Cresta-Sun Davos

Das Abreisedatum rückt näher - noch 7 Wochen und dann geht es los.
Einmal um die Welt - oft darüber gesprochen, viel davon geträumt - bald wird es Realität.

Die Reisevorbereitungen werden intensiver, langsam macht man sich Gedanken, was man alles einpacken wird - nur nicht zu viel! Mal sehen ob das mit dem Vorsatz klappt :)
Vandans, Vorarlberg, Austria auszeit2010

We were planning to go to Liechtenstein but thought we may as well as it was sort of on our way. It's the worlds 6 smallest country so it would have been rude not to go..haha.

We didn't drive to the main town but to another.. where really there wasn't anything. I did get a photo with the tourist sign though. Had to somehow prove I'd been there!

We continued on the roadbook without too much of a problem, driving through some really pretty towns and villages. We stopped at a post office, to get stamps, just in case the postcard shops didn't sell them. The change we got in Liechtenstein came in handy here! The route took us into a small town which had a Subaru dealer, so we stopped for a few bingo card photos. As we drove away from there, we saw a ...

So, Liechtenstein. the smallest country in Europe. We got stooped at the border, and asked for our passports, and what we were doing there. No problems though, and we were soon on our way.

We were almost immediately at the Capital city, Vaduz. We were definitely not going to miss the chance to do the postcards etc. So we looked for somewhere to park. We drove around a bit and ...

... get on the bus I watched southern Liechtenstein roll past on the way to Vaduz. Cute villages with quaint houses, cows grazing in green pastures, and a castle sitting on a high hill surrounded by vineyards.

Vaduz is a very nice city. The royal residence, a castle of course, sits on a high cliff directly above the city centre. The main street is a pedestrian street with shops and restaurants, museums, the tourist office, the ...

We made an early start climbing aboard the famous Glacier Express at Chur Station for the long days haul up to Andermatt and beyond. The bright red livery of the train cheering the relatively dull contours of the station platform!
Our spacious viewng carriage was found to be very comfortable, each place being fitted with multi-lingual audio headphones relaying interesting travelog as we ...

... I could imagine it being a very lively place in the ski season. The day we chose to visit was ghastly! The rain causing a very low mist over the scenery. The cable-car wasn't doing much business that day either and our planned walk into red squirrel country up above the town didn't seem to beckon us! After a light refreshment in the nearest cafe we climbed aboard the same train we had arrived on and made the very slow descent back to Chur!

... and we still traveled the same routes as the official "Glacier Express" trains. We also had a bonus: the extra segment between Davos and St. Moritz. The scenery was marvelous and it was fun to think about the engineering feats that were accomplished in building all those tunnels and bridges through the Alps, but we as a family are glad that we did not commit to an 8 hour train ride all in one day on the official train. The kids would certainly have been restless and ...

... and experienced today. I know I said the same thing about Austria, and it is still true, but this was a whole different level of experience.

After we returned to Davos, we took a short walk and then we had dinner at a very nice little bistro about a block from the hotel. What a nice, quiet way to cap off a wonderful day. It will be an early night tonight. The bags have to be in the hallway by 6:30 am, with breakfast at 6:45 am. We will transfer to Germany (via Austria) tomorrow.

... go all out for desserts, and it shows…but they also walk a lot, so they can eat like this. When we returned from dinner, it was quite late and we have an early start on Monday... we are off for Lucerne. (Before I forget, the music during dinner was absolutely wonderful. Two young fellows were playing local Swiss mountain music on accordions and my feet just couldn’t stay still. Maggie was the only other one of Our Group who went with us.) We had a great time.