Everything takes longer than planned…

I naively imagined that we would get on the road at 11 at the very latest. By the time we got the apartment tidied up, the rest of the stuff in the RV, the bikes loaded (a 45-minute relationship test…) and stopped to pick up ice at the grocery store it was shortly after 12:30.

At about 40km out we made a short stop to try to fix the wind whistling through the top vent… About 2 hours south of us at the Austria border we got stopped for “Corona control” – we got waved on as we were just passing through a corner of the country on the way to Switzerland. Since we were already at a rest stop, we tanked up on our coffee intake.

Not far down the road, my friendly Google navigator sent us on a “time-saving shortcut”. Unfortunately, Google did not know or care that our RV was taller than the picturesque 2,4-meter-high covered wooden bridge along the way. Turning around was no easy feat, as the road was a couple of centimeters wider than the RV. Fortunately, the line of cars we stopped in both directions as we were maneuvering were nice about the interruption.

Once back on the Autobahn the traffic was thick but moving until we got to Zürich where there was road construction AND lots of traffic. It was approaching 6pm as we headed towards Bern and although we had envisioned spending the night at the south end of Lac Neuchatel I started calling all of the campgrounds in between and everything was booked (end of the holidays in Germany/Switzerland…). We made the decision to drive to the northern end of Lac Neuchatel and at 7:30 we thankfully arrived at a municipal campsite in a small town and nabbed one of the last available places. Very basic and unromantic but it fit the bill.

No sooner had we set up the camping chairs and I had popped the cork on the split of sparkling wine, the rain started so we quickly loaded the chairs and made our toast inside.

That rain didn’t last long so we were able to take a walk to the end of the pier and back before settling in for the evening. We timed our return just right, as it stormed the whole night through.

Another view of the situation…

Am 4.6. sehr spät weggekommen. Sara hat Auto total überladen, meinte wir verhungern. Dann ich, technisch überqualifiziert, hatte Probleme mit Radlständer. Nach viel Liquimoly und proben waren die Räder nach 45 Min festgezurrt.

Gut gefahren, den See am Boden gesehen, kurze Maskensichtkontrolle durch Ösis, dann Kaffeestop und dann bis Stau, richtig Aua ( Schaltung keine Automatik) bis vor Bern in neuen Stau. Sara fand nach Bregenz Googleumgehung (aber Google wusste nicht dass wir mit 2,54 m hohen WoMo unterwegs waren) und da eidaschau war vor einer alten Holzbrücke mit 2,40 m Umkehr angesagt.

Meine Krampfadern meldeten sich, ich gähnte relativ oft u so beschlossen wir ca 34 km vor Yverdon raus zu fahren. Sara hatte ca 5 Campingplätze antelefoniert, alle voll. Also einf. Stellplatz am See, ü ein Strässchen wo jedes 2. Haus Gartenzwerge hatte. U n d Überraschung sehr schöner Stellplatz mit Strom u mangels Betreiber umasunst. Dann Spaziergang zum See u Yachthafen.

Dann Tröpfchen, immer mehr u Regen u stürmisch die ganze Nacht.