Today was going to be busy and interesting, riding in 3 countries, with the weather forecast indicating rain and thunderstorms.

I was up early and had my breakfast. This was the early morning view.

Said goodbye to Marion. She and her husband Peter were very kind hosts.

We left Sargans and headed straight to the Rhine River, travelling down the bike path. I had been on this path before, but travelling in the opposite direction, en route London to Venice in 2016.

Liechenstein loomed ahead.

We crossed the Rhine via this wooden tunnel bridge…trying to avoid dollops of horse poo.

An old Schloss (castle) in Liechenstein.

Garmin maps sent us on a few interesting routes today. In Liechenstein we climbed a nasty little pinch in a village to drop down to this vegetated track, that had pinches of 24 percent. Needless to say, I walked my bike down as it got steeper and ruttier.

This happened numerous times in the morning, pushing the bike up or down gravel.

Today was a public holiday in Austria. Very little was open. When we saw a little restaurant open in a small village we stopped for a bite of lunch.

Nice views towards the mountains from where we had just ridden. This is the local swimming pool filled with water from the adjacent river.

Note the old rail bridge up the hill.

Leaving lunch we started climbing (walking up a steep gravel track, as well as crossing three railway tracks carrying our bikes!)

First snow on the side of the road….large drifts that seem to have slid down the hilly escarpments, gathering dirt and trees in its path.

Stubens is the village ahead that indicates the start of the climb up the Arlberg Pass. As I approached I watched cars weaving their way up the hairpin bends knowing it would be me up there soon enough.

It was a nice climb…nice in that the gradient was a fairly steady 9 plus percent, with relief on some hairpins.

I was eating some nuts as I climbed, and breathed in a small chunk and started coughing so stopped to keep coughing, stretch my back, have a drink, take some photos.

At the top of the hairpin bends I found Geoff waiting and we pottered off on another steady climb of around 6-7 percent, until he scored a puncture and we needed to stop.

At the top of the climbing is St Christoph, but nothing open there today bar roads to different villages.

From St Christophs it was downhill to St Anton, a large ski village. Great cruise with no issues…you can see the graph below for the day. We are currently at 1200 metres above sea level.

I have never cruised through such a large, yet dead, village. There are so many accomodation places here, but none open.

A local bakery was open and a fuel station. We were very lucky to find an accomodation place nearby, but charging like wounded bulls.

Tomorrow more rain is forecast, but so far been a bit lucky avoiding most of the worst weather. It will be a shorter day of around 85 km as we are heading for Innsbruck.

Todays route via three countries.

So thanks for reading and supporting and encouraging me via Facebook and strava and on here. I am most appreciative.

😊🚴

My final photo is a borrowed one….taken in winter, to show what this place is like when buzzing. Great photo.