A cloudy day.. Anyway, I persisted with my plan to take the bus to Triesen Vaschiel, and walk from there to Balzers. As we passed through Triesenberg, saw an attractively attired brass band - royal blue blazers and black trilbys - trooping to the church, apparently to perform. Anyway, back to business. Albeit that the wanderwegs aren't perfectly signposted, there are enough signs that you can just wander off without a map - certainly if you're not on the side of a mountain! And that's just what I did.
When I got off the bus, there wasn't much choice of ways to go - I figured my way probably wasn't to follow the bus along the main road, so I looked around for an alternative and saw we had just passed a side road. That's the way I went (photos on FB). After passing through some suburbs (and all downhill, thankfully), it led through orchards. Lovely route - would have been stunning with the mountains as a backdrop; sadly, they were hidden in cloud today.
When the road forked, as is often the case, there was no sign to tell me which way to go. Unsure of following the path through the woods, I made for the main road instead. After a while of that, I came across the wanderweg again, which I could probably have followed all the way - but as I say, not signposted well enough! My route then took me onto the Rheindamm again. This was a shorter section than the last I did, and took me past a dirt bike track where a race seemed to be in progress, then to a bench where I rested for a while, and then the wanderweg branched into a forest trail, before directing me through more orchards to town. So, plenty of variety on this trail, and well deserving of Liechtenstein Tourism's description of it as "outstanding". Even though I didn't follow the whole thing!
As I entered Balzers, it rained on me - the first time this trip! Not too heavily though. Anyway, I'm heading there again tomorrow to visit the castle - there are more bits open tomorrow - and I wasn't that pushed about sightseeing today, especially in the rain. I just wanted to head for the post office and catch a bus back to the hotel. The castle isn't hard to find - it towers above the town. It's the only thing in Balzers that isn't hard to find! I came across an information map that gave lots of streetnames, but no landmarks! Then I came across a sign that pointed down the road and said the post office was 5 minutes that way.
After traipsing down the road in the rain, I came to the distinct impression that I was headed out of town, in the wrong direction. There had been no further signposts, apart from streetnames. I turned back, and decided that it might be a sensible idea to just walk around the castle - all I needed was a bus stop, and surely there must be one near the castle! So it proved, and I found a bus stop for buses headed north, just a minute or so before the bus arrived! I also noticed that, had I walked around the church I'd been looking at, which is beside the castle, I'd have found the bus stop half an hour earlier. Well, now I know where it is. Must see what information I can glean for tomorrow's trip. But I am looking forward to it - Balzers seems a pleasant place and the castle looks interesting. The hill it sits on is planted with vines, which they were tending as I passed..
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