The Principality of
Liechtenstein is a tiny country surrounded by huge mountains. How
tiny? Thirty by twelve kilometers tiny; the world's fourth smallest
country tiny. When you stand at the lookout in Planken, the oldest
village high in the Alps, to the left you see Austria, to the right,
Switzerland tiny. It's also one of the few nations still under royal
rule – and thanks to bank ownership, the Crown prince and his
family are THE wealthiest royals in Europe. It sounded intriguing
enough to justify a spring break visit.
We arrived on the early
train from Zurich with no real idea what to expect.
I had heard only three things about Liechtenstein: it was clean,
boring and expensive. Clean it was, and expensive was also correct
(although no worse than Switzerland which in my experience comes
second only to Norway as far as prices that make your jaw hit the
floor). At first it seemed incredibly boring too, but as we soon
learned, this was not necessarily the case. When we alighted, the sun
was shining, the train ride through snowy mountains to Sargans
had been spectacular, and the hills were dotted with shuttered cottages and
little churches. Everything looked beautiful – the only thing
missing from this Alpen dream was Heidi. The region feels so wildly
beautiful yet ordered, populated yet pristine. It's a far cry from
the chaos of Africa, that's for sure.
Liechtenstein has two
main cities, Vaduz and Schaan, which lie just three km apart, and a
few smaller towns and villages throughout. It's so small that we
managed to see all but two in one very long, exhausting day. Things
didn't get off to such a promising start. We walked through Vaduz
along the main road (bearing in mind the 'cities' are only a few
streets wide)...a castle sat high on a hill and looked pretty enough
but it was a private residence inaccessible to the public. Along the
route we also passed the prince's royal winery which I made a mental
note to visit later. I have never tasted, or for that matter seen a
wine from Liechtenstein and I was curious. But there didn't appear to be much else and it soon transpired that we
were already in Schaan, the second city. It seemed even more
boring than Vaduz. We began to stress because our return train
tickets were for 8:30 pm and it was currently 9 am. What on earth
were we going to do all day? We decided to discuss plan b at a coffee
shop, which turned out to be the wisest decision of the day (followed closely by winetasting). Turns
out this was no ordinary kaffeehaus, but one that belonged to the
congenial coffee king of Liechtenstein. It was immediately clear that
this man had a serious passion for both coffee and his home country.
He gave us fantastic insider's advice on where to go and how to get
there. In fact, all the locals were so, so friendly – I don't think
I have ever been anywhere with such nice people. His first
recommendation was a visit to his home village of Planken,
Liechtenstein's oldest settlement with some of the best views.
As a side note, should you ever find yourself in Liechtenstein, you
MUST go visit Demmel Kaffee on Schaan's Landestrasse.
Armed with Mr. Coffee's
advice and a caffeine buzz, we hopped on the Planken bus.
Having no trains, Liechtenstein is lined with bus routes and for 12
euros you can see most of the country on a day pass. Planken itself
didn't disappoint, but the road there included some of the steepest
hills I have ever seen and was thus a little scary. I can't imagine
driving here in winter snow - it makes the Whistler highway look like
pathetic child's play. The village was lined with adorable wooden
Swiss shuttered cottages built into very steep slopes and perfect
little manicured gardens. It also offered an amazing viewpoint from
which you could see not only the entire country spread below but
also the Swiss and Austrian Alps. Following an equally
hairy ride down the mountain, our next stop was the winery back
in Vaduz. It was important to gather energy for what looked like a
very steep hike to the castle, and what better way to refuel than
with wine? The winery and vineyards have been here since 1712 and
were really pretty to look at, but sadly the wine wasn't quite up to
par except for one decent pinot noir. However, the fact that a
tasting included five full glasses of wine and no spit bucket meant that we had a great time and left feeling pretty high
on life...and alcohol. So high that we barely even noticed how steep the ensuing hike to
the castle was. We also checked out the University of Liechtenstein
campus en route....now that looks
like a boring place to study. Anyway, the castle lies up many winding
roads and steep pathways, and of course has an amazing view just
like every other corner of this little country. As I said, the prince
and his fam actually live here so there's no going inside. We hung
around out front for a while taking photos...you know, just in case he drove by
and felt like asking us in for more wine. We also debated what could be done in front of the security cameras to generate an
invitation...but ultimately decided not to risk arrest.
Disappointed
by the lack of royal encounters but happy with some good pictures, we set
back for Vaduz to check out its centre. It transpired that there was a
farmer's market in the old square where we met even more nice locals who
fed us excellent chocolates. Otherwise, it wasn't terribly exciting
and so we followed the coffee man's next recommendation and caught a bus to the ski resort of Malbun. This ride took us up
even steeper roads, and at pretty high speeds thanks to a crazy
driver. I was not enjoying myself - though the starting hangover might also have been to blame. We passed through the little
town of Triesenberg and climbed ever higher until finally reaching Malbun, still buried under metres of snow at the very top of an Alp. No cheesy shopping malls at this ski resort, just super
Swiss style chalets and cozy little bars and restaurants. I
wandered onto a ski run and felt an immediate pang for my old
snowboard. The slopes looked great...this was the first time I have
missed snow in many years. But without a snowboard, there wasn't much to
do and since the next bus wasn't for two hours, decided to start
walking down the mountain. We had passed some really breathtaking
views along the way up and wanted to catch them again as the sun was
setting. The walk was so cold that my hands turned purple, and I lost
all feeling in my feet. But at the same time it felt so exhilarating to be
miles from anywhere, up a mountain surrounded by nature, fresh air and the
just occasional alpine hut. As we walked we saw deer and what looked
like giant paw prints in the snow beside a crystal clear little
creek. Unfortunately because the Alps are full of them, we also needed to pass through a km long tunnel on foot – that wasn't so
fantastic. But we managed to make it 3/4 down the very long mountain
before the bus finally came and caught the tail end of a
spectacular though chilly sunset while the Lichtenstein lights twinkled far below. All that remained was to
catch the bus back to Sargans and to admire the castle
glowing brightly in the dark above the city.
What
started out as a seriously boring day ended up being amazing, and
we owed this to the Demmel coffee man. Sometimes in life you encounter people whose enthusiasm and joy are infectious. He was one of those. I am so glad to have met him, not only for his fun advice but because he reminded me about the human aspect of why I love to travel - something I have forgotten a little living in Germany. I saw some of the most
spectacular views of my life in this funny little country filled with
the warmest, nicest people imaginable. It's not a hotbed of activity (well,
except for dubious banking and financial practices – though you would
never guess such things went on here), but it was well worth
the trip.
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