April 7 - Heavenly HEIDILAND! A beautiful day in Switzerland!!!

We decided to stay in Austria for one more night, as the next day promised blue skies - perfect for a spectacular drive back home! 

Spectacular view from Austria, near the border with Liechtenstein, with the Appenzell, Switzerland mountains in the distance

Highway rest stops in Switzerland are beautiful. You have to pay 1 Swiss franc for the toilet, but it's the most clean, relaxing toilet! Like a spa.... Remember, after you pay, a ticket comes out for 1 franc off a meal at the Marche restaurant there.

So this was the Heidiland rest stop - just outside of Maienfeld, Switzerland, and we then continued up the mountain to Heidiland! This is a setting which is like the one described in the classic story of Heidi, by Johanna Spyri. The views were spectacular and well worth the short drive up. What made the photos extra special was the new snow on the mountaintops from the previous night. 

Heidiland - Heidi's farm

Rick along the path to Heidi's farm

The house on the left is "Heidi's" farmhouse

There are goats for the children to play with

A picnic area on the farm

View west from Heidi's farm, looking down on the town of Maienfeld

A little hike above the farm.
There is actually another longer hike up to a mountain meadow where Heidi and Peter tended the goats, but the trails were quite muddy today. 

Heidiland - Heidi's farm

Heidiland - Heidi's farm - view south

Panoramic from Heidiland

More panoramic of Heidiland

Rick sitting on bench in Heidi's yard

Back of Heidi's house

Spring flowers, green meadows, blue sky and white mountains. What more can you ask for?

Heidiland - Heidi's farm

Heidiland - Heidi's farm

Now, I already had another picture similar to this, but I wanted to show the "drain" coming from the kitchen window. Very old stone homes have this "spout" where the water just drains out of the house! 

Path in upper left leads to Heidi's farm

The town of Maienfeld

Privately owned Ortenstein Castle in Tomils, Switzerland, south of Chur

As we walked to another castle ruins in Paspels, Switzerland, south of Chur, we noticed this guy on top of the tree, trimming it! 

View from old Hochjuvalt castle ruins. There was a hiking sign, which we followed. The path was short, but steep and wooded - I did not like the idea of trying to get down that way! It was up on an small rocky outcrop, so you couldn't get back from it to take a picture. Most of the castle has fallen down. We found another way down - and into a farmer's cow yard! Now, I read online that there was an accident there in 2010, that the castle path had "spilled" and the site is closed! gosh, no signs about that around! 

The Swiss cows are wondering what we're doing walking through their farm! 

We are now back on the south side of the San Bernadino pass - the first time I've seen it in sunshine! You can see the Mesocco castle in the middle of the picture. 

Another picture of the valley - we had to park up ahead and walk a way along the inside of the guardrail to get these views! 

You can see the zig-zag of the highway to/from the San Bernadino pass (and why it was so important to have that castle guarding the valley!)

What a beautiful day we had! God has blessed us so much with Switzerland.
And maybe from now on you should just call Rick and I - Heidi and Peter!