May 26: Bodensee to Klosters

Finally, back to my beloved Schweiz.

5767

5767.jpg

Here at St. Margrethen, just past the Austrian border along the Rhine, I transferred again to head Alpward, much of the journey being up the Rhine valley.

5771

5771.jpg

This threatening sky brought to you by INDOSA.

5782

5782.jpg

Cool roofs bro! Interestingly, they appear to be ruled surfaces (constructable by sweeping a straight line through space); maybe that makes it more straightforward to form them.

5791

5791.jpg

Hmm, still looking rather ominous out there.

5792

5792.jpg

Is that... could it be...

5795

5795.jpg

YES! Hoher Kasten! I had missed Hoher Kasten a lot.

5804

5804.jpg

A precipitous view up to the distinctive summit.

5806

5806.jpg

Welp, see you later!

5812

5812.jpg

Oh hi again.

5817

5817.jpg

These craggy peaks remind me of the Churfirsten and are in the same general area, but I think they're something different.

5824

5824.jpg

One last glimpse of Hoher Kasten. Because it looms right over the flat, open river valley, it's visible for a really long time along the route, which was a delight. ("Gasthaus Bahnhof" rolls off the tongue nicely, doesn't it? Gotta love those trochees.)

5828

5828.jpg

That mountain seems to have met its match in that cloud.

5833

5833.jpg

And then, a monolith. I like the texture of the seemingly boardform concrete.

5836

5836.jpg

This gable is shaped in a Züriesque fashion.

5837

5837.jpg

At Buchs, maybe, in which case through this storm of wires you can see Liechtenstein across the river. Liechtenstein seems to be about as tall (in elevation) as it is wide; you can basically see the whole country steeply tipped up toward you along this route. (I just checked and there's an approximately two-mile elevation difference from lowest point to highest there, while the country is about six miles wide. Not enormously far off, actually.)

5842

5842.jpg

This looks like a mansion converted into a factory by adding four stories under it. I love it. The whole industrial/alpine scenery along the route is fascinating.

5844

5844.jpg

Suddenly, a gabion wall slithered by.

5848

5848.jpg

Baroque sky, or Old Testament sky?? Trick question. It's both!

5853

5853.jpg

More of Liechtenstein. I'm guessing this is Triesenberg.

5855

5855.jpg

An overhanging cliff!! Complete with ruins peeking over, the Wartau castle.

5871

5871.jpg

A dramatic rail arc at Sargans.

5884

5884.jpg

Just past Bad Ragaz: this is probably a railroad signal, but it sure looks like an abstract expressionist sculpture and/or a Yugoslavian war memorial.

5890

5890.jpg

At Landquart, just barely inside Canton Graubünden, I transferred yet again.

5892

5892.jpg

Some pretty radical angles down in the, uh, place where you cross under the tracks between platforms, whatever that's called.

5899

5899.jpg

Is that a... wall of rain enveloping the mountains in the distance? It can't be, right?

5901

5901.jpg

It was seriously windy tho.

5904

5904.jpg

Yay, back on the Rhätische Bahn (Rhaetian Railway)!

5917

5917.jpg

I dunno, it's starting to get pretty alpy in here!

5922

5922.jpg

Finally we arrived in Klosters. I felt right at home among these chalets and that Saab.

5923

5923.jpg

This bench's interstitial spaces are a little too wide for posterior comfort or security.