Europe - Bad Ragaz

Today's Garmin Step Mileage: 21 km

Bad Ragaz has turned out to be such a wonderful little town - a traditional health resort dating back to the 1800's. Bad Ragaz is not a very big town and you can pretty much walk around most of it in an hour. Little roads twist and turn and narrow so much you would think they are only for bike travel. The houses are small and quaint, often painted in an array of colours. The town has a typical 12-2 siesta time and everything closes by 6 pm. It makes for a very quiet place to stroll around in the evening. The fresh air and hiking trails lends to a outdoor enthusiast's oasis. It's hard not to relax in such a wonderful environment.

The ascent from Bad Ragaz to a world health resort begins in 1840, when the 36.5 degree warm thermal water of the Tamina spring is led for the first time from the Tamina gorge four kilometres out of the valley into the Ragaz farm. Famous bathers such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thomas

Mann and Victor Hugo pay tribute to the former farming village. Today Bad Ragaz has a modern health resort with numerous leisure and health facilities at the entrance to Canton Graubünden. The Grand Resort Bad Ragaz with the public thermal spa Tamina Therme is the centre of the health oasis, which bears the Swiss quality label "Wellness Destination". The Grand Resort is a huge complex that reminds me of a Banff Springs or Chateau Lake Louise. A place where people come to from all areas of the world to relax and soak in the hot pools.

Runners on, backpacks on our back, we headed out to discover what the Heidiland area has to offer. We started our day with a 10 km hike through the Tamina river pathway and up into the Gorge to the Bad Pfäfers - or known as the Old Baths. The Tamina is a fast moving river that is brown with silt. It cools the air as it travels downward toward Bad Ragaz. Once you reach the Tamina Gorge is when the geography really starts to change.

A few meters away from the Old Pfäfers is the entrance to the mystical thermal water spring gorge. The last section of the

450-metre long safe path, leads over a tunnel into the interior of the rock, pasts the small thermal water fountain to the spring water grotto. The rock faces in the gorge tower up to 80 metres high along the way. Finally, in the spring water grotto, you can experience how about 8000 litres of water per minute gushes out of the rock from Europe's richest acratotherm. Researchers suspect that the water seeps away in the Tödi or Sardona area. It is heated until it reaches the surface again after more than 10 years at a constant temperature of 36.5°C in the Tamina gorge.

After exploring the Old Baths we made our way down back into town to get our vehicle and headed over to Mainfeld to check out the re-creation of the village, residence and area where Heidi was from.

"From the friendly village of Maienfeld, a footpath leads through green, wooded corridors to the foot of the heights, which look down on the valley from this side, big and serious".

With this sentence Johanna Spyri began her world-famous book "Heidi's years of study and travel" in 1880. Since then the wine village Maienfeld in the holiday region Heidiland has been associated with Heidi. Since then, the little girl from the Swiss mountains has touched the hearts of entire generations around the globe.

From Maienfeld we headed up the mountainside towards Heidi's Village, walking in her footpaths up the hillside next to the towering mountain peaks. It truly is a beautiful countryside.

From Maienfeld we headed further west to the lake at Walenstadt. Lake Walen in the east of Switzerland is bordered on its northern side by the steeply rising Churfirsten. The scenery with the deep blue lake and the steep rock faces is reminiscent of a Norwegian fjord.

The beach is made of small rocks and the water is perfect for dipping your feet into or taking a nice leisurely swim in the warm sunny weather. I just wish we knew to take our swim suits, maybe next time.

We started to make our way back to Bad Ragaz after an exploration of the small villages in the area. At one time we actually drove through a military area with ancient stone compound walls and a curved opening to drive through. Trying to stay off the major highways we travelled through the numerous small communities and farmland, where the hillside was littered with small homesteads and "hobby" type farms. They grow cabbage, carrots, corn, and a few other things I could not identify. Some of the village hills had staggered terraces lined with grape vines. However, we did not come across any "vineyard" tours as we know it. I am sure at one point a farmer looked out and wondered "what are they doing driving down my side road?". Some parts on the way back were a bit narrow and sketchy. Thank goodness we had a 4x4 vehicle and not the small box we originally planned to have.

We got back to Bad Ragaz to enjoy our last evening here. Dinner on our balcony, overlooking the mountainside. Finished with a stroll through town and along the riverside. Bad Ragaz has a current outdoor art festival going on throughout the summer months, marked by yellow snails to mark the way. The whole town is littered with sculptures, wood carvings, paintings and modern art expressions. It made for an interesting evening stroll through the park.

Tomorrow we head back to Germany and the town of Lindau. We only visited a small section of Switzerland, but loved every minute of it. The exchange is similar to the USD (so a bit better than the Euro) but your money doesn't go very far. Modestly priced dinners are 30

Francs or about $40, not including any beverages. We have been spoiled in finding affordable dinners with generous portions in most places we have been to. Regardless, I am glad that we have travelled into Switzerland to see a bit of the countryside.

See you tomorrow!