Day 1 - Eschnerberg, Austria/Liechtenstein
This is more of a hill than a mountain, that crosses the Austria-Liechtenstein border. The ride was basically one from the the Liechtenstein Tourism site. Started from the Stadion carpark on the outskirts of Feldkirch (Austria) which was a few hundred metres from one end of the tour. To start with, it follows a road round the end of the hill, and then a road winding up the hill to St. Corneli (nice guesthouse and bar there, which would make a handy mid-ride stop if starting at the other end). There are definitely off-road alternatives to get there (I found one that was pretty good as a descent, or a technical rocky ascent).
Then it goes through some forest along the hill top, and drops back down to the valley, where it follows a main cycle path for quite a while, where it crosses the border into Liechtenstein. I think the old border signs have gone and there's a nature reserve landscaping in progress there, so now there's nothing to suggest you're in another country.
After a while it heads up the opposite end of the hill, which is largely off-road, mostly grassy farm track, past lots and lots of cows with cow bells.
Eventually it goes through some forest, mostly on fire road, and eventually descends on the the valley on the north side of the ridge for a bit. Then it heads up a number of hairpin bends off road, through more forest.
Eventually it comes back out on a road and crosses back in the Austria. No passport control these days. I think even Liechtenstein is in the Schengen area now too.
Day 1 - Bregenz, Austria
Stayed in Bregenz overnight, since the hotel there had reasonable prices given that it was a holiday weekend. They have a music festival every summer, with a huge floating stage, which changes every year.
Day 2 - Malbun, Liechtenstein
Given that the weather was supposed to be rain and thunder, and the ride I had planned was going to be a mega uphill leg burner in the mountains, I decided to go walking instead. Again, this was another route from the Liechtenstein Tourism website, this time starting from Malbun, the only ski resort in the country.
It started off as a sanitised footpath, then a bit of landrover track, then heads off a bit more cross country over meadows, and then starts to become a bit of a scramble. Eventually up in the clouds at about 1800m ASL, and still snow patches about in June!
Managed to walk past the Sassförkle, and was heading to the Schönberg summit, but the way was blocked by fresh landslip (I stopped there for a few minutes and saw more fresh rock slides) and more snow. The weather was beginning to turn too, so decided to head back down. Just as well, as the rain properly turned up half way down.
All of the rest of the pics can be seen here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/MTBLiechtenstein
