E5 Days 81-85

Saturday, May 25

Along the lake and yet not flat

• The mood is very good as we set off from Stein am Rhein today – first along the Rhine, which soon widens and flows into the Lower Lake Constance.

• We continue along arailway line, seeing a few trains along the way – nice!
• We also see cats and a group of cyclists on city bikes.

• It must be said that although the paths today are wide and easy to walk on in most places, there is a surprising amount of elevation to overcome – our route leads up and down and occasionally along plateaus, from which we have wonderful views of Lake Constance ahead of us.
• We pass through many different orchards – it’s true, Lake Constance is famous for its fruit, which can be bought everywhere in Switzerland and Germany.

• Some parts of the route are proper hiking trails, small paths, steep climbs and muddy sections accompany us, but there are also very beautiful paths across meadows with views.

• Around midday, we discover a throne that comfortably seats both of us, where we enjoy fresh strawberries.

• There is even an outdoor toilet!
• The views of the lake accompany us the whole way, and we get to enjoy hikes through beautiful vineyards from time to time.
• At one point, we pass a beautiful monastery, which seems to be a popular destination for day trips, as there are crowds of people on this sunny Saturday afternoon.

• Speaking of which: as we approach Kreuzlingen and Konstanz, we pass through increasingly crowded towns and train stations.
• Here, our route takes us along promenades and it becomes increasingly difficult for us to step out of the way of other people (especially since we are at KM 30).
• At one point, we encounter a child on a bicycle who is apparently learning to ride, as his father explains to him: ‘If you want people to move out of the way, you have to ring your bell.’ And when he looks up and notices our pained expressions and my ‘Please don’t,’ he quickly adds: ‘But you can move out of the way of the walkers, look, there’s space over there.’ Gratefully, we stay on our track and the child rides past us, ringing his bell wildly.
• We have now covered 2000 kilometres of the route, a moment that we naturally capture proudly with a photo (it takes several attempts until both we and the ‘2000’ laid out on the ground are visible, but oh well).

• To our delight, we find an ice cream stand on one of the crowded promenades and immediately buy one each – yum!
• Passing Kreuzlingen railway station and through parks, we finally reach the youth hostel, which is housed in a beautiful mansion by the lake.

• We arrive just in time for dinner, which we enjoy together with six-year-old Paula and her dad, who are currently on a cycling tour along Lake Constance.
• Afterwards, Paula persuades us to play a round of Dobble, which cheerfully escalates into several rounds of Dobble, followed by several rounds of Mau Mau and a Harry Potter maze game – all in all, a lovely evening. 🙂

Sunday, May 26 

• We agreed to meet Martina at 8:30 at the Kreuzlingen Youth Hostel, and at 8:15 she is already waiting in the entrance hall.

• Nice, since for the long stage we have planned to day, the earlier we start, the better.
• A warm welcome, great joy at seeing each other again, and off we go along Lake Constance – flat on wide paths.

• Martina and I seem to have a ‘sprint effect’ on each other, and we still remember when we hiked up Mount Pilatus together at crazy speed, taking less than half the time stated.
• When I look at my watch and see that we’ve completed the half marathon (21-something kilometres) in less than 5 hours, I almost feel like we still have that effect on each other – I don’t think we’ve ever been this fast on an E5 stage before.

• On this Sunday with beautiful weather, it’s no surprise that the Lake Constance promenade is bustling with activity: cyclists, hikers, dog walkers, day trippers, strollers – everyone is crowding the path, which suddenly seems narrow.
• To make matters worse, there appears to be a festival in Arbon at KM 30, and the town is so full of people that cyclists even have to dismount to push their way through the throng.
• We find out what it’s all about from a poster: it’s the ‘Arbon Classic’, apparently a classic car meet.

• We see lines of vintage cars, which are exciting to watch and are driven by drivers who look slightly annoyed, apparently not wanting to be stuck in traffic in the heat (yes, but what did they expect?).
• But the undisputed highlight is without question the aeroplanes flying across the sky in amazing formations – a vintage air show!

• Shortly afterwards, we see avintage Lake Constance cruiser on the water, and by now I am completely thrilled, and our good walking pace has already been ruined by all the plane watching anyway 🙂 It’s totally worth it!
• So we don’t hesitate when we pass an ice cream machine (Glace-Automaten) and a restaurant and treat ourselves to lemonade, ice cream and a break – it’s really nice and does us good to sit down for a while.

• At the Rorschach railway station and after 38 kilometres (well done!), Martina leaves us.
• We take a final selfie, say goodbye and continue up a hill with views and several swing loungers, which we all try out.
• But not for long, because we continue along the less populated shore, where instead of aeroplanes we see birds of prey in the sky – also very impressive.

• Slowly, the mountains appear on the horizon – a beautiful sight.

• After less than 10 hours of hiking (walking including breaks and watching aeroplanes), we completed the marathon distance! Wow!

• We climb back up a hill, where we treat ourselves to a final tea break and stretch out our feet (I can feel a blister) – the views are simply magnificent!

• We descend to the Austrian border, because today we will leave Switzerland behind and spend the night in Austria.

• Close to our accommodation for the night, we discover the Chinese restaurant Hu, which, to our delight, is still open. We enjoy a delicious dinner there and treat ourselves to a beer to celebrate the longest day of hiking on this route – it tastes especially good today!

Monday, May 27 

• Today we are slow to get going – no wonder after yesterday’s stage.

• We set off through the small village of Gaißau towards the shores of Lake Constance and enjoy the magnificent fauna in the vast meadows and reed fields in front of the lake: a few storks are standing among the tall grass and, on closer inspection, we even spot some baby storks! Amazing! The animals are completely unfazed by us, so we can observe them in peace.

• In another meadow, which is once again teeming with storks, we also discover birds of prey, which we, as amateur ornithologists, are unfortunately unable to classify more precisely (buzzards, eagles, hawks? No idea…).
• Incidentally (and actually, it’s not really incidentally), as I write this, I am sitting with a view of Lake Constance and the mountains, which are still covered in snow, and I am strongly reminded of Erich Kästner’s ‘The Flying Classroom’, in which he also sits in the mountains and, while writing, looks up now and then at a snow-capped mountain peak to get into the winter mood, as the book is set in the depths of winter with lots of snow.
• Continuing with the fauna and animal sightings, shortly afterwards we see a deer with fawns in the reeds, which, however, is less chilled and runs away very inconspicuously, splashing loudly.
• A little later, a cat comes along the path (wow, it’s like the Bregenz town musicians), which – wait for it – accompanies us for an unbeaten 5 km of the way! Wow!

• Here on the Austrian side of Lake Constance, you can’t rely on the signage as much as you can on the Swiss side – without a mobile phone, we would be completely lost.
• Meanwhile, we are encountering more pedestrians and, in particular, people walking their dogs, which – as we have now learned – is a sure sign that a town or larger settlement is nearby.

• Indeed: we are approaching Bregenz – hopefully, because we have booked accommodation there for tonight.
• We are both happy about this news, as we are both a little exhausted from yesterday’s stage and, on top of that, another thunderstorm is approaching.
• At least we win the race against the rain (ha, this time we are not the victims), we reach our accommodation – the Seezauber apartment – dry and are surprised at how beautiful it is.
• Matthäus kindly goes shopping at the nearby Lidl, as my blisters are crazy big and really hurt.
• We cook ourselves a delicious dinner, which we enjoy while watching climbing – awesome!
• Chilling, drinking tea, reading and then off to bed! 🙂

Tuesday, May 28 

• Watching climbing while having breakfast – yes!
• Pack up, get ready, collect laundry, let’s go: Stage 84, here we come!

• We leave Bregenz behind and head into the beautiful, but not exactly flat, Bregenzerwald forest.

• As it is already quite late and we are getting hungry again, we have our second breakfast on a bench after covering just under 5 km and climbing a few metres in altitude.

• Listening to Harry Potter 5, we climb up to the Dreiländerblick, where there is also an inn, which is closed, but to our surprise we find a vending machine and we happily get some drinks from it for our third breakfast. 🙂

• My favourite day so far!
• Mum and Dad sent an update on their own crazy hike – they too have completed a marathon stage to beautiful Gurk.
• The journey continues with stunning panoramic views in all directions – Lake Constance on one side, the Alps on the other.

• We climb up the mountain before descending to Alberschwende.
• We promptly miss a turn, which is why we pass two farmers three times, one in a tractor, the other chatting in front of it. The third time, when we finally find the right path, they ask us: ‘Wischts eh, wo anne?’ (loosely translated as ‘Do you know where you’re going?’) Yes, we do now.
• Alberschwende is extremely quiet (you could almost say ‘dead’) – well, it is Tuesday lunchtime.

• Through Alberschwende, we cross over to Brüggelekopf, which we climb and soon reach the Brüggelehaus, where we treat ourselves to some cider.
• The house is visited by us rather random hikers and, apart from us, lots of people who obviously know the hut owner and are all ‘good friends’ (we feel a bit like aliens).
• A little tipsy from the cider, we descend the thankfully easy path that leads us over a bridge and along a winding path through the valley (‘Wow, that’s quite a trek,’ says the hut owner) to Lingenau.

• There we find our hotel, the “Hotel Adler”, where we enjoy an amazingly good three-course dinner.
• With accompanying wines – it feels just like France – definitely very nice!

Wednesday, May 29 

• Our breakfast at the hotel is very extensive, so we enjoy it to the fullest and are quite surprised when we manage to leave at 9 o’clock.

• First, the trail leads over a small hill to Hittisau, from where we start our hike into the Nagelfluh range.

• In Hittisau, there is a Spar supermarket that I cannot resist, and I immediately run inside to buy a Latella, which I have been dreaming about for at least twenty stages.

• Everything is very Austrian, and of course I immediately find Latella in the refrigerated section and find it very difficult to resist the offer of ‘4 Latellas + 1 free’.
• The thought of the weight of 4 Latellas plus one in my stomach and the fact that a climb of more than 1000 metres in altitude follows deters me, and we happily drink our one Latella in front of the Spar.
• Now we have a decision to make: do we go through the valley or do we start climbing straight away to walk along the beautiful mountain range on rather difficult, partly black hiking trails?
• Thanks to the good weather and our improved fitness, we decide on the high trail and set off on the long ascent to Hochhäderich.

• There we treat ourselves to a break at the summit with snacks before tackling the rather challenging climb via Falken etc.
• The view is and remains fantastic: you can see the mountains, Lake Constance and far beyond the plain.

• However, there is also a lot of snow visible covering the Alps, which is causing us a bit of a headache – well, what can we do? We decide to follow Christoph’s motto: ‘Let’s wait and see’.
• The rock is interesting and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before – almost as if lots of small stones have been cemented together and one keeps breaking out (not very practical for climbing).

• This is what the Nagelfluh range is known for and what it is named after (the Nagelfluh rock), as we learn later.
• We have to make some progress on Harry Potter 5 (since we borrowed the audiobook from the library, so while listening to it, we climb up to the hill and encounter more hikers than ever before.
• Just as the clouds become denser, the Staufner Haus comes into view. It is completely full, but we fortunately just manage to find two free beds in the dormitory.

• There is dinner, cosy get-togethers with beer, chatting with other hikers, and overall it is very ‘gezellig’.