Wandering from Tyrol to Vorarlberg

When you’re in a campervan wet weather is totally unwanted, a bit like finding a wet cowpat outside your campervan door.  Not that this has happened to us and God forbid it ever does……

 

We left Natterersee and Innsbruck on Thursday morning and drove west along the Inn Valley to St Anton am Arlberg.  We expected to find a vibrant stylish ski village, but maybe that’s only in the winter.  The place was asleep at 11am.  Shops were open, but we hardly spotted anyone going in or out, so we strolled the full length of the main street and enjoyed the silence.  On our return stroll, a café had two people sitting outside drinking hot chocolates, so we did the same and then wandered back to Eileen trying to imagine what the town is like in the middle of the ski season, a very different place probably….

 

 

As we crossed the Arlbergpass, the clouds dropped and thickened, but thankfully we managed to get to Camping Panorama Sonnenberg in Nüziders and set up just before the rain set in.  And then it never stopped.  The rain came down in bucket loads.  I never ventured out for the rest of the day; thank goodness Eileen has a loo.  Rodney nipped back and forth to the campsite TV room to watch some European soccer matches and tomorrow we’ll have a catch up day……..and probably more soccer watching.

 

It continued to rain right through the night and was still raining when we woke up in the morning.  When it finally stopped and the sky cleared, we could see that the surrounding mountains were covered in a fresh dusting of snow. What’s going on? This is June and we’re wearing fleecy jumpers…  But the sun did come out and Eileen enjoyed the beautiful views surrounding the campsite, while we got on with a catch-up day………and more soccer watching.

 

On Saturday morning we set off up the Brandnertal to the carpark at the far end.  We wanted to go a-wandering and so with a wanderkarte in my pocket, a wanderplan and some wandertips, we wandered across to the Lünerseebahn cable car and were carried up to the Lünersee, a beautiful lake surrounded by snow-capped peaks.  We set off on our wanderweg, starting by crossing the dam and then heading uphill.  It was a beautiful walk and we only got caught in a short shower of sleet and rain, which was followed by some sunshine to dry us out, before lunch in the café next to the dam.  It took us over two hours, but we did stop a lot of times to stop and stare; you couldn’t help it.

 

 

 

We could have driven back to the same campsite but thought we might move 12kms closer to Feldkirch and try Alpencamping between Nenzing and Gurtis.  It’s a five-star campsite with swimming pool and tennis courts, but we won’t be testing them out, because half an hour after getting settled in, the rain came down again.  Ah well, we had a good wander today and more lovely memories of mountains.