Still recovering from the initial travel to get the the Alps, we tried to get moving early, but it was 9:45 local time before we actually got on the road. The ride today was mostly along the Rhine River. I have learned that the Rhine gets it milky-green color from the calcium in the limestone that it carries as sediment. There is even a Benjamin Moore paint named after this color (that I will definitely incorporate into one of our bathroom remodels). As we passed into the principality of Liechtenstein, we passed Guttenberg Castle, on the cliffs high above. Our first stop was Vaduz which is the capital of Liechtenstein. It is very much a tourist spot, as there were busloads of people there and tacky gift shops on every corner. We wandered around and admired the scenery. We explored the outside of Vaduz Cathedral, but couldn’t go inside because there were services in progress (as we could best interpret from the sign posted outside in German). We passed by the Government House of Liechtenstein and into “tourist central”, complete with a little train to deliver tourists from one end of town to the other. I may have slipped into a couple tourist shops to score a christmas ornament from Liechtenstein, which has become my collectible of choice. Don’t tell Mark that I added weight to our load as we are already working hard to pull our load now. We grabbed some fresh bread, ham and cheese from the local Coop (which appears to be the local grocery store/convenience store) of the area, and sat on the curb to enjoy our makeshift meal. From where we sat, we had a great view of Vaduz Castle, which is the private residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein.
Back along the shores of the Rhine River, we crossed back over to Switzerland and biked for what seemed like hours. It was nice and level, but the paved path turned to gravel and we encountered construction and heavy wind. It felt as if we were traveling at half-speed. The tour book we’ve been using suggested an alternative route that would have taken us further up into the mountains, but we took the easier route deciding it was fine to view “Heidi-land” from the road. We’ll have to rely on the guide book to see the house restored to match the fabled home of Heidi. The hillsides were dotted with the cutest houses that reminded me of the setting for every Brothers Grimm fairy tale I had ever read. After tiring of the gravel, we stopped and spoke to a Swiss native, trying to determine if the path was paved on the other side of the river. She didn’t speak English, so we used our best charades to describe gravel and pavement and she convinced us it was indeed paved if we crossed back over. After following her advice, we found out that the path on the other side of the river was indeed paved, but only to the bridge we crossed. However, we were going in the other direction from which she had come. We were right back on gravel paths again, no worse for the wear.
Finally crossing into Austria, the bike path took us right through the farm fields, close enough to the livestock to reach out and pet a cow on the nose if one was so inclined (I wasn’t). We pedaled through miles of rows of corn and cow pastures.
Our campground was in the town of Bregenz, Austria which is on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee in German). The Rhine River spreads out and forms Upper Lake Constance, narrows again, and then widens to form Lower Lake Constance. Given the scenery of the day, it was fitting that our campsite was on the edge of a cornfield. In Europe, there doesn’t seem to be much rigid organization in campgrounds as there is in America. They give you a general area that you can set up, but there aren’t established “sites”. Instead of having your own picnic table and fire pit, there are shared spaces with tables, electricity, and BBQ pits where people gather. People in Europe focus much more on the social experience than us Americans. I enjoyed it as much as I could, but the language barrier sometimes gets in the way.
We approached the campground through a waterfront public park, where there was some sort of music festival (which we heard late into the night). At the entrance to the campground, we quickly learned that our campground had its own Biergarten (a welcome sign). We needed to shower before dinner so Mark asked the young man checking us in if there was any chance they would run out of beer before we got back. He told Mark “we would run out of pizza before we would ever run out of beer”. So after we cleaned up and set up camp, we came back for pizza and beer. Not knowing what to order, we tried to ask about the types of beer on draft. The bar maid let us know that “we don’t have all those beers like in Germany…. we have two beers…. the one that everyone drinks and the one that is bitter”. So we happily walked away with two of the beers that everyone drinks. (And we may have gone back for seconds). The beer was strong and cheap and accompanied by a great selection of 1970’s and 1980’s American music. This was, by all accounts, one of my most memorable birthdays. I didn’t get my cake and ice cream, but I have a rain check on that.
We returned to our cornfield campsite and did our best to make friends with the guy next door, who didn’t speak any English, had no teeth, and had a dog that he claimed was a wolf. He laughed at us every time we told him we were biking to Amsterdam. It didn’t take long to fall asleep in the cornfield. Just the occasional spritz of rain and the corn stalks making whispering noises through the night.
