Europe - Bad Ragaz

Today's Garmin Step Mileage: 10 km

Today we are continuing on in journey; leaving Austria and heading to Switzerland. Austria has been such a wonderful country to visit; with warm weather, welcoming people and beautiful countryside. We have enjoyed every minute of it.

We headed west out of Innsbruck onto Autobahn towards Lichtenstein. We have heard that Austria and parts of Germany have a ton of vehicle tunnels throughout the mountain ranges, but I had no idea the extent of their length and structural engineering. Today we travelled about 170 km and travelled through at least 50 km of tunnels (not all at once, but cummulitive). The distance ranged from 3 km being the shortest distance to our longest distance being 12 km long. They all have LED lighting, ventilation shafts, diversion tunnels, telephone booths, fans and probably a million other things below ground that I could not see. They really are a engineering marvel, a bit creepy, but amazing nonetheless. However, you try not

to think about cave-in's or other tragedies that may occur while you are in the middle of a 12 km long tunnel. It sure beats winding up, down and around mountain ranges and valleys to get to your destination.

So far we have been to the two smallest countries (the Vatican and Monoco) and wanted to go to the 6th smallest country in the world - Lichtenstein (4th smallest in Europe) with only 160 sq km. A German-speaking country, this is the only nation in the world to be completely located in the Alps. Located between Switzerland and Austria, Liechtenstein is the richest country in the world by GDP per capita, with the lowest unemployment rate (1.5%). Getting into the country is a little tricky, as there is no airport within its borders. Visitors must go through Switzerland's Zurich Airport to reach this Alpine country that's still ruled by a prince.

We headed into the downtown (likely only 3 blocks long) to get our official souvenir from The Lichtenstein Centre - an official stamp in our passport. It is the only place in the EU (that I know about) that you can still get an official country stamp in your passport.

After our brief stop and wander around Vaduz, Lichtenstein we got back into the car and continued on to Bad Ragaz, Switzerland. Families immerse themselves in the world of Heidi and Peter at the original

site of Heidi history; where active guests take advantage of hiking or mountain biking in the mountains at Bad Ragaz.

The natural scenery of the holiday region Heidiland has inspired author Johanna Spyri to write her world bestseller "Heidi". After numerous stays in the neighbouring health resort of Bad Ragaz, she settled her famous story of the Swiss girl from the mountains in Maienfeld.

We got settled into our hotel in Bad Ragaz - Hotel Sorrell Tamina, and took an afternoon stroll to acquaint ourselves with Bad Ragaz. What a quaint little village. Tomorrow we will explore more of the area and do a little hiking in Heidiland.

Accommodation: $389.20 CHF for 2 nights, including breakfast.