Day 35: Feldkirch to Heidihof

May 17, 2022

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Kristin snuck out really early and went to a different bakery from yesterday's, for some artisanal brotchen. Manni put together some omelette, and it was another power breakfast!

Matti was actually not so interested in eating, but he'll get another shot at it at school.

Manni had a look at our algorithm generated route toward Maienfeld, and actually gave it a stamp of approval. Manni cycles to work over what would be the first 15 km of our route, into Liechtenstein, where his work is located. If you look at the track above, especially if you select the easier to read "Map" map, you will see that we followed the Ill North out of town, and then turned southwest into Liechtenstein, and eventually straight up the Rhine.

Feldkirch is an attractive town, but we have been so "busy" that we really have not yet crawled through it.

The 'script" for today was that we would cycle about 35 km up the Rhine, and then reach the beauty spots we had come to see. But in fact the amazing gorgeous iconic scenes started right away. The following seven shots show the kind of scenes that hit us straight out of town.

We seemed to be following Liechtenstein route 35, but other routes also popped up on the sign posts, including one which denoted the "Five Schloss" route. We did spot a couple, including one near Vaduz (Liechtenstein) . That one is Vaduz Castle, and it stems from the twelfth century. The Liechtenstein family acquired it when they bought this whole area, and the family still lives there. Liechtenstein is a constitutional monarchy, but the hereditary leader is the Prince and not the King.

Vaduz Castle, gave its name to the nearby town and capital of Liechtenstein.

We crossed the Rhine a couple of times, as the perfect path paralleled it all the way.

We could also look to some towns at the base of the alm, like this one - not sure which it is.

Beside the path for a lot of the way were meadows of wild flowers. "Hey Dodie, this looks like alpine meadows" was my astute comment. "Well duh, these are the 'Alps', eh", was her patient reply.

Just before Maienfeld is the town of Flasch. This one was what I had imagined Maienfeld to be like. But it turned out Maienfeld is much larger.

Maienfeld also had another surprise. It is a vine growing/wine producing town. Funny, Heidi never seemed to mention going out to a wine bar. This must be a new development. Still, the town had some venerable looking wine infrastructure, like this estate:

And this display of wine products in the town:

Wine growing or tasting in Maienfeld had little impact for us, because we immediately set about ascending to Heidi's realm.

Heidi, Peter, and the goats as described in the stories - Baerli is brown, Schwanli is white.

The first thing you come to is the Heidihof Hotel and Restaurant. There are other places to say in the area, but we were not fooling around with that. We had assumed but did not know in advance that this place has the most stupendous location. But oh my. As I type this I am sitting facing a window beyond which is a herd of deer, on a green meadow hill, with tall mountains in the background. To my right from a second window (great for cross draft) I am listening to cow bells from a meadow on that side, and from that window I can see Bad Ragaz, where Johanna Spyri stayed when she came to this region and was inspired to write Heidi.

This blog entry is coming to you from an idyllic setting.

From the hotel it's a short (but uphill) walk to Heidi's Dorfli. Dorfli is kind a pet name for a little village. The idea is to portray a village up above the larger Maienfeld, where someone like Heidi could have spent most of her time. The village contains a rathaus, school, Heidi's house, places for the animals, and a portrayal of Heidi's cottage higher in the alm. Each of these buildings is furnished with antique furniture, fittings, and equipment from the time of Heidi, which we can take to be about 1880. In this Heidi Dorf is similar to Upper Canada Village in Ontario, which is set about 1860. Upper Canada Village is much larger, with working water powered mills, bakery, and many buildings, but the idea is the same.

From Heidi Dorf a trail leads much higher into the alm, to Grandfather's cabin. It's about an hour and a half hike, if you are not an elderly, exhausted cyclist. We gave that part a miss! (Grandfather must have been in better shape than us!)

Here is some of the flavour of Heidi's village:

Heidi's bed of hay in the hut, where she famously made herself at home when Grandfather conceded she could sort of stay.

Cheesemaking was a major activity in the alm. The soft meltable raclette seems to be the major type. We did not see a reference to berg kase - the harder mountain cheese.

The goats, which feature so strongly in the story, were a major factor in the local economy, thought of as poor man's cows. Goats are well adapted to possibly meagre high mountain meadows, and the easy to digest goat's milk figured in bringing Clara back to health in the story. Peter, the goatherd boy, was also realistic, as boys were often employed to move goats among pastures.

A likely authentic wood stove of the era

The rathaus of the village, included the school

The village naturally included a gift shop, with a vast array of Heidi branded souvenirs. To begin, there are several editions of the Heidi story, in a variety of languages.

And we can also see older editions, again from many countries.

There have been many Heidi movies, and most can be purchased here.

The Arabic edition is not at all far fetched. While we expected hoards of Japanese tourists, today was quiet overall. But there was a large family of Arabic speakers, from Saudi Arabia:

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We returned to the hotel, slightly missing our path and having to climb back up a bit. We had 80 or 90 Swiss Francs burning a hole in our shorts on this, our last day in Switzerland, so we headed to the restaurant.

Every table offered a wonderful view. Dodie got roast lam with spargel - in this case both green and white, and I got roast chicken with salad and pommes. The dishes came quickly and were beautiful.

In Austria I like to order the herbal ginger ale "Alm Dudler", but surprisingly in this globalised world, you strictly can not find it outside of Austria. I asked the waitress what might be equivalent here in Switzerland, and it turned out to be Rivella. This can only be found in Switzerland, and is also good. In the photo you also see a full liter bottle of mineral water. You have to be insane, or own an oil well, to order a full liter bottle of water in a Swiss restaurant. But as I said, we had these Francs that did not want to stick with us.

Some loose ends: The menu cover in the restaurant featured better menu photography than mine:

And here is a casual shot of those deer out my window. What type are they?:

Signing off from the Alps. Tomorrow we'll descend the river, looking at some towns along the way, and in a day - back on the Bodensee.

What gave meaning to life today: Mountains and Meadows

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 2,063 km (1,281 miles)

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Rich FrasierI am simply in awe of your immersive Heidi experience. I had no idea such a place existed!
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Rich FrasierWe agree with you. Some might disparage the place as just a tourist attraction, but hey, we are tourists!
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1 year ago