Th e west by north-west route from Austria took us into the Black Forest and we picked a site at Alpirsbach, at which we would ‘overnight’, close to a town (Schiltach) which had a tell-tale pencilled circle around it, in the borrowed Lonely Planet. The words “must be a nice place to visit” were uttered and so we arrived to check in, having sent an email earlier, to which the response had been, “we are very busy and hope to reply within 48 hours”. Actually they responded whilst we were en-route and so we were welcomed when we got there. It’s a nice site, similar to many others in Germany, on the edge of a town, in a wooded valley and apparently run by a family for years. This was no ordinary check-in as we were offered a bottle of beer each, from the local brewery. All part of the camping fee (€35 or so per night). Handily the cost of electricity was per unit (and we only used 1kWh over the 36 hours. So that was €1 and waived by the authorities. I had to do some work the next morning, l...
The campsite at Prutz is outside the village, just across the river. It’s a well established site that operates all year round. The facilities are all in one building, including ski boot drying room and a simple menu of home cooking at the restaurant. As the hourly bus from the village takes 30mins to get up to Serfaus (a little less for Landis and Fiss), I would have thought that staying down here and travelling to ski up there, would be a little painful. Of course this is Austria. The nice lady at the camp office said that “yes lots of people stay here (in their campers and mohomes), the ski bus stops outside the campsite and there are nine buses each morning”. Wow. That’s Austria for you. They are so sorted. Cable car pod for bikes There’s a mass of summer activities; they have kids playgrounds all over the ski areas. There are funny trough things alongside the paths, for wooden balls to be rolled down, loads of playgrounds and so many bike routes, including pump tracks w...