Big Billy Trip 15 - Lungern, Switzerland to Munstertal, Germany

Route – Lungern, Switzerland to Munstertal, Germany
Distance - 248km (3,209km total)

Switzerland continue to live up to its reputation for loveliness this morning. I awoke from a bitterly cold night's sleep, and couldn't even bring myself get out of bed, so lay in and watched a couple of episodes of The Wire on my iPod. By ten, the sun was poking above the mountain, and I could hear Billy creaking as the cold body work started to warm up. I poked my head out of the sliding door, and watched steam rising off the side of the van, as the sun baked and defrosted the metal. Fun.

I took it appropriately easy this morning. I took advantage of the sunshine to dry off the rear bed cushion, which was still damp from the Italian rain, and cooked some toast and eggs whilst gradually packing the van up to leave. It was then I noticed the cable car running up the mountain; I'd seen in the night before, and assumed it was closed as a summer thing. So, this helped me decide what to do next.

£12 to climb 2500m into the sky? I think that's a bargain. The first part of the journey was by cable car to 1500m, and the last 1000m was by ski-style chair lift (in fact, it's clearly a skiing region, it's just not snowy at the moment). The vista was so unbelievably perfect, I just gawped in wonder. None of my photos will do it justice, I am certain – though, that didn't stop me taking loads. It was the reason I decided to drive through Switzerland, and made me so happy I could burst. Yay.

But I had to come down and get a move on. I fancied staying in Switzerland another night – I'd withdrawn 300 SFr, not knowing what their currency was worth, so I've still got loads of it left and might as well spend it here. I drove to the capital Bern, and found their only campsite to be closed - Alan Rogers has naff all campsites listed for northern Switzerland, so I was on my own here. So, I decided to carry on to Germany, since it was only an hour away, and had lots of listed campsites.

I've just had a meal in the campsite restaurant, which was an amusing experience. I speak no German at all, and they seemed to find this most peculiar – like a campsite on the German/Swiss/French border in a major tourist region might not entice non-Germans to visit it. I picked through the menu, ordered the only thing I recognised (Rumpsteak mit pommes frites is pretty self explanatory; shame, I had steak last night, but ho hum) and then ate it whilst everyone around me watched – perhaps to see if English people eat differently to them, I don't know.

So I'm here at the gateway to the Black Forest, and tomorrow I'm gonna go see my some cookoo clocks and try to get some gateau. The campsite has a pool which I think I'll use in the morning, and try to make my way to Heidelberg or somewhere for tomorrow night. (I think I'm going to aim or Luxembourg and Belgium on the way home, just to notch up the country count!)