I worked for a big tour operator, in which the general idea was to take guests through minimum three countries, so they can compare differences in culture, architecture and experience different feelings on the trip they are a part of.
I like that idea so much, that I’m kind a trying to force Dina to go and see more than one country every time it makes sense, even if we’ll just stop for a few hours at a certain point.
Last summer, while we were by mistake in Italy (and you will be able to read about it here), I’ve noticed that we are “just” less than three hours away from Liechtenstein, and somehow I managed to convince her that we should go there. It was actually pretty easy. I mean, no one goes to spend vacations in Vaduz, as there’s not much to do there, and if you are not in a close proximity or en route, there’s no way you’ll end up there. So, since we were so close, and it was “once in a lifetime opportunity”, we decided to put Vaduz into our travelers CVs.
Since we’ve already experienced burning heat here in Campione d’Italia, we woke up early and headed towards Vaduz at 7AM. I hoped that since we are driving across the Alps and climbing pretty high, there will be a place where temperatures will drop a bit, and maybe Vaduz will not be as hot as Lugano and places around the lakes.
We drove two hours across the magnificent Alps. It is by far one of the nicest scenic routes I’ve driven so far, and just driving two hours there and back was a pleasure. Contrasts of green fields, rocky peaks and some patches of snow, while our car displayed 26-30 degrees Celsius constantly was incredible. Since I was behind the wheel, I annoyed Dina to take photos from the road constantly.
When we reached the highest point at St. Bernardino’s pass, the temperature dropped to a decent 22 degrees, and I was looking forward to enjoying the day in Vaduz. However, my satisfaction with the temperature lasted merely a couple of minutes. As soon as we started descending toward Vaduz, it started picking up and reached scorching 36 degrees Celsius when we arrived.
I’m not sure if the fact that we were there on the first of August, which is a Swiss National Day, or the fact that sun was burning as it’s the end of the world, but this place seemed empty. Streets were deserted, and only a few tourists like us were wandering around, trying to get maps and some basic info about Vaduz.
We did the same, and it seemed that we would not be seeing much that day. Dominating castle on top of the hill is in use by the Prince of Liechtenstein, so it’s not open for the public, there is a cathedral, main square, shopping place and a couple of restaurants. There’s a football pitch as well, but it was not really of our interest. 🙂
We had lunch in the only open restaurant/pizzeria, where we had excellent pizza, and a perfect traditional local dish made with pork liver cooked in wine, with potatoes. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the dish, but I’d come back for more any time. 🙂
We walked the city up and down twice, bought souvenirs and had an ice cream. And we looked at weird sculptures around the place.
For those who are into reading, Vaduz might have something interesting to fulfill the boredom. 😀
While we were trying to find shade and enjoy the ice cream, Liam was the main attraction for all the tourists from Asia. Since he just recently learned how to “perform” and “applaud”, he managed to get the attention of 5-6 people in the main street, and then, like a conductor, made them all applaud at the same time. It was hilarious. It seems that he is born to be a movie star or some sort of celebrity. 🙂
Or he might end up performing for real like these guys on such a hot day.
Our short trip came to an end and we headed back to Campione. Even though there’s not much to do in Vaduz, I’m glad we did this short daily tour, as the Alpine route from Italy to Liechtenstein over the Swiss mountains is extremely picturesque.
Have you ever been to Vaduz? If you did, let me know if there’s anything you particularly liked, and we potentially missed?
If not, and life takes you nearby – plan to stop here, it’s a nice place for a lunch and a short walk. 🙂
And for the Angry Birds photo 🙂
Till the next one,
Balky
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