Peter Robins, his website

LDP News 2004

Alps: E5
Though the Austrian publishers Kompass now only publish guides to a couple of the more popular sections of the European LDPs, their guide to the Lake Constance-Verona section of the E5 is now in its 13th edition.
Alps: Gt St Bernard/Matterhorn
Not sure how I missed it, but a Tour of the Matterhorn was created in 2002 - see update on 2002 page. And this year sees the inauguration of two further tours in the area:

  1. the Tour du Saint-Bernard, a 5-day circular on the Swiss/Italian border, starting in Bourg St Pierre, and based on the area around the Gt St Bernard Pass, was opened in June.
  2. Tour des Grands Barrages, linking the lakes/reservoirs of Mauvoisin, Place Moulin, Dix, Cleuson,Vaux and Louvie - opened in August.
These openings, plus the Tour des Combins, create a series of 6 linked routes along the main alpine ridge from the Tour du Mont Blanc in the west to the Tour Monte Rosa in the east. These will be marketed together from next year as a 35-day tour called Alptrekking - surely a must for all high Alp fans. See valrando site for list of these and other long-distance routes in and around Wallis/Valais.
Caminos de Santiago
The development of routes to Santiago continues at an amazing pace. Particularly of note are: the new GR655 route from Paris, together with connecting routes from Normandy, Brittany and (soon) Belgium; and a large number of new routes in S Germany. See the separate part of this site.
Austria
Styria-Verlag are gradually phasing out their guides to the 10 Austrian national long-distance paths, and the Weitwanderersektion of the Alpenverein are replacing them with their own productions. The guide to no 9, the Salzsteigweg, is the latest of these. For further details of routes and available guides, see Weitwanderersektion website.
Netherlands
The new 2004-2006 edition of the Overzichtskaart overview map of long-distance paths in the Netherlands is now available; see the Wandelplatform website.
Switzerland
Following on from the first Trans Swiss Trail, opened in 2002 (see 2002 page, now updated), a second has now been opened, this time east-west, from Rorschach to Geneva. It is basically a packaging of existing paths and aimed at lowland walkers interested in culture rather than those looking for a mountain trail. It passes, for example, Einsiedeln and the cheese-producing areas of Emmental and Gruyères. A guidebook in the same format as for the first trail is available, and a website is under development.
Six cantons celebrated their 2nd centenary in 2003, and new walking routes formed part of the celebrations in two of them. In Thurgau, a 50km route along the river Thur was opened. A free leaflet on the route is available from Thurgau Tourismus. And in St Gallen, a new route Quer durch St Gallen was inaugurated; further info from St Gallische Wanderwege. In Graubünden, the Schanfigger Höhenweg is a new 50km route between Arosa and Chur.
ViaStoria, the new name of the Swiss inventory of historic highways, is developing a network of cultural ways: national and regional routes based on their database. Included in the 10 routes on the national list are the 2 major pilgrimage trails (Via Jacobi and Via Francigena) and mountain pass routes, such as the Spluga, Gottardo and Stockalper (Simplon).

Via Francigena
Although the VF remains far behind the Camino de Santiago in terms of popularity and ‘market presence’, the Association Via Francigena has now produced a ‘topofrancigena’: detailed mapping for the England/France/Switzerland sections, Canterbury to the Gt St Bernard. See AVF website.

May 16, 2005