Shirley Temple made the book famous in 1937 when she played the roll of the Swiss girl, Heidi, sent off to live with her grumpy grandfather high in the Swiss alps. Although Heidi was only a figment of the imagination of the author Johanna Spyri, she used real locations in the book, in particular, Maienfeld. Inspired entrepreneurs seized on the public's love of the story and have erected "Heidiland" above the town of Maienfeld, Switzerland. In fact, the whole region for five miles on either side of the town is called "Heidiland". Our Eurovelo Route 15 goes right through it. Sally remembers the book from her youth, so naturally, she was excited to see the area. Curiosity drove my interest as well.
We left our campsite in Chur at 6:30 am, sneaking out before anyone else was awake. We quickly got back on our route and enjoyed level and slightly downhill peddling for the first few hours, leaving Chur behind.
I have to admit that I was hungry all morning in spite of eating a breakfast of bread, cheese and fruit. I was constantly raiding the food stores in my pack, eating bananas, chocolate bars and more bread and cheese to satiate my hunger. It was like PCT grad hiker hunger. In one small town we passed, we happened upon a grocery store. I found a wonderful walnut pastry, bananas and a bag of chips. I consumed these just outside the door of the store. Here is the difference between the PCT and this biking trip. On the PCT I would just have to be hungry, because I'd I ate more food on that day there would be none for the next, i.e., no stores. On this trip we pass stores daily and I can buy what I "need". How this all equates with weight gain or loss waits to be seen.
We climbed up the side of the Rhine valley, entering Heidiland. It is spectacular scenery. The road undulates across the hillside. Passing through fields of corns, carrots, grass and vineyards. When we reached Maienfeld we could continue the traverse or turn right and climb towards the hotel, restaurant and other artifacts of Heidiland. We checked the web and our guidebook, but none gave the distance up to the grounds. It was too steep for Sally to ride so I began pushing both bikes up the hill with dally following. After about half a mile we again checked for distance on the web. This time we were more successful. Another half mile to go. The temperature was in the mid-eighties by this time, but the urge to see all things Heidi spurred us on.
I reached the parking lot to the restaurant first, dripping in sweat. I could hear Sally talking to someone below on the road. Soon, a camper van, not too different than our VW van came up the hill and pulled next to me. The owner, Fritz, jumped out and handed me a glass of water. These kind Austrians had taken pity on the guy pushing two bikes and the overheated redhead walking up the steep sunny hill and had stopped to give up water.
We laughed and talked until Sally's bright red face began to return to normal. Fritz spoke no English, Lillian quite well, but we managed fine.
After they drive off, we locked our bikes in the lot and walked the five minutes to the Heidi Village to see the Heidi swag in the gift shop and the myriad Bronze statues of goats, kids and old men, along with real goats, a fountain and the head of the trail that leads to the Heidi Cabin an hour and a half walk up the mountain.
We decided to forgo the walk up to the cabin perched on the mountainside. A bus load of Japanese tourist had arrived. We dodge in and out of the crowd taking photos before returning to our bikes. We sat to eat lunch near our bikes in a patch of shade. A young family of four, mom, dad and two cute girls, ages 6 and 4 sat next to us in the shade, each lacing on their boots for the home to the Heidi cabin. The little girls were so cute in their excitement to see Heidi's cabin!
The ride down was a brake squeezing breeze and soon we were back on route, gently traversing downward thru the remainder of Heidiland until we reached the Rhine, crossed it, and began cycling down a dike on its west side. Periodically we would pass what looked like concrete gun emplacements. A little exploring proved that's what they were. They were now welded shut, but the design showed at one point they had artillery of some sort able to shoot both up and down the length of the Rhine.
We crossed a cycling bridge across the Rhine, waited for a farmer to get his cows across the road, then cycled into Liechtenstein, stopping for groceries, before continuing on to our campground, up on the side of the hill. Still in the high 80° we sweated up to it, set up camp and took showers. Our neighbors, Gabriel and Lillian from Holland, were talkative and fun. They invited us for tea. He is a warehouse manager, she teaches middle school STEM.
A swim, a salad, and we were ready for bed. My internet coverage from T-Mobile does not include Liechtenstein. Information wise, we would have been in the dark, but the campground fee includes one hour of Internet. We used it to plot our next day's course and accommodations.
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