• 071304Z 13003KT 9999 TSRA FEW004 SCT037CB 17/16 Q0992 

Just returned from – a somewhat standard and default - mobile home route involving Bavaria, Alsace, Switzerland, Venice, Italian and Austrian Tyrol and back to Munich where we rented the vehicle (which was an excellent, brand new VW Colorado 660 with a 2.8 turbo diesel engine, which made pots and kettles ramble in the back when you pushed the accelerator).

I learned to know the camping sites of Western Europe. They were usually better equipped than here. Many offered restaurants, tennis courts, swimming pools, bike hires, which is not that common in Finland.

What struck me, though, was the geographical wastelands that had been used for camping sites. In Borgå/Porvoo where I live, the richest people well could have exploited the Kokon river bend, which is now used for camping and caravans. 

The camping sites of our journey were very often placed below the final approach line to an airport, like in Venice or Innsbruck. In Tenero by Locarno, the camping site was nicely situated at Lago Maggiore, but close to a small airfield with constant general aviation and helicopter activity. In Zug, Switzerland the camping site lived up to the name of the town, since there was a train (Germ. Zug), local, freight or express, passing the camping every two minutes.

For the last night we stayed in Munich next to the Thalkirchen Zoo, separated from a greenish pond by a low fence. I wondered all night whether there would be half a dozen grinning alligators lying in front of my Colorado when I opened the door in the morning.

What I specifically learned during my trip was that there is a Ladin language, spoken by 30,000 of the half-million people in Italian- (and self-) governed South Tyrol, turning local names of places like Sankt Ulrich into exotic Urtijëi.