Chur to Vaduz, Liechtenstein

June 12, 2022

sunny, hot, and beautiful

A glorious day today, really spectacular. We began by taking a train from Zurich to Chur, then getting on the bikes. Really itching to get riding!

The train ride was very pretty to Chur, and I bet some lucky (and wealthy) bankers live on the train line and commute to Zurich - a 30 minute relaxing way to travel.

After a 90 minute train ride, we are in Chur. A brief segue thru the town, and our first glimpse of the Rhine far below. At this point it is still quite young, turbulent, but not wide.

We took a route which led away from the river (although obviously still in the river valley) and check out these cycle paths. Since it was Sunday, near each village there was a fair amount of cycle traffic, most of it going much faster than us!

Clearly not monoculture farms, there was a patchwork of different produce, and also timed to different maturities. But always, always beautiful.

There is a section here where the film Heidi was made, and they kept a lot of houses unchanged so its called "Heidiland". They even have laws not to change certain appearances of dwellings.

Riesling grapes (we assume) were plentiful, and these temps are hard on those grapes. It was 29 at this point of the day.

travelled a long way beside the Rhine on Swiss side

This is what I pictured when we first discussed "riding down the Rhine river". The Rhine here is quite wide and still moving swiftly (you can tell by the fact it is mostly straight). The cycle path is the size of a road here, and very popular. This was, in fact, our first view of Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. You can see it on the side of the mountain in the center of the picture above. Not very big!

We are excited to be in a new country. We reserved a hotel across the river, just to be in Liechtenstein. Tomorrow, we'll cross the bridge again into Switzerland, and continue our journey. Right now, something cool would be most appreciated!

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 329 km (204 miles)

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