Europe 2026-Day 3

Day 3: When Monday Becomes a Four-Country Accidental Adventure

Zurich → Rapperswil → Heididorf → Liechtenstein

37 Days Across Europe | A 55+ Bucket List Journey

📍 Start: Zurich, Switzerland | Day 3 of 37

Zurich on a quiet Monday morning — still, beautiful, and ready to send us somewhere new.

There's a particular kind of Monday that doesn't feel like a Monday at all. The kind where you wake up, look out the window at a European city you've dreamed about visiting, and think right, where shall we go today?

That was Day 3.

Zurich had been generous. She'd given us fairy tale trams, cobblestone streets, the Fraumünster, a lakeside sunset and more beauty than a jet-lagged traveller deserved. But by Monday morning, we'd covered the essential ground. The city felt like a good friend we'd caught up with properly warm, complete, no awkward silences. It was time to move.

So we did what any sensible 55+ traveller does when they have a Swiss train pass and no fixed plan.

We just went.

Rapperswil — The Rose City on the Lake

The Rapperswil steeple and Lake Zurich — the kind of view that makes you stop mid sentence.

The bus from Zurich to Rapperswil takes about 40 minutes and costs you almost nothing if you have a Swiss Travel Pass. Then again Get your Guide was the most convenient option.

Rapperswil sits on a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Zurich, and its nickname — the Rose City — comes from its famous rose gardens that bloom spectacularly in summer. We were there in early spring, so the roses were still gathering themselves, but what the town lacked in flowers it more than compensated for in sheer quiet charm.

The old town is small, walkable and utterly unspoiled. Medieval towers, cobblestone lanes, a castle up on the hill, and everywhere you turn — water. The lake is so still and so blue on a calm day that it looks less like a natural body of water and more like someone has placed a mirror between the mountains.

Exploring Rapperswil's old town — no map, no rush, no agenda.

We wandered without agenda. This, I have come to believe, is the correct way to travel at this stage of life. Not the frantic checklist tourism of your thirties, where you sprint between landmarks photographing everything and experiencing nothing. This is slower. More deliberate. You stop when something catches your eye. You sit when your legs suggest it. You let the place come to you.

Which brings me to what is, without question, the photograph of the trip so far.

Rapperswil castle walls, Lake Zurich in the background, Monday energy fully activated.

A local — or perhaps a very sensible tourist — had found a spot on top of the old castle wall, with one of the most spectacular lake views in Switzerland spread out behind them, and had simply gone to sleep. Full horizontal. Blue hoodie. Complete commitment.

I stood there for a moment looking at this person and thought: that is the most intelligent response to Rapperswil I have seen all day.

We didn't have time to nap. We had a train to catch. But I respected it enormously.

Heididorf — Yes, That Heidi (Manga fame)

The Heidiweg sign at Ober Rofels — pointing toward Maienfeld and, frankly, our entire childhood.

Heididorf — the village associated with Johanna Spyri's beloved 1881 novel — sits in the canton of Graubünden near Maienfeld, and it is achingly beautiful. Not beautiful in the manicured, manufactured way you might expect from a literary tourism attraction, but beautiful in the way that makes you understand immediately why a nineteenth century author set a story about the healing power of nature precisely here.

The landscape is enormous. The mountains the Alps, properly showing off, rise up from green meadows in a way that feels almost theatrical, like scenery that's been pushed slightly too far to be believable. Except it's completely real.

Walking the Heidiweg path toward the Alps — moody skies, mountain peaks, and the growing suspicion that Heidi had very good taste.

We walked the Heidiweg path, which winds through meadows and vineyards with the mountains as a constant, dramatic backdrop. The sky was that particular moody Swiss grey that turns everything beneath it into a painting. Bare spring trees catching the last light. A wooden fence running alongside the path. Two figures walking toward something magnificent.

It is the kind of landscape that does something to you. That reminds you why you got on the plane. Why you saved up for this. Why you promised yourself this trip and then kept that promise.

The signpost at Ober Rofels, a tangle of yellow Swiss hiking arrows pointing in every direction, with the distinctive red Heidiweg arrow at the bottom, became one of those small, perfect travel moments. The kind you don't plan for. The kind that end up being the ones you remember.

Liechtenstein — Country Number Two (Accidental Edition)

The Rathaus in Vaduz, Liechtenstein — our second country of the trip, reached almost entirely by accident.

Lichtenstein was just another stop on the itinerary. A place we only hear off in scandals or fairy tales. Liechtenstein is the sixth smallest country in the world. It is landlocked between Switzerland and Austria, governed by a Prince who actually lives in the castle on the hill above Vaduz, and it has a population of roughly 38,000 people. You can drive across it in about 20 minutes.

What it lacks in size it makes up for in quiet confidence. Vaduz, the capital, is tidy, orderly, and surprisingly interesting to walk around. The Rathaus, the town hall, has a beautifully decorated facade, bands of terracotta, blue and yellow above arched colonnades, with a stone coat of arms bearing the name VADUZ above the door. Bronze horse sculptures stand in the square outside. A man in a dark jacket walks past at exactly the right moment, giving the whole scene a casual, everyday quality that you don't expect from a place that is technically a principality.

Passport stamps was available but we declined defacing a government document hence we did not succumb to the offer, would have cost CHF3 nonetheless.. Yes, Liechtenstein sells official tourist passport stamps, which is one of the best ideas any country has ever had. And yes we declined the opportunity to stamp our passports in a country where very few people from our part of the world ever visit, and that most people couldn't place on a map.

Yet we felt, quietly and without needing to make a big thing of it, rather pleased with ourselves.

The Numbers

By the time we boarded the evening train back toward our base, we had covered:

• 4 destinations in a single day

• 2 countries (Switzerland and Liechtenstein)

• More cobblestones than any knees should reasonably be asked to handle

• One extremely correct napping decision we did not take

• Zero regrets

What This Day Taught Me

There's a version of travel that requires a plan, a budget, a spreadsheet, a researched list of must-sees and a schedule colour-coded by district. I used to do that version. I was good at it.

But there is another version. Let your wife decide and go with the flow. The version where you wake up and you follow the day wherever it goes. Where you end up in a country you didn't know you'd be visiting the day before. Where the best photograph of the trip is of a stranger taking a nap on a castle wall.

That version is better. At least it is for me, now, at this point of the journey, both the 37-day one and the longer one.

If you're 55+ and wondering whether a trip like this is for you, it is. Get your Guide is easy, the distances are manageable, the rewards are extraordinary.

You don't need a perfect plan. You need a good pair of shoes and a willingness to listen to the wife and see what Monday has for you.

Practical Notes for Your Trip

Getting around: Get your Guide is convenient. Rapperswil is 40 minutes from Zurich main station. Maienfeld (for Heididorf) requires a change at Sargans. Liechtenstein is reached by bus from Sargans or Buchs, note that Liechtenstein is solely relient on Swiss infrastructure hence unless u drive get some guided assistance.

Time needed: Rapperswil is 2–3 hours comfortably. Heididorf and the walk is 2 hours. Vaduz centre is 1–2 hours. This is a full but very doable day trip from Zurich.

Best for: Walkers, photographers, anyone who loved Heidi as a child, anyone who wants to tick off a tiny unexpected country, families, couples, solo travellers.

Passport stamp: Visit the Liechtenstein National Tourist Office on Städtle in Vaduz. For a small fee they will stamp your passport with an official Liechtenstein tourist stamp. Do not skip this.

📍 Next: Deeper into Switzerland, Lucerne is next, the journey continues. Follow along here and on Instagram for daily updates from the road.

Did you enjoy this post? Save it for your own Swiss adventure and share it with someone who needs a nudge to finally book that trip. 37 days. 5 countries. The best decision I ever made.