Blogs from Vaduz, Liechtenstein, Europe
Vaduz, Liechtenstein - A Day Trip to the Sixth Smallest Country in the World
Published: October 3rd 2011Europe » Liechtenstein » Vaduz
July 30th 2011
I wandered over to the man standing outside the yellow coach that belonged to the Liechtenstein Bus Company. I asked him whether it was due to depart anytime soon. He looked at me and took a deep drag of his cigarette. Five minutes previously, I'd arrived in the Swiss border town of Sargans after a pleasant train ride from Zurich and now wanted to take the first bus to Vaduz, the capital of tiny Liechtenstein, the sixth smallest country in the world. The man regarded me again and then looked at the coffee in my hand. "Nein coffee!" he said, shaking his head, making it clear that taking drinks aboard his bus was against the rules. "And I depart in ten minutes." Bloody hell, I thought, I’d just met my first Liechten Swine. Liechtenstein, sandwiched between ... read more
July 3rd 2011
In my years of wandering the planet, I have had the opportunity to visit kingdoms, constitutional and otherwise, as well as the odd emirate and sultanate. But I had never been to a principality until I set foot in teeny-tiny Liechtenstein a couple days ago. When I was in elementary school, I stumbled on a book about the micro-states of Europe – Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, the Vatican City, and, of course, Liechtenstein (Luxembourg, although on the small side, is a giant in comparison to these guys, so was not included) – and I was entranced, sparking an early interest in such compact political entities. How can such a country exist in this day and age? How can it sustain itself as a distinct unit in this globalizing world? My travels have taken me to some ... read more
May 15th 2011
Leaving early we headed off to the alps again this time via the Grimselpass and Furkapass if they are open, the destination is Liechtenstein all going well. What a stunning drive we had, firstly through the lower hills and finally winding up through Grimselpass for a brief stop and to admire the awesome view. Onwards and ever upwards we headed up the Furkapass which was open today for the first time this year. This and many of the passes in the alps are closed during the winter as they are very dangerous, the snow in places where we drove was over 4 meters high at the edges of the road where they had cut a way through, very cool. There are hotels dotted right through the area which are sponsored by the Swiss Military in exchange ... read more
February 26th 2010
Friday 26.2.2010 day 136 Liechtenstein To drive to Liechtenstein, to get there we had to drive from Germany though Switzerland and Austria. So we drove though 4 countries today! Liechtenstein borders Austria on one side and Switzerland on the other were the Rhine is there border. It is in a valley with the Swiss and Austrian alps towering over it. I think that it would be a very hard country to defend. It disbanded it army in 1866 after a military engagement were non of it’s 80 soldiers were killed infract 81 returned including a new Italian ‘friend’. It is the 6th smallest country in the world. It is 25km long and 6km wide. Its head of state is Prince Hans-Adam II and he is said to be worth about uk £3.3 billion. At one point ... read more
Liechtenstein, castles, sun, rosti...and one more country on my list!
Published: August 7th 2009Europe » Liechtenstein » Vaduz
July 27th 2009
It's not every day that I'm setting foot in a new country. I'm not that far from 80 countries visited...but it take some effort to add one more at each step. Well, for sure I could add few more by heading to the Balkans (2010), or the Baltic (hopefully 2011)...or Central America (soon...maybe...). Some of my friends will also tell you that I should not put Liechtenstein in my count as we did not sleep there. But same problem as for Luzern...here you pay a lot...for not much in term of sleeping "quality". So we ended up spending the night in Dornbirn, few miles north of Vaduz. Liechtenstein is a small country...and yes we did verify this.The is mainly one single main road connecting few villages. I had not much info in terms of what to ... read more
February 13th 2009
Four countries, two days, more walking than you can imagine. It's a beautiful thing. Monday morning, Libor and I were at the train station at the ungodly hour of 5:30am to catch our train at 5:45. At about 10 we pulled into Salzburg, though we were late in catching our connecting train since we weren't travelling with ÖBB , but die Deutsche Bahn. Let us be a little prejudiced, ok? We've lived in Austria for almost 6 months now, of course there's animosity between us and Germany :) Anyways, after waiting a half-hour in Salzburg, we boarded the train, took a small ride through Germany, went through Innsbruck, and at about 3:30 on Monday afternoon arrived in Feldkirch, one of the western-most cities in Austria, which only took us about 10 hours to get to. For ... read more
June 6th 2008
Today I had one of those spectacular travel experiences that makes people want to spend there whole lives traveling around and doing nothing else. In fact, today was above in beyond anything I could have thought about. In fact, I may have achieved a state of travel nirvana, and ruined traveling for everyone else. How? I went to Liechtenstein. But first I set out to explore Feldkirch. It didn't take long. But it was really nice. I also went on a short hike recommended by the hostel clerk where I got great views of the town and the neighboring countryside. At one point, I could see Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland all at once. I like this place. The hostel is awesome, the scenery is great, the people are really friendly and helpful, and I would definitely ... read more
October 6th 2007
Left the lakes and arrived in the Tyrol region of Austria! decided to stay near the border of Liechtenstein, in a town called Feldkirch coz the hostel was cheaper! haaaaa! On the train ride there, the sky was beautiful and the mountains and villages were very nice to look at. Then, went through a tunnel for about 5 mins, came back out and FOGFOGFOG! Visibility level became 100metres!!!! OMG.......and the whole evening was glooomy. Anyways, arrived late and everything was closed.....then found out the Night museum tour was tonight! one price for all museums and free bus rides!!! Strolled around Feldkirch first and went to this exhibit that had nice pieces, but I couldn't get the meaning of it at all. then, Ihopped on and first went over to the museums in Vaduz! Vaduz was pretty ... read more
