Visiting Andreas and Elke

Greg had a work trip up to Bonn, so we decided to make a weekend out of it and visit Andreas and Elke in Belgium/Aachen.

There was the usual cooking and spa-enjoyment along with a quick stroll in the area of the hohes venn and a visit to Monschau.

Walking Along the Rhine: Zurzach -> Laufenburg

According to the map and the info Andrea found online, the stretch from Kaiserstuhl to Zurzach is somewhat boring and mainly close to the road, so we just took the train. Followed the Rhine along to where it is joined by the Aare in Koblenz (where the path markings get kind of stupid), further along the newly enlarged river with a stop from lunch across from Waldshut. Further along the river to Schwaderloch where we head up into the wooded hills for a bit -- a nice change, plus it allows some Bärlauch collection -- before heading back down the river at Rheinsulz. The last bit was along the river to the very nice town of Laufenburg and a train back to Basel.

This was, for our normal standards, quite a long-distance day.

Walking Along the Rhine: Ellikon -> Kaiserstuhl

Started the day by taking the ferry across the river, then a nice stretch between the river and a beaver swamp (lots! of! bugs!), further along the shore to the corner across from Tössegg where we climbed up a bit and went past a bunch of vineyards before heading back down to the river and entering Eglisau. After a pastry-break in Eglisau, further along the river to stop for lunch near the impressively high railroad bridge, crossed the river on the dam at Rheinsfelden and then further through the woods on the shore to Kaiserstuhl with its small old town and nice bridge across the river. A surprisingly good meal in the hotel capped the day.

Walking Along the Rhine: Schaffhausen -> Ellikon

A three-day tour along the Rhine to welcome the Spring and get out of the snowshoe mentality. :-)

Starting with a stroll through the nice old town area of Schaffhausen and then along the shore of the Rhine. Past the Rheinfall -- not overly high but very powerful -- with its masses of people and and then further along. Through Rheinau -- nice place to build a town, nice old cloister, but the town itself was somewhat disappointing -- and then further along to the teeny "town" of Ellikon and the masses of people there to enjoy the ferry ride across the Rhine and the lovely Good Friday weather. We had a nice meal and stayed the night in the hotel there.

Snowshoeing to the Sunnenhoerli

This was a trip with the SAC Basel.
Definitely spring snowshoeing conditions as we started our way up from the gondola station above Matt. The plan was to head up to the Sunnenhoerli and then back along more or less the same route. Unfortunately, Andrea's stomach was really bothering her, so we had to turn back after about 400m of climb.