Today was a bit of a mystery day. Our last night in Switzerland had come and gone, and we were on our way to Liechtenstein with one remaining challenge: the south shoreline of Walensee. Which, from the north shore in Weesen, looked strikingly familiar. In fact, just like the wild south shore of Brienzersee, which was a real challenge to navigate. And, in fact, this looked tougher! The mountains are very sheer and come up immediately to the shoreline. And the highway is through bored tunnels with an open avalanche gallery visible at points.
But the course showed us staying mostly along the shoreline with a steep climb at MP 4.0 or so. A real steep climb! But vertical data is only a suggestion, so there was only one way to find out. Get on the bikes and ride it!
And what a delightful day. It was still a little on the cool side but bright and sunny. I exited town along the waterfront and back up the Linth River to the bridge crossing over to the south side. So far, so good! That was easy!
Happy and Jerry were ahead of me, as I had dallied a bit to take these photographs. There was no rush today. Only 30 miles to Vaduz. Immediately across the bridge, it was trail time, which is always a good sign. That took me down a bit from the highway crossing and through a wooded campground and to a trail/roadway along the south shore. It was very pretty and easy cycling.
Follow the bike! Nice to know someone has done this before.
We then crossed a second waterway, and everything pretty much narrowed to the size of a small trail. And we started climbing. Nothing tough, even as the trail turned to a gravel surface.
The narrow(er) but paved way up. Later it would turn to gravel as it continued up into the mountain.
And then, surprise of surprises! A tunnel! And not for cars but for us! Pretty amazing thing to bike through. So the climb we had just made basically took us to the level of the westbound highway traffic, and the highway tunnel then had a parallel tunnel for pedestrians and cyclists. Sweet!
At the top of the climb, the tunnel entrance! On the right, you can see the westbound highway.
But that was not all. Past the parallel section, a more roughly hewn tunnel took us underneath the westbound traffic to the far side of the highway! Amazing, really.
A second section, passing underneath the highway, seemed more roughly hewn.
From there, we continued on our way on a nicely paved path. We still had some mean climbing to do. In fact, right after we exited the bike tunnel, we had a steep climb over a short distance to cross a third highway tunnel, but it gave us more great views of the lake and the far shoreline.
A short, but steep, climb to get over the third highway tunnel.
From there, it was pretty smooth sailing on local roads and the bike trail through several villages. Sometimes the trail was immediately adjacent to the main highway, and for the final section we had to bike along the old access road to the villages, which was a little busy but doable and only about four miles long. It looked like there was a path along the shoreline, and we saw cyclists there, but Swiss Route 9 was signed along the road we were on, so we stuck with that.
We crossed under a bridge back to lakeside and rode into Mühlehorn.
We arrived in Walenstadt, the city at the end of the lake, and ran smack into a huge festival where all the major roads in town were closed. And it was crowded. It seems everyone in the surrounding area was there. We mingled a bit, and I stumbled across a bike shop where I took the opportunity to buy a pair of brake pads. Just in case! My rear brake pads were new when I started but had worn down a bit with all the hills (because when you go up, you must also come down!).
It was still early, barely 11:00 AM, and it was flat land riding all the way to Vaduz. We decided to get lunch in Mels, still about 10 miles away, so took a leisurely ride up the valley, arriving there near 12:30.
Bucolic settings headed up the valley toward Vaduz.
Jerry tends to run a little slower than Happy and me and has different eating preferences sometimes, so Happy and I chose a place for lunch, and Jerry made his own way (i.e., he chose a different place). So we didn't catch up with him again until Vaduz. He also took a shorter lunch and arrived ahead of us. However, while he arrived in Vaduz ahead of us, we arrived in Liechtenstein first due to an anomaly of geography. While Jerry stuck true to the course, Happy and I took the first opportunity to cross the Rhine River and plant our feet firmly in the Principality!
Beyond Mels, there was plenty more bike trail. We passed more than a handful of other cyclists on this section.
It was a beautiful ride up the Rhine. And the Principality of Liechtenstein is more like a lost canton than a separate state. Their foreign affairs are mostly handled by Switzerland, and they use the Swiss Franc as their currency. But they do have their own flag!
Riding on the far side gave us some benefit of shade.
The hotel was perfect, and we arrived early enough (3:00 PM) to tour downtown Vaduz, which is a mix of old and new architecture, all tastefully pulled together.
Today's ride: 32 miles (51 km) Total: 775 miles (1,247 km)
