Last night, when I arrived back at the hotel after a 25 km walking day, I knew that I needed to do laundry. I checked with Mitchell when he needed to do laundry next and he said he might last two days until our next destination which could be a laundry day.
I was a bit concerned as the socks and underwear were not going to last that long. I therefore decided to do some basic laundry and hope that it dried overnight. To my luck, it mostly did with some assistance of fan pointed at them early next morning.
It was a rainy night. It started about 6 pm and continued through the night until the next day when it finally stopped at about 11:30 am. This was not a good sign for two adventurous travellers.
The next morning we checked out as late as possible. We went to the local grocery store which, in European style, had a cafe connected to it. I ordered a cinnamon roll and a black coffee.
Through the morning, Mitchell was busy googling laundromats. He changed his plans to make it a laundry day. It was a bit of a struggle as a small rural towns did not have these types of facilities. Not even in the nation’s capital city. Albeit, the capital only has 6000 people.
Given that the check-in was at 3 pm, and it was only 10:30 am, Mitchell decided to get on a bus and try for a laundromat. As I sat drinking my coffee, I looked out the window at the rain and made the decision that I would walk to our next accommodation. I mean, it was only 11 km.
With the decision made Mitchell and I separated for the day with differing quests. My goal was to walk to our next accommodation. Mitchell’s was to find a place he could do some laundry.
I ducked in quickly to the supermarket to buy some lunch and a drink for my solo journey.
Luckily, shortly after I began, the rain let up a little. I was walking through it for 30 minutes, but I am glad it got less. I waited under a shelter for 15 minutes after I checked a forecast because the rain got heavier briefly. It meant I could take a scenic route rather than just walk directly.
As I walked, I took a photo of the far off castle, Gutenberg Castle. I realised I would need to walk past it to pass through the valley behind it to reach my final destination. I figured that I might as well take a look if I was going past.
I visited the church below called St Nicolas Catholic Church in Balzars. I was fortunate to find a bathroom here. I then ventured up to Gutenberg Castle to take a look. It is open to the public in the lower courtyard. I took a few photos. I also took photos in the other direction, standing just outside the castle gates looking in the other direction.
Due to the rain, I did not see a single person from first visiting the church all the way up the hill and back down again. I was the only visitor during my time in the area today.
This was only the start of my adventure. I was next heading off towards a hill that I would be climbing. I could have just followed the straight river Rhine, but this would be no fun. I decided to go over a hill instead.
As I walked, I took a photo back in the direction that I came of Gutenberg Castle. I passed a few dog walkers along the farmland area before I ascended my mountain passageway.
As I ascended, I came across all sorts of small shacks or sheds. There were quite the number of them. I took a few scenic photos of them on my solo journey.
As I neared the top of my mountain pass, a small but steep gully between two peaks, I found a spot to have lunch. I sat down, all my myself and really enjoyed my surroundings. I was having a really good time exploring all by myself. I kept up to date with Mitchell along my way.
I continued up the mountain, reaching the top of the pass. On the map, it didn’t look like I was coming up to an area that was so steep on the way back down. I had reached what I hoped was not a cliff. There were clear tracks on my map over the hill and I ventured down them, cautiously as it was mighty slippery after the rain last night. I took a photo, once some of the trees cleared that blocked my view, of my destination beyond the cliff. Below is a photo of Bad Ragaz, the town I was walking towards.
I ventured down the hill, crossing an area where some of the path had collapsed, luckily it wasn’t too bad, and reached the river Rhine below. I followed this straight path for a long time until I reached the bridge I had researched before starting this treck.
Once I walked into Bad Ragaz, I tracked Mitchell’s location and peered into a pub where I joined him for my regular Coke Zero. We shared stories of our adventures today. He showed me the accommodation once we had finished.
Later in the day, we visited the ruins of another castle. I took a few photos, but this side quest was a bit of a bust as the castle had about 200 Swiss Scouts camping here. They had at least 15 tents set up, some tents were quite large indeed.
We were allowed into the castle, but we were informed that some areas were set up for showers. We decided to depart to give them the ruins and I didn’t take too many photos on this occasion. No doubt they would be playing Castle games during their time there, I imagined a game of ‘besiege the castle’ which would be fun for kids living in such an area. Mitchell wanted to go back in time with that idea.
We visited the supermarket once again before settling in for the night. Just in time too, the mountains had disappeared and rain was pouring as we got back.