Day 1, Monday, 4.8., Karlsruhe – Liechtenstein – Bellinzona (CH)

Day 1, Karlsruhe – Bellinzona via Liechtenstein; ~500km, 6 cars, ~7h waiting

Alright, it’s impossible to start a journey without Haribo. And I forgot to by them the Saturday before I departed. That’s why I didn’t need to hurry but had to wait for the supermarket to open at 8 am.

Fully equipped now, I walked to my hitchhiking spot. But it seemed nobody was going in direction to Stuttgart, which is very strange, because usually most cars are going to Stuttgart.

However after 2,5h I was picked up and brought to the next service area, being 30 kilometres away. There mostly Dutch people with their mobile homes and full cars were interrupting their driving, but after some time I got a lift from a Belgian drummer. He was actually even going to a place in Austria not very far from Liechtenstein, my first destination.

Though the place I chose to be left was quite bad; without access to the highway. Luckily there seemed to be a convention nearby, so many cars were going in the direction to the highway.

So I got a ride to a gas station in Switzerland where I could go with the first guy I asked. I only wanted to cross the border to Liechtenstein to take a photo that I’ve been in this huge and country that is famous for…..whatever then to continue. When he got this, he made a little detour for me.

With some Dutch workers I got to Chur. There it started raining, but still an Alfa stopped. The driver’s first question was not where I was going or if I was a murderer. No instead he asked, whether I had dog shit under my shoes. I was perplexed since I didn’t expect such a first question. But to be honest, it’s quite reasonable.

Though I’m sure every hitchhiker who notices having shit under the shoes would remove it immediately. Still it was a funny drive with this Swiss couple. They left me at a large service area near Bellinzona, but I only tried half-hearted to continue.

Last year I usually was always highly motivated to get further as soon as I arrived somewhere. But with the wisdom and experience of age, I got more relaxed. And I mean I was travelling gipsy style anyway – meaning with a tent, mattress and sleeping bag I needn’t care at all about anything. I could sleep where I wanted, just making sure not to bother anyone to call the police.

A river was nearby the service area and its bank was made of large stones, where I could perfectly lay down in my sleeping bag. It didn’t rain and was warm, so I didn’t pitch up my tent.

Next (Day 2-3, Bellinzona – Monaco – Perpignan) ->

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