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Just arrived in Switzerland
This was part of the three hours when it did not rain.We had toyed with the idea of bypassing Switzerland and going through Austria, as we remembered the vignette to use the Swiss main roads costs over £20; however, on reflection it would cost more than this in diesel, so we opted to go through Switzerland and stop in the middle at the village of Meiringen near Interlaken.
We set off in pouring rain and arrived at the border where we had to buy the vignette. It was about £27 which we thought reasonable taking inflation into account. However, we were shocked when we found that we had to buy a second one for the caravan. There are not many caravans in Switzerland and now we know why.
We continued on along motorways but then realised our chosen campsite, Alpencamping, was about 10 miles off the main roads and that can only mean one thing, winding narrow roads either up or down steep hills. However, we arrived without mishaps; the campsite was good and it had stopped raining. Out came our bikes and we rode into the town. It was a pleasant enough place, however, places like Sherlock's Cafe and Conan Doyle Square made us curious. Eventually we found out that
this is where Sherlock Holmes died (first time, as it was a bit like Dallas and he came back to life). He had fallen down a waterfall whilst fighting with his arch enemy Professor Moriarty. We went home for tea and it started to rain again.
All night the rain battered the roof and continued in the morning. We decided to see the actual spot Sherlock had died. The waterfall was half way up a mountain and the only sane way to go up was by a funicular. We shared this with a group of Americans who of course knew a lot more about Sherlock than we did. We took photos in the rain and later, after a hot chocolate, returned home. We discovered our caravan to be surrounded by 3" of water, it had rained all day, and again it rained all night.
Next morning the water was rising and we were leaving, so Terry took his shoes and socks off, rolled his trousers up and sloshed around to pack the outside things up. We were almost finished when the lady from the campsite came round to tell us that the village was surrounded by floods and
there was only one road out, so we had to go back 50 miles to circumnavigate the rainwater. We calculated that of the 48 hours we had been in Switzerland, it had rained for 45!
Our route took us to the Gotthard Tunnel where, as we were not the only ones being diverted, there was a two hour wait to get through. However, as we approached Italy the sky cleared and we arrived at Lake Maggiore bathed in sunshine.
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Janette Jones
non-member comment
Conan Doyle
A bit of useless info for you, Blair got married in the same church that Conan Doyle did. Always love to hear about your travels but you have had far to much rain I hope it fairs up for you before you come home. :-)