Day 36: Heidihof to Feldkirch

May 18, 2022

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Heidihof closed on a mediocre note, with a 1 1/2 to 2 jammer breakfast. Even at that, the terrific views all around and the very friendly staff added up to a good experience.

Whereas yesterday we had been focussed on reaching Heidihof and looking through the Heidi village, today we had time to check out the towns on the way back down to Feldkirch. Those towns in principle are Maienfeld, Bad Ragaz, Balzers, Triesen, Vaduz, Schaan, Schaanwald, and others. That's the principle. In practice it was not quite like that.

We began with Maienfeld, and there so did our small problems with the day's plan. Maienfeld can be interesting to look at, as you see from the photo below. It also has narrow streets, so one should be able to peacefully hang out and look for the good photo angles, without having to cope with traffic. And yes, this was generally true, except that about once per 15 seconds a car would come trundling along, usually too quickly, and scatter anything in its way.

It was just enough harassment to have us instinctively just head for the river to grab some peace and quiet. In so doing, we caught the north end of Bad Ragaz, but that was pretty plain. When I commented that we were missing seeing the 1000 euro per night Bad Ragaz hotel, there was no enthusiasm to go looking for it.

Had we found the hotel, it would have looked like this. I guess you have to experience the gold plated toilets, or whatever, to fully appreciate it.

Back on the river, we had a long time to watch these two peaks approach. We were most interested in the alm between them, and in looking up to the highest huts.

Down at the river level, we observed a half dozen concrete bunkers installed on the Swiss side, opposite Liechstenstein. We don't know the WWII history of this, why the Swiss needed them. .

Even as we rode along the peaceful Rhine, Dodie commented on the constant car noise. I had thought that was the roar of the river, but it soon became apparent that there was an autobahn running at the base of those two lovely mountains. Pretty soon it quit hiding, and we were riding beside the evidence that there is no respite from cars, almost everywhere.

At Balzers I was most intrigued to meet the various Brown Swiss cows by the roadside.

I was so intrigued by them, that I missed the Balzers Schloss, which is standing on a hill, where you can't miss it! My first attempts to make a photo of it failed, because of the direction of the light, but we cycled around behind, and captured a few images.

One problem in shooting this thing is the number of buildings and parked car strewn all about. Is seems there is not room in this very small country for even the nobility to maintain a lot of private space.

Despite the quite dramatic placement and style of the schloss, we did notice that unlike in parts of Germany, ordinary houses are ... quite ordinary. Below are two random "ordinary" scenes that give the idea.

However, Dodie pointed out that certain individual buildings are very interesting, like this one:

The outskirts of any city these days are usually unimpressive, and that was the case with Vaduz.

Quite quickly, which figures for such a small country as Liechstenstein, we passed from the outskirts of Vaduz to downtown, which began with the parliament building. The country is also ruled by a "Prince" and "Princess", I guess. The ones in the pictured statue are not the current incumbents. The current guy is 54 years old. The term "furst" means prince, but there is no "king"?

The parliament building is modernistic, and ok, I guess. Just beside it is the tourist information. At that point they have bikes for rent, and naturally these are all ebikes. Further, they are the Swiss brand, Flyer. They looked really good. Also good was an ebike that could carry a wheelchair.

The currency in Liechstenstein is the Swiss Franc. After our restaurant extravaganza the night before, we had only a handful of coins left. We tallied them up and came to about 8 francs. "Great", said I "We can go to a bakery". But Dodie declared the intention of taking our precious francs to buy postcards. She did that, but came back still with over 5. she had also found the washrooms (WC) and told me the secret of where they were. So I was sent off on a dual mission - visit the WC and go into a konditerei with our remaining 5 francs.

I set off, and was immediately approached by an American tourist, who asked where are the toilets. I was quite proud to not only be able to answer in English but also to guide him to the spot. I asked him then why he had asked me, and he said I looked like a local to him! Likely it was the safety vest.

In the bakery I got a quark tasche (cheese Danish) that was really good, and still returned to Dodie with some coins - about CHF 2.20. So we sent her in to an eis cafe, targeting one kugel. But the price - watch for it - one scoop now - was CHF 3.50. Dodie, emulating my pathetic tourist act, held out her handful of coins, totalling 2.20. The lady then said, oh fine, and Dodie came out with one kugel of stracciatella! We were now totally flat broke in Liechtenstein!

Flyer ebikes for rent. These have Panasonic motors.

I thought this fancy house was a staircase

Once finally out of town, we returned to the bike path for a while. It began by passing through vines, but the unique part was yellow and red roses at the end of every row. Or honeymoon rose lined cycle ended with the path being ripped to pieces by construction. There was really no way around it, not by pushing the bikes, not by climbing over obstacles. So we landed on road, and in fact this was not the only time. The photo below is only a sample.

Schaan, was one of the towns we thought we would look at. But after a fair bit of the road conditions you see in the two shots below, Dodie said "I would pay money to get out of here". Of course, this was still Liechtenstein, and as mentioned we were broke! No matter, we found another bike path and carried on without getting smooshed.

Finally zeroing in on Feldkirch, we reflected on the relative lack of really attractive buildings. However as you might see below, collectively and in a background of hills and green, they can look ok.

Back home with Kristin and Manni, we went out with Matti for some of his favourite activity - which is throwing rocks into the river. The river runs right by the house, and it is very fast moving. Further, there is a run of river generator just a very short distance upstream, and three times a day it releases a dangerous flood of water down the river. Kristin was confident that she knows the schedule and that Matti knows how close to the river he can get, while throwing rocks. But oh, my nerves!

Safely back in the house, Matti received the stuffed version of Schwanlii, which we had got at Heididorf. This joins many other stuffed toys already on his bed, but for now it was a hit!

What gave Meaning to Life today: A bike path lined with yellow roses in the mountains.

Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 2,109 km (1,310 miles)

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