May 26: Bodensee to Klosters

Finally, back to my beloved Schweiz.

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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.

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This threatening sky brought to you by INDOSA.

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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.

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Hmm, still looking rather ominous out there.

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Is that... could it be...

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

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A precipitous view up to the distinctive summit.

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Welp, see you later!

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Oh hi again.

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

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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.)

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

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

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This gable is shaped in a Züriesque fashion.

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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.)

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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.

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Suddenly, a gabion wall slithered by.

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

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

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

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A dramatic rail arc at Sargans.

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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.

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

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

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

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It was seriously windy tho.

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

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

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

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