A big day today another 55km day and 32C with humidity, at least sunshine keeps the photographer happy but not so great for uphill bits.. Alas you can’t see hubbys 100s of photos because the wifi from the main camera doesnt want to transfer images. It was a slow start as the photographer of our party kept wanting to stop. Frolicking cows, old towers  you name it they had to be photographed.

Our first hiccup occured when our guide book said we should leave a village on the higher track so I assumed tree line and dragged hubby up out of the village on to a mountain bike track. It started to look a bit serious and then the signposts included the word “berg” in them no we didnt want to go to Gams via a mountain. We descended and almost immediately were back on the correct route.Phew…

Stunning scenery as we headed up the valley to the town of Buchs for a late coffee and cake stop, beautiful sitting next to a small lake with the mountains perfectly mirrored in the lake .

Within 5 minutes of leaving Buchs we were back on the Rhine with Liechtenstein across the otherside, we popped half way across a bridge just to have stepped into Leichtenstein. We had planned to cycle for 5kms in Leichtenstein but missed the right bridges, too busy looking at the scenery.The Rhine was now a milky colour from the glacial melt waters .Quite a few people swimming hubby assured me this was not a good thing to do as all the very, very fine particles of mica etc  in the water can get  into ones body.

We were luckily prevented from a big detour by 2 cyclists telling us to go the other side of the Rhine as the path was blocked. My german wasnt up to finding out why it was blocked but was happy to have avoided a long back track in the heat.

Eventually we left the Rhine and the only way had to be up out of the valley. We entered the pretty village of Flasch, it did have a cafe open (sunday) but we were sweaty, hot messes after coming up very steeply and could not have eaten a thing. I’d taken 3 bottles of water with us, hubby had 2 and we were completely out of water luckily the village water trough/supply was working and very cold. The church belfry in Flasch is famous for mouse eared bats and there is infra red lights so you can press buttons and see them roosting. Well we pressed buttons and didnt see a thing, the bats might have gone in deeper to the belfry maybe with the heat?.

Just up above Flasch is the original home of Heidi , we started going further up to get to Heidis home but then thought better of it. We did see a wooden shack through the trees so not sure wbether that was it. As we were pushing our bikes further up in search of the Heidi house suddenly the most beautiful female voice filled the valley, and we came across 3 Swiss musicians giving a concert at a winery. Magical….For those who missed out on the story of Heidi in their childhood written by johanna Spyri in1880, it is a true story of a child sent to live with her grandfather in the Alps.Lots of movies were made about the story and Heidi sang..and her voice echoed around the valley just like we’d heard..

It seemed to take ages to do our last 3 kms and luckily we didnt drop down to the village we could see as that was across the Rhine as that was not where wed prebooked a hotel being Sunday. Eventually we arrived in Maiendorf , quaint old town but our hotel was down in the valley and our route the next day continued high up, so reluctantly we cycled downhill.

When we arrived at the hotel we met the end stages of the Grand Tour de Swiss of all electric vehicles from motorbikes, bikes to cars just finishing off before they set off on their last stage of the day.Hubby managed to get a few snaps I was incapable, all I wanted was a cold shower!!

The other thing that was there as we arrived was a huge coach with a bike trailer on the back, a Scandinavian group bike tour was staying here aswell. As they arrived on their bikes without luggage I decided they looked a lot worse than us and they were very  burnt so maybe we had coped ok in the heat.

Beautiful views from the Heidi Hotel even though it was set in the industrial area of Maiendorf.Nice terraces to sit out on and enjoy an alcohol free beer!

It was a very early night though..

Hotel Swiss Heidi

Maiendorf

Secure bike storage in locked garage, great breakfast including fresh squeezed juices and gluten free plus healthy  options and you could boil your own egg .