Tag: Alps

Germany 2011

This year, we made two short holiday trips to Germany.
In spring, we made a short break on the eastern slopes of the Sauerland. We stayed at a camping site in Barntrup and we made longer walks from the site, and from Bad Driburg; some of these are part of the Hermannshöhen collection of routes. The tracks have been recorded, and the tracks with the accompanying images can be found here.
In summer, we spent out annual summer holiday in the South of Germany, on the German-Austrian border.
Our first four days were spent at the Bodensee, at a comping site at Linday, quite close to the border. Here we rode our bikes and made boat trips to get to our starting point, or returning to the site. One of these trips lead us through three countries after crossing to Switzerland, and riding back along Bregenz (which is Austria…), we took the opportunity to transport our bikes up the Pfälzer mountain by cable train, and decended from there. Most tracks have been recorded, and the tracks with the accompanying images can be found here.
The fifth day we drove along the Deutsche Alpenstrasse to Berchtesgaden, parked our car there and walked a long distance way circling the Berchtesgadener and Salzburger Land; overnight we stayed at B&B of small hotel. This 160 km route, with a total ascend (and descend) of 5000 meters, took one week – over 20 kilometers a day, and, except for the last day, at least 500 climbing.
From this walk, all tracks have been recorded, and the images, and all tracks, can be found here. This also contains photograhps taken in and around Tittmoning on our way back home.

Note: My normal lens was broken, I could only use my larger lens, so I had to do a lot of combining and stitching, and the results are bigger tha ususal

French Alps

This year’s holiday we headed for the French Alps. To start – getting used to the paths going up, on a higher than normal altitude – we hired an appartment near Chorges, above the Lac de Selle-Porcon. We stayed here for one week, and the next two were intended to walk the GR56 route around Barcelonette: the Tour de l’ Ubaye.
It turned out to be different – by requirement.
Normally, temperatures would be well above 20 C, dry and sunny normally, and all snow would have disappeared up to 3000m or thereabouts. This time however, things were different. There has been a lot of snow last winter – much more than normal, and spring has been cold, dark and wet – meaning that on higher grounds, above 1800-2000 m, it would snow, no rain.

The first week we did encounter the problems we could face in our tour: Snowfields that could not be crossed without special equipment; propably rain, thunderstorms and cold weather. Nevertheless, we got as high as we could on Charbierres, and conquered the summits of Pic de Morgon and Piolit. We visisted the towns of Gap and Embrun, the abbey of Boscodon and the barrage de Selle Porcon.
The second week we left for a camping site at la Fresqiere, about 10 km west of Barcelonette. To our luck, the hostess was Belgian and could help us in Dutch. She informed what huts were available: The first one was, the secons could not be reachjed by phone, and the third one was closed as a result of bad weather: a lightning strike had resulted in severe damage: no power, no water – and the hust was closed for the time being. But worse: it was virtaully impossible to get around on higher passes without equipment, according the host.
So we had to abandon our plans.
To our luck, the hostess did have nice walks that covered past of the route that we could do. And we did some, but the weather got worse: cold and wet, so in a few days we decided to break our holiday, get to Houffalize in the Belgian Ardennes for a few days and than head beack home.

All walks in the countryside have been tracked, and a lot of images taken. You can access them here. The index page also holds a link to the tracks. Both have been ordered by day.