At the end of my last blog post I shared with you my hope that the village church bells would be silenced over night. I must inform you, dear reader, that my hope was in vain.

Not that they were that bothersome - I heard 11.15 and then nothing until 5am and was convinced that I then lay awake for the next hour, only to be surprised at hearing the 9am bells.

There were a few loud thunderstorms early in the morning but by the time we got up the sky was bright and we were able to get some good photos of our surroundings. Today was also the first day in the three weeks of our holiday so far that we both wore shorts.

We received an email this morning with some bad news - the water levels on the Rhine are too high, our river cruise boat is unable to sail up as far as Basel and so tomorrow, instead of joining the cruise in Basel, the cruise company will send us on a four hour coach journey to Mannheim in Germany instead. It is disappointing but we will still get a week on the boat, just in different places. More on that in the coming days as we discover more.

We had a lazy morning and headed out to do some sightseeing just before 12. Our first stop was three kilometres up the road at Kerenzerberg Pass where more views awaited us.

On the hillside opposite, we could see the town of Amden.

Down on the lakeshore was the town of Weesen.

Sitting at the head of the lake, Weesen boasted a marina and foreshore walk.

After we had taken in the views, we headed down the mountain, back past our apartment and 30 minutes down the motorway to the east. Our destination was a new country for us, Liechtenstein. After crossing the river Rhine for the first time, we found parking in Vaduz, the small town that is the capital of Liechtenstein.

Towering over Vaduz is the imposing Schloss Vaduz and so, after checking out a gift shop (too expensive) we began the steep climb up lanes, walkways and small roads towards the castle.

The castle itself is not open to visitors as it remains the family home of the 13th Prince of Liechtenstein but the surroundings provide wonderful views over both Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

Returning back down to the valley floor and the town of Vaduz, it was obviously time for an ice cream. We found a supermarket to buy ice creams and got some dinner supplies at the same time. The choice of ice creams was virtually identical to what we would find in New Zealand so I had my favourite, a Maxibon.

Heading back into Switzerland, we decided to visit the town of Weesen, which we had seen from Kerenzerberg Pass earlier in the day.

We enjoyed walking along the lakefront and the views down the lake.

A tourist ship was motoring along the lake and called in at the wharf.

Near the marina was a statue of the local mermaid.

Returning to our apartment, we took advantage of the sunshine to enjoy tea and coffee outside.

Later in the evening, the thunderstorms returned with a vengeance and we sat in the dark with the lights out, looking out over the lake and enjoying the show the electrical storm put on for us. Thunder echoed loudly and lightning flashed across the sky every few seconds. To begin with there was no rain, then a light rain began and then heavy drops, sounding like hail, came crashing down and a downpour commenced. The photo below was not taken in daylight but is a frame extracted from a video I took, showing the effect of the lightning.