Back in Chur and ready to continue along the Via Francisca del Lucomagno, where I left off in spring, where I’d walked from Pavia to Chur over the Lucomagno Pass in the Alps. The Via Francisca del Lucomango is normally walked from Konstanz on Lake Constance to Pavia in Italy, but I walked it in reverse. Pavia is at the crossroads of the Via Francisca and the Via Francigena. However, the Grand Saint Bernard Pass wasn’t open in spring when I arrived in Pavia, so I continued north along the Ticino and later the Rhine rivers, ending in Chur. Instead of Konstanz, I will be continuing along the Rhine to Bregenz , also on Lake Constance, so not exactly following the original Via Francisca.
It is Sunday, so I slept late, until 8 o’clock. I had a leisurely breakfast from the extensive buffet, before getting on my way by 10 o’clock.
It was warm and sunny. There were lots of cyclists with expensive racing cycles and numbers on their bikes, so there was going to be a street race in Chur. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay around to see it.
I walked a couple of kilometers through the suburbs, before reaching the Rhine, which I had pretty much followed from one of its sources when walking during spring.
It was a mix of wide and narrow paths all the way to todays destination, Maienfeld. On the wider paths there were lots of cyclists – of all ages, either on racing bikes or on e-bikes. E-bikes are certainly a big hit here, good old fashioned city bike no longer seem to exist, you either have a racing bike or an e-bike. E-bikes certainly seem to have motivated many to cycle and I am sure that many tracks that previously were meant for walking, have now been converted to cycle path or combined walking and cycling paths.
Twice during the morning I had to track back as the path I was following no longer existed. In both cases trees lay across the path just prior to the path ending. I assumed that it was to stop cyclists not walkers. If it is for walkers, why not just put up a sign, the trees are too easy to step over.
I passed a large outlet shopping centre – cars waiting in a queue to find parking. I was close to being knocked other by a car who was tired of waiting for all the bikes to cross the road. Luckily he stopped before hitting a cyclist and me.
Otherwise the day was fairly uneventful. Tree lined paths, packed with cyclists, with few glimpses of the Rhine flowing towards Lake Constance.
I took a lunch break on a bench sponsored by Maienfeld. It was a short, 20km day, with no elevation, so I had plenty of time. I arrived in Maienfeld by 3pm. This is Heidi country, close to where the 60’s children’s series Heidi was made. The hotel is called Heidi and there is a Heidi park close by.
It is also the town where the son and family of good friends, lived for a few years. After a short rest I walked around the town, buying a cake and visiting the church. It must have been a real Swiss experience living in such a small town and so close to this magnificent nature.