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4 October 2026 - Erlenbach

I was up at 6AM to breakfast and shower before catching a train to Bregenz, just over the Austrian border on the shores of the Bodensee. My plan for day was to hike the 30 kilometers along the Bodensee across the border to Rorschach in Switzerland. Because I am aleady missing hiking every day. I arrived in Bregenz at 9AM and began following the lakeshore west. There were many small harbors with corresponding pubs along the water. These faded into nature preserve until the Bergenzer Ach. Across the bridge it was not far to Hard. Apparently today was their flea market day, so the park by the lake was filled with shoppers and sellers. I stopped at restaurant just before reaching the Rhine and had a delicious fish soup for lunch.

After lunch the trail headed up onto the levy by the Rhine inlandward towards the bridge. I must say trail loosely, because it was old traintracks. The Austrians are pretty parsimonious with their trail markers and I've only seen half a dozen shell markers for the Jakobsweg. Across the bridge I walked through the town of Fußach and then Höchst, where I stopped for a break and a beer. And even crossing the Rhine I'm still in Austria because at the end of the 19th century the Swiss and Austro-Hungarians decided to move and straighten the Rhine for better flood control. The old path still has some water flowing through it though, and that is still the border between the two countries. Rather than crossing at Höchst, the trail follows the Austrian side of the old rivercourse through the forest to Gaißau. I stopped for another break there before crossing the border.

On the Swiss side of the old rivercourse the trail is squished between the highway and the river for several kilometers in the sun. Eventually past Rheineck the highway turns westward and the path by the river becomes a nice treelined one. At Altenrhein the trail also turns west into the town and comes back to the shore of the Bodensee. I stopped at a bar with a nice view of the mudflats. Whereas the water normally comes up to a wall with several piers, the piers are now high and dry with the waterline a hundred meters further away. I know it's just a dry year, but I can't help thinking of the Aral Sea which disappeared during my lifetime. Surely the Swiss, Germans and Austrians won't make the same mistake the Soviets did though. The last few kilometers are on the road next buildings built on the lakeshore. As the train from Rorschach had me home just after 8PM.

Mudflats of the low water Bodensee