The Rhine Source: From Frustration to Excitement

Three days on the road for Aktionsgruppe Kinder in Not e.V. and already around 1100 kilometers on the clock – time for a status update!

Our starting route took us from Linz via the A61 towards Switzerland (which is not short of snow even in May – as we were to find out). Once we reached Lucerne, however, we decided to take it slowly. In the evening, we stopped off at a friend of Berthold’s (many thanks to Benny and his family!). Their cozy living room provided the perfect setting to plan the next few kilometers. Our destination: Lake Toma in the Swiss Alps, the source of the Rhine.

Rhine with a White Shine: from the Oberalp Pass to Chur

The next day, we drove to the Oberalp Pass near Andermatt on the off-chance – according to what we had found online, the pass was still closed. But when we arrived there at around 10 a.m. on Thursday, we found it open – thanks to powerful snow-clearing machines that had cleared away the mountains of snow. However, there was one drawback: Lake Toma and the source of the Rhine were inaccessible to us – walls of snow up to 3 meters high blocked the way for all visitors.

As a small consolation, however, we were at least able to marvel at the highest lighthouse in Europe: the signal red Rheinquelle lighthouse, directly on the Oberalp Pass. Even though it doesn’t have to guide ships itself, it is a detailed replica of the Hoek van Holland lighthouse that once stood where the Rhine flows into the North Sea.

To be honest, a lighthouse without water nearby didn’t quite satisfy us. So off we went on our motorcycles and on to Chur. Near here, the Vorderrhein and Hinterrhein rivers join to form the Alpenrhein, which flows down to Lake Constance. No comparison to the babbling brooks that flow together from the mountains: Here we already had a stately river in front of us. A short refreshment stop in Chur later and we were already speeding along the asphalt again, on to the next stage.

Podcasting – Featuring Bavarian Hospitality

It’s not just the sights, but also the encounters that make up the Rhine-2-Ganges tour for us. For one particularly interesting encounter, we drove our BMWs straight back across the border to Bad Aibling in beautiful Bavaria, where our friend Martin Eulenbach was already waiting for us. We also met Florian Merl from the WANDERLUST podcast, with whom we talked a little about our project on Saturday morning. We all had a great time – the tasty evening meal made in Bavaria certainly played its part. Listen to our interview in full length here!

In the podcast studio, it became clear that audio technology is a highly complex matter. And as luck would have it, we also had to deal with it “on the road”: We had to take a short detour to a specialist dealer in Munich to have Berthold’s Sena motorcycle headset repaired, which had given up the ghost. We had a replacement with us, but a suitable headband was missing – fortunately, the Louis Megashop in Munich was able to remedy the situation. Replacement bracket, new update for Berthold’s device… we are now fully equipped.

Now we are heading for Slovenia. We’ll see you again soon.

And if you would like to support our project, please donate to Aktionsgruppe Kinder in Not e.V.

Donation account: DE40 5745 0120 0030 5199 46
BIC: MALADE51NWD
Purpose: Rhein2Ganges

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