When you read your campground guidebook and get all excited because the football field-sized country of Liechtenstein has about 20 campgrounds, you are ultimately disappointed to realize that the country with 20 campgrounds was actually LUXEMBOURG and that your campground guidebook does not even LIST the football field-sized country of Liechtenstein. However, if you are travelling with Dave, you still live happily ever after because he can simply ASK A QUESTION to some local Liechtensteinian who of course will know that a campground exists just down the hill in lovely Treisen. So you head on over, and a lovely campground it is indeed. 27 Swiss francs ($23 usd) had better buy you some loveliness. Apple blossoms waft gracefully down upon your tent in the breeze, cute trailers decked with wood carvings reflecting traditions of the Alps line the hillside, snowy mountain peaks peak out from behind clearing clouds, and "Biergarten" proclaims the sign. Not an RV to be seen. Hardly a step down from living indoors.

The next day we set out to explore the terrain. Views get better and better as we climb up to Malbun, a ski area more like a ghost town on this Sunday morning. Dave insists that Erika take a photo of him that will make it look like he has struggled valiantly through the snow on the bike. She doesn't try too hard.

Back down the mountain, we wind up in Balzers, which has beckoned with its castle atop a hill right smack in the center of town. We've come back down from the castle and are ready to hop back on the bike when we strike up a conversation with a friendly local family, Adrian and Mary and their kids Ursina and Moritz. Adrian and Mary speak great English and are kind enough to invite these internet-starved tourists into their home for conversation and computers. Erika tries to chase Ursina down with the camera but though Ursina (who just had her 12th birthday) has all the makings of a high fashion model, she plays coy and will just barely allow herself to be caught on digital camera. We had a great afternoon and send thanks for all their hospitality! (Incidentally, they just happen to live in a home with a castle pretty much literally in their backyard, which they found pretty boring but we thought was pretty cool).