Intro
Initially we planned to hike from Flensburg in Germany to the North Cape in Norway on the long distance route E1.We already made detailed planning, even the resupply sheet was ready, but...
... Covid-19 made different plans. Germany and Norway were closed for tourists, Sweden was open. What now?
Just before we started, we changed plans. We flew to Stockholm and continued by bus to Grisslehamn.
With light snowfall, we started our hike.
Destination North Cape was still in our minds.
We decided to walk close to Jönköping and from there, we would either turn north or continue south.
At the decision point, Norway was still closed. It didn't look like they would open the borders in the near future.
On the other hand, Germany slowly opened its borders. It looked promising for us, so we continued heading south.
While we were hiking towards Malmö, the idea of hiking home to Switzerland came up.
And as big fans of Bruce Springsteen, we even had the soundtrack ready :-).
After leaving Sweden, we hiked further south.
Through Germany and Austria, right into the heart of the Alps.
"The Long Walk Home" still in our ears, the intended route was quite clear. But...
In Austria we came "dangerously" close to Italy, could literally feel the warmth and smell the good food.
Venice and the sea were just a "jump" away.
The temptation was too great, we had to change our plans again.
Maybe you can guess... We hiked all over Italy and ended in Reggio Calabria.
Sorry Bruce, hopefully we can use your soundtrack elsewhere...
Looking back, it was a very cool experience that we were able to continually adjust our route.
We had no time pressure and the complete freedom in our minds.
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Sweden
Since we started in May, we were out of the tourist season and had all the lovely huts (vindskydd) to ourselves. Next to the vindskydd there is usually an earth closet and a fire place. Sometimes even with wood to fire.Because of the right of public access (allemansrätten), you can set up the tent almost anywhere. Sweden is a paradise for outdoor lovers and very peaceful!
There are many wild animals, we saw whole hordes of deer. It even had a lot of snakes, which surprised us. Well... not all of us where happy about the latter...
The mosquitoes and the ticks were annoying. Sometimes we had to remove 5 ticks from our body in one day.
Almost every small town has a pizza takeaway. For lunch they usually have specials. Pizza, salad, coke, coffee & cookies for around 100 SEK. A good deal for hungry hikers!
The days were long. We often thought that we had to get up because it was already light. The clock then showed 3 o'clock in the morning. Ahhh, back to sleep.
We hiked around 1'400 km mainly through forest on the E6. See also Waymarked Trails.
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Germany
North-Germany is flat. It has many cyclists and actually no hikers. Just some crazy ones like us. From the Harz Mountains it got hilly, which we enjoyed more.Since we started in Germany towards the end of june, we were a bit worried about the hot summer days. Luckily that wasn't the case. It was a rather cold and damp summer. The further south we went, the more intense the rain became. Germany was hit by many floods that summer, unfortunately also with deaths. Sometimes close to us, but we were always lucky.
People were often very nice to us. We were invited to coffee and cake, got homemade sausages, could camp in the gardens in front of the houses, ...
A large part of our hike took us along the former GDR (DDR) border and the so called "Green Belt". We learned a lot about the sad past and the second world war.
Near the Czech border we crossed the center of Europe. Well, at least it's one of them ;-)
Similar to Sweden, we hiked around 1'400 km on the E6. See also Waymarked Trails.
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Austria
We entered Austria under heavy rain and soon had to dry and warm ourselves in a coffee-shop. The owner was a nice but odd guy. He seriously asked us if we wanted to dry our socks in the microwave. One wonders where the food comes from...The people were even friendlier than in Germany. Sometimes almost too much love. We were invited to coffee and cake several times a day. One night we wanted to sleep in a chapel and were spoiled by a couple with prosecco. And so on...
Before we reached the Alps, we met austrian friends in Salzburg. It was a good change from everyday hiking. We had good conversations and ate excellently.
The Alps were fantastic. A big highlight was the Karnische Höhenweg, along the Italian border. Unbelievable what the young men had to go through up there during the first world war.
We hiked around 600 km mainly on the E10. See also Waymarked Trails.
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Italy
On a perfect sunny day we entered Italy and crossed the next days the Dolomites. A wonderful area. Over time the mountains became hills and we left the Alps in the direction of Venice. The Po plain was not very nice for hiking, but the cities were fantastic. Ferrara was outstanding. The food and the drinks were excellent.
After we left Bologna it got hillier. From this point on, with few exceptions, we were in the Apennine Mountains until the end. Did you know, that almost 40% of the Italian territory is mountainous? We didn't...
The Apennine Mountains have a spectacular nature in many ways. Some parts are quite remote. There are many wild animals. While camping we had a lot of visitors, especially wild boars.
In the first month we had perfect weather. A big storm then initiated the bad weather phase. From then on it was often cold and rainy. South of Napoli even with some snow.
We hiked around 1'800 km, using the following routes: München-Venedig, Il Cammino di Sant'Antonio and Sentiero Italia. Grazie Italia!
