Adventures in Europe: Vaduz, Liechtenstein

I left Zurich this morning by train, passing through some beautiful country along lakes and into the mountains. We stopped at the Swiss town of Sargans, then turned north along the Rhine to Buchs. Between Sargans and Buchs, I could look east across the Rhine and see the Prince of Liechtenstein's castle up on a cliff above Vaduz, where I planned to be later.

From Buchs we crossed the Rhine, through Liechtenstein, and into Austria. My stop was the first in Austria, the city of Feldkirch. It was only 10:30, but I was able to check into the Hotel Baren just down the road from the Bahnhof. Well Feldkirch is an interesting place in its own right, my primary reason for being here is to visit Liechtenstein next door. I had hoped I could find a bike to ride the 15 kilometres to Vaduz, Liechtenstein's capital, but unfortunately I had no luck. Which was really a shame because yet again the bike infrastructure looked pretty good. Anyway, there is also great public transit, so I was easily able to catch a bus.

I was really a bit skeptical that Liechtenstein was an exciting place, so I went to the much-vaunted tourist office first. Here I bought some postcards and (yes, I am a tourist) got my passport needlessly stamped. 

They advertise that they do this for 3 francs (Liechtenstein uses the Swiss franc), but presumably do not bother charging if you make a purchase (or, in any case, they did not charge me). Besides the postcards and passport stamps, I did not find much of interest in the tourist office. 

I suppose at this point I might provide some commentary around useless passports stamps, because I have a little bit of experience in this regard. Some places charge you for this souvenir, others do it for free, and the quality varies dramatically. By far the best one I have seen is from San Marino, but it is also the most expensive at 5 euros. It feels official even though it is useless (although, Wikipedia says this: "visitors may get souvenir passport stamps at a state tourism office, which is considered by the authorities to be the official stamp"). 

Liechtenstein's is fine, but nothing special. In the Caribbean I got a few stamps for free while on a cruise; in these cases, the stamps came from immigration officials who will stamp your passport if asked. Nothing wrong with that, although some of them are a little obnoxious. 

The ones from Belize and the Bahamas looks as official as any passport stamp, but that Honduras one makes me cringe.

The passport stamp I absolutely regret came at the Mitad del Mundo north of Quito. This is the location of the equator and is not a "real" passport stamp in sense of the world. All the others I mentioned are useless, but at least come from "government officials" of some sort. I wish I could erase the Mitad del Mundo one, because it makes me take my (thankfully long since replaced) passport less seriously. 

Lastly, I have at least one other useless stamp that came about by an immigration official's error. This is a Canadian one, and it was frustrating, because it is a passport I actually had to replace early because it got too full. I am pretty sure that stamp is the only useless one in that passport. Which does lead to another point about all of this: there is the risk you fill a passport up before it's expiry date if you have useless stamps put in all over the world!

Alright, now back to Vaduz. I drank a coffee along the main pedestrian street in Vaduz, right across from the Rathaus. After coffee, I decided a hike up to the castle was about the only other thing I could think to do, so I set out. It is a hot day, but the path up the cliff was mostly well shaded and actually very pleasant. There are information plaques along the route with information about Liechtenstein's history, geography, politics, etc., such as this one:

And there are several spots where you have a very nice view of Vaduz and the Rhine valley and Switzerland and the mountains beyond. 

Incidentally, this led me to an important observation: the Prince of Liechtenstein must be the only monarch in the world who looks out of his house and can see territory he does not rule over! I wonder if this keeps him more humble?

Eventually I reached the castle, but the Prince did not invite me in. I may have shared my observation if he did.

I had intended to hike up the castle and back down, but I enjoyed the hike so much that I decided to keep going. I had to come down eventually, of course, but I did so further north of Vaduz's centre, after having hiked along in the forest for a little ways. 

Although the Prince did not invite me into his castle, he did invite me for a glass of wine at his vineyard. 

My partner Diana had given me little envelopes of cash to buy a drink in each country I visit before she comes to meet me in Budapest (on September 25!), and I decided a glass of wine with the Prince was just the thing. The shaded terrace by the little vineyard was really a perfect spot on this hot afternoon, and I made the most of it. I enjoyed a glass of a Reisling, and photographed the castle through my glass.

After the wine, I sampled a local lager.

And then took a short walk in the vineyard.

Although the Prince is a very rich man, he did ask for a nominal contribution to his estate; at 12 CHF for both drinks, I felt this was fairly reasonable for these parts. And, anyway, the Prince is only worth something like $5 billion, so every little bit helps. I am sure my wife would have asked for a selfie, but I decided this would be gauche and I let the old man be. Instead, I left and boarded the bus back to Feldkirch after what was in the end a really enjoyable afternoon in Vaduz.