerland 5 - the horror of weather in Horw

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The weather still seemed against us as we headed north towards Luzern. The plan was to head for a municipal camping site just outside Luzern with a good train and bus service from the town. Switzerland is a fairly small country 200 miles across at the point we were travelling but it seemed to take an age travelling along the roads and through the many tunnels which peppered our route. The St Gottard being the longest. Similar to the Mersey Tunnel but so much longer. Pretty churches and waterfalls peppered the route.

When we arrived at the campsite it was closed for lunch. Lunch turned up to be between about 12.30 and 3 pm. Already caravanners were waiting at the gates to be registered to stay for the night and we were herded into a holding area. The term watching paint dry came to mind as we had about two hours to kill before opening time and spent most of this walking to look at what was around and watching the local water board emptying water from the drains to take it away for possible processing. After watching the first few trips we got bored.

Eventually the receptionist turned up. There was no rush about her and whilst waiting in the queue I spoke to a German caravanner who had spent holidays in Ireland - had I been there ? No as close as it is and with an Irish great grandfather you would think I would have visited the country but sadly not. He had also visited Wales - Aberystwyth and the small town of Conway. He recommended stop offs for us in his country and I made note for future reference. Recommendations are useful. They open up places you never think of visiting sometimes. Eventually we reached the head of the queue and were told our ACSI card was no use as it was out of season due to school holidays. The cost of the site suddenly rocketed from 16 euros to about 33. As it was too late to move on we had to bite the bullet and accept the price. The receptionist threw a swiss electricity connection at us and we could have it for a deposit of 20 swiss francs. I took great delight watching her face as I counted out the 20 francs in 5,2 and 1 francs. We were given a plot and set up for the night. We have got into the routine of pulling out the electric cables, one of us plugging into the mains and the other in to the van. Reverse polarity again. Gas on it was time for a well earned cuppa. Everything feels good with a cup of hot steaming tea. The site was flat and within sight of the reedbeds on Vierwaldstattersee. The site was a touch noisy due to the children being off school but facilities good. Clean tidy efficient showers - showering to Mike and the Mechanics today. A small shop with very little in it. We asked about trains and were told the bus ran just up the road and we could get one every 20 minutes into town. No smiles and very little friendliness which was a shame really.

In the evening we hunted out the bus stop with its ticket machine, the local town centre and purchased a few groceries to tied us over. Everything was so much more expensive here. We walked along the lake of which part was turned into an outdoor swimming pool. Bird life was abundant in the reed beds and ponds were full of groaking bull frogs. We could see the high mountains in the distance with cable cars stretching from one peak to the next.

During the evening and night the steel band was out on the roof and kept us awake. When we woke up it left us with a dilemma. The rain was pouring down and I hoped that my mothers saying that if it rained before 7 it would be gone before 11 rang true otherwise we would need coats, scarves and umbrellas. The problem with these we found was that they were uncomfortable to wear , got wet and took a long time to dry. We also wanted good photographs of Luzern and the rain meant that they would be grey and miserable. Did we want to see Luzern in the rain - not really? Should we stay around for another day, pay another 33 euros and hope for better weather tomorrow? It was a hard call. In the end we decided to try to outrun the weather , leave the covered bridges and a trip on the lake and the Mt Pilatus railway for another time.

Our agenda was taking us back into La Belle France and there was plenty more to see before coming home. As we left Luzern it felt as if Switzerland had given its all to its mountains and there was nothing left as we gradually lost the steep peaks which were replaced by lower hills and valley floors. Still pretty but with less dramatic scenery.

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