DAY 105 - Bike Ride to Lichtenstein

July 2 – Riding along the Rhine

I watched my new little friend, Amelie, help her mom make pizza dough.  Isn't she a great little helper?

She was making pizza to help feed the missionaries.

 The missionaries for the LDS Church came over to help Patric do his project that goes along with his Master's Thesis.  It ended up taking all day, as we'll come back to them later.

What a beautiful, sunny day as we took off for our 6 hour excursion. We borrowed Patrick's and Rahel's bikes and took off along the light blue-gray color of the beautiful Rhine River. 

What a gorgeous day for a bike ride.

 The Rhine River runs from the Swiss Alps through Germany and eventually flows into the North Sea coast in the Netherlands.  It is the longest river in Germany and the twelfth longest in Europe.  When we were in Vienna, Austria, we encountered the Danube River.  It was so exciting for me to be seeing these famous sites that have so many songs and pieces written about them.  The Danube River is a river in Central Europe and is the European Union's longest and the continent's second.  Once a long-standing frontier of the Roman empire, the river passes through or touches the borders of ten countries

Shall we bike to another country today?  Sure - why not!

The path followed the Rhine River the whole way.  The Alps were all around us.  We had so much fun.

WWII Bunker - we saw many of these along the path

 We crossed the Rhine and on the bridge we found our selves in another country ....Lichtenstein.

Welcome to Lichtenstein

And here we have the plaque for Switzerland.

A far-off view of the castle

Were getting closer and closer

We're finally in town where we'll ditch our bikes and walk up there.

We found ourselves in Balzers near the Gutenburg Castle, a castle built in the Middle Ages.  Before we hiked up to the Castle, we took a couple of pictures of a beautiful church closeby.

 No one was around as we ate our lunch on top – spectacular views! 

A Bronze Horse is in the center for some reason

"Climb Every Mountain....Ford Every Stream.   Follow Every Rainbow til you find Your Dream."

Stone Steps hung out over the edge and were really scary to climb onto, but I did it.

  We rode to the next town to try and buy a postcard or spoon, but none to be found, so nothing to show for our visit, but a wonderful day and these pictures.

Some military helicopters flew by and caused a little commotion.

 When we got back to Bad Ragaz, Rich helped the guys to build the miniature hotel for Patric's project.

    






I cooked Chinese Stir-Fry Chicken and Vegetable dinner for everyone.  They earned it as they had worked hard all day.

Carlene - do you remember this Elder on your mission?  "This is my brother," says this new Elder.

We decided to call Carlene on skype and Rahel and her enjoyed talking in German together.

I baked a Cherry Cobbler with the cherries Rich had picked

Tomorrow we tour more of Switzerland by train on the Glacier Express Rail route.  Can't wait!