The Bikepacker: Bikepacking 2025 - Valendas (CH) to Vaduz (LI)

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Today's Route

Route So far

Travelogue

We left the campsite at 7:10 and proceeded on this, the theoretically downhill section of our planned route..... by immediately cycling up a not insignificant hill! All good though. And it certainly woke us up with heart rates elevated within a minute of jumping on our bikes!

The weather was good but the forecast was for thunder and rain in the afternoon, so we intended to reach our destination in Vaduz, Liechtenstein before the heavens opened.

Quite soon after our "wake up climb", we found ourselves enjoying a thrilling descent, complete with those classic hairpin bends. At the end of the descent we were still a considerable height above the valley floor and its river. The view was great and the road levelled off, hugging the mountain side to our right. To our left was a dizzying vertical drop!

We cycled through a series of tunnels, some long enough to warrant us switching our lights on. Some were more like clumsy holes, blown through the rock face rather that the results of precision engineering, but they served their purpose.

This was a really great part of the ride today. Dramatic views from a dramatic feeling mountain road.

We descended on a long, straight, fast road. Eventually we entered a small town and spotted an open bar. It was time for breakfast. We'd started our day by sharing the one banana we had left and that's barely a pre-breakfast never mind an actual breakfast.

After coffees and standard croissants, we carried on. We passed through small towns and along roads and paths, both paved and gravel. There were surprise uphill sections and our legs screamed their complaints, arguing like lawyers that they'd spent two days in the Alps and were surely due a nice rest. We ignored them as usual. Case dismissed.

About 20 km from Vaduz, with a few more surprise uphill sections done, our legs started to threaten to abandon ship. Or should that be bike? Whatever. M1 looked on his phone (see how useful it is?) for a store and found one a few km up ahead. It turned out to be a petrol station that had a small grocery store attached. It was very close to our route so we detoured to it when we got there. M1 bought cold cans of Coke, a couple of pastries and a chocolate covered doughnut. They weren't all for him. Just most of them.

We returned to our route, found a bench, sat down and refuelled.

With M2 in the lead, we entered a small village which as usual, had lovely Swiss buildings either side of the road. As is his habit, without stopping, M1 unzipped his frame bag and pulled out his phone, kept there primarily for navigation purposes. With one hand, he switched from the map app to the camera, took a quick photo of M2, slid his phone back into the frame bag and zipped it up.

Except that this is not what happened. The photo was taken. The phone was slipped back into the frame bag. The frame bag was zipped up. But in between these last two steps, M1's all important smartphone slipped out and fell into the road, all without M1 noticing, intent as he now was on not crashing his bike into an oncoming car!

A few minutes later, we stopped and M1 instinctively reached for his phone to check the route. Discovering the phone gone, an alarmed M1 quickly cycled back the way we'd come. A car came past in the opposite direction. Had the phone been crushed by it? Two eBikers approach on the other side and M1 shouted across something in English and made the international "making a phone call" symbol with thumb and finger to his ear. The woman said something in response in German. M1 recognised the word "handy". It's what Germans call a mobile phone! M1 had once worked for a German company. Finally, this useless knowledge had a use!

We all stopped and the woman dismounted, opened one of her bike bags and there it was. M1's phone.

About a million "dankes" later, M1 returned to M2 with his precious navigation, photography, information and communication tool. Phew!

We continued and to our surprise soon found ourselves cycling though a vineyard. We didn't realise they made wine in Switzerland.

Soon we were cycling right by the Rhine on its left bank. The cycle path was beautiful, as were the views of the river and surrounding mountains. We started to cross by a handy (meaning "useful" rather than "German mobile phone"!) wooden bridge. The border between Switzerland and Liechtenstein was marked at its centre, complete with a coat of arms for each of the two countries.

After another 10 km of cycling we reached the capital city, Vaduz. We're now in a hotel. Yes, an actual hotel! We'll be here for two nights and taking the opportunity tomorrow to do some sightseeing as well as to rest our legs. As M2 so wisely noted, we will probably never be in Liechtenstein again so we need to make the most of this.

Photos