Lauterbrunnen to Liechtenstein via Andermatt

Left at 0915, after brushing the worst of the dust off the van, people already out posing for photos. It's a huge thing, blame Instagram. First half hour included an impressive circular climb out of the Interlaken valley. It's yet another beautiful day. A-maz-ing tunnels.

Swept past Lake Lucerne, a beautiful light green with hardly a ripple. It's nice out today, again. We had to do a long loop north to get down to Andermatt because the direct routes through the mountains are still closed.

It's Sunday in Switzerland so virtually everything is closed. Found a petrol station with a shop so got diesel and bread. Andermatt was a ghost town, and none too pretty at that. It used to be a central place for four alpine crossings, but now road and rail go past without stopping. We had our sandwiches in a scruffy car park all on our own. Should have made a flask.

N took on the helm and set off up and round and up etc the '19' which took us through the Oberalp Pass which has as a marker, of all things, a lighthouse. Some kids were doing snowboard tricks.

The route passes through many villages and in one we spotted an open cafe and dived into a Parkplatz just opposite. A very welcome coffee. The signage is mostly German, with occasional Italian creeping in as we head east. Much downhill work with the van being clever about staying in a lower gear to reduce the braking. Very many motorbikes and cyclists - clearly this route is a rite of passage for the latter, and huge fun for the former.

We had thought we'd have a look at the old town of Chur in passing, not least because it's the oldest inhabited location north of the Alps ... but couldn't find anywhere to park and a bit destination focused by now, so kept going. The border to Liechtenstein is just a sign at the roadside. Perhaps it is even cleaner and more well swept than Switzerland, which is saying a lot. The Camping Mittagspitze is on the hillside that leads up to the mountains that make 70% of the country uninhabitable; the set of small towns are all on the banks of the Rhine, the river forming the border.

In Camping Jungfrau there were a few permanent shacks, wooden mega sheds with people sitting outside round a wood burner. Here the wooden homes are in the majority, it's a shanty town of simple caravans extended with wooden extensions, balconies and, now it's dark, very many twinkly lights, apparently inhabited by crusties.

It's very quiet. The restaurant is closed until July due to new management, the swimming pool is closed until June because it will get cold again when the S wind stops. They had snow 4 weeks ago. Today it reached 23°. Our first pitch was by the playground so we asked to move. Our second is good and we did some washing to dry in the wind.