May 30 2019

Liechtenstein 5. Road up to the castle

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This monument on the side of the road to go up the hill towards the castle shows “Franz I” this is the Prince. Franz de Paula Maria Karl August (28/8/1853–25/7/1938), was the Prince of Liechtenstein between 1929 and 1938.

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The other side of the hill going up the road to the castle you can see all of Vaduz, and well, all of the middle of the country, the river in the distance is the border with Switzerland.

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This area appears to have quite a lot of rules, but actually, I saw a Porsche and then a high-end Mercedes driving very fast up the zigzag road. Notice the ‘no drones’ sign.

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To the castle!!

GERMANY 1. Dachau concentration camp – 2. BMW museum – 3. BMW World futuristic showroom – 4. Neuschwanstein Castle – 5. 1972 Munich Olympics village – 6. Tourism and going out in Munich – 7. Deutsches Museum – 8. Business in the UK, Germany and Israel – 9. Friedrichshafen, a pleasant German town on a lake

SWITZERLAND 1. Trying to do ‘cheap’ Switzerland – 2. The town of Grusch – 3. Clever Swiss made things – 4. Train from Grusch to Zurich – 5. Zurich, the more liberal Switzerland – 6. Swiss dinosaurs

LIECHTENSTEIN 1. Plans – 2. Getting into this tiny nation – 3. Motorbikes, cars and kebab shops in Vaduz, Liechtenstein – 4. Small country topography – 5. Road up to the castle – 6. The Prince’s castle and vineyard – 7. bars, shops, Olympics – 8. Tiny country, big output – 9. Vaduz church – 10. Government buildings and museums

May 23 2019

Liechtenstein 4. Small country topography

The cross at the bottom is Grusch where I stayed a couple of nights. On the top right is Feldkirch which looked nice but was shut until the spring.

I messed around with Google maps to get some 3D maps with terrian.

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Just the orange part is actual Liechtenstein.

When I look sideways at this place with Switzerland behind me, the river is the whole border of the bottom curved edge. About half of the country isn’t actually habitable as its mountainous, with the exception of a few streets that sit on a shelf.

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The main part in the middle with Schaan on the left and Vaduz on the right.

This country is just 38,000 people, there is 160 square km in this mini country.

May 21 2019

Liechtenstein 3. Motorbikes, cars and kebab shops in Vaduz, Liechtenstein

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When you think of some of the tiny countries, I think of exotic automobiles and motor racing. Monaco comes to mind, and maybe San Marino. Andorra didn’t have many fast cars, but did have some nice wide roads that wind around the mountain scenery. Liechtenstein has a decent collection of nice motors.

Switzerland is often abbreviated to (CH) or Confederate of Helvetia, where as Liechtenstein is abbreviated to (FL) = Federation of Liechtenstein. The cars have an opposite style licence plate with white letters on black, rather than the Swiss black on white.

This American style old school motorcyle place in the Vaduz the capital of this tiny place, is a bit different from what you would expect in a conservative mountainous European nation.

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You can see more of Bobber’s garage and shop here https://bobber.li/

These guys were happy for me to come in and take pictures. I think they were too busy working to want to chat. Later on, I got to chat with locals in the stamp museum.

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Next to Bobber’s garage is a kebab shop, run by Turkish guys with Swiss style prices. Everything here is just as expensive as Switzerland. The cheapest takeaway meal was around I think 14 CHF. Towards the bridge border with Buchs, was a Chinese takeaway.

Because of the proximity of Liechtenstein between Switzerland and Austria, and the fact that the Germans, Swiss and Austrians like motorcycling, this looks like a great place to ride into and stop here along the way.

May 20 2019

East Switzerland – 3. Clever Swiss made things

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DSCF0850 1024 It’s not just Swiss army knives that show you an example of efficient Swiss design.

There are a few clever things I saw I think are worth sharing.

A street bicycle pump. This one is large, heavy duty and fixed to the ground and free for public use.

Now the UK 13 amp type sockets are different from the rest of Europe, feel chunky and robust.

This is a Swiss electrical wall socket, these are close-ish to the rest of Europe also, but only slightly different. The two pins for live and neutral are the same so a phone charger I bought in a hurry in Hungary will work as it doesn’t have a grounding pin. Devices with three pins will have the middle pin closer to the middle ones.

DSCF0861 1024 Also, there are three sockets on a wall plate normally where you would find only one. Like a Swiss army knife, combine several things in a small package. These sockets were also seen in Liechtenstein.

Meat slicer. These are stylish and different as a probably intended for commercial catering. They are painted with this high gloss paint, which I think means cleaning easy.

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This Swiss horn is an interesting instrument, I am not sure of this is taken apart in pieces or if it collapses like a telescope.

All these things I saw on the streets of Zurich.

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Its not hard to find more familiar Swiss craft like watches and chocolate in Zurich as well.

May 19 2019

Liechtenstein 2. Getting into this tiny nation

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This is actually Buchs. This is a medium-sized town in Switzerland. I got the train from Grusch the town I was staying to get into Liechtenstein. There is also a railway into Liechtenstein that goes from a different line from Switzerland or Austria. It’s on a few kilometres away, so I walked in.

I was excited about doing my final (for now) little European country, as it was my goal to visit as many of these (in fact I’ve been to Liechtenstein, Andorra and Luxembourg) before Brexit happens, as I wanted to compare all of the non-EU countries to the EU nations.

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This is the border. There are flags of the two countries on this bridge over the river. It wasn’t very windy, and the flags not really visible on the other photo I had. This one you can see this brass plaque as well.

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DSCF0770 1024 The other side of the bridge and past the post office depot is the very pleasant town of Schaan, which is the second largest town here. Vaduz being the capital.

This country very closely resembles Switzerland from terrain and cultural perspective. If you get the bus, there’s a place to put your skis.

May 18 2019

Revival is often happening even if is not always obvious like Southall’s Indian Christians

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This is Southall, a vibrant town I used to drive through often when I had a 1 1/2 – 2 hour drive to the south-west part of London where I was working back in 2016.

Southall has people of predominantly Indian descent. When I drove through here, as well as Asian supermarkets and takeaways, I saw this funeral business with the religious logos which makes me think partially of multiculturalism in a good way, offering the right choice of care for the deceased. Sometimes multiple religious symbols are put together like the popular and well-intentioned ‘Coexist’ campaign a few years ago. I wrote this a while back to explain why Islam, Christianity and Judaism differ.

I drove past this church that intrigued me.

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After spending ages in with Google Streetmap view to find the place I was thinking of, I found it!! The Kings Hall is a Methodist church that’s aimed at this particular community with services in Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi. But sadly, it is clear that this church from the boarded-up doors that this building is closed permanently.

Often when driving down here, I felt a need to pray for Jesus to be revealed to Indian people in this particular community. I think the Lord hears and actions our prayers, but we don’t always get to see a result.

I looked up a bit about this church, and found this: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/31352 it was originally designed as a cinema and shutdown as a church in 2013.

Looks like someone stuck this label on to continue the gospel to this precious community.

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Last week, I went to a small home group of a friend’s church which meets not far from this area. To my joy, I was told by two Indian Punjabi former Sikh now-Christian couples that there has been a revival in the last ten years in both North Indian in the Punjabi region but here amongst Indians in Southall finding Christ!!

It’s such a blessing to see the Lord’s faithfulness in the gospel happen often in the background scenes.

Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁷“مانگو،تب خدا تمہیں دیگا۔تلاش کرو ،تب کہیں تم پاؤگے۔دروازہ کھٹکھٹاؤتب کہیں وہ تمہارے لئے کھلے گا۔ ⁸ہاں ہمیشہ پوچھتے رہنے والے ہی کو ملتا ہے اور لگاتار ڈھونڈنے والا پا ہی لیتا ہے اور لگاتار کھٹکھٹا نے وا لے کے لئے دروازہ کھل ہی جاتا ہے۔

⁷“परमेश्वर से माँगते रहो, तुम्हें दिया जायेगा। खोजते रहो तुम्हें प्राप्त होगा खटखटाते रहो तुम्हारे लिए द्वार खोल दिया जायेगा। ⁸क्योंकि हर कोई जो माँगता ही रहता है, प्राप्त करता है। जो खोजता है पा जाता है और जो खटखटाता ही रहता है उसके लिए द्वार खोल दिया जाएगा।

⁷“ਜੇਕਰ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਮੰਗਦੇ ਰਹੋਂਗੇ ਤਾਂ, ਤੁਸੀਂ ਪ੍ਰਾਪਤ ਕਰ ਲਵੋਂਗੇ। ਲੱਭੋ, ਤਾਂ ਲੱਭੇਗਾ। ਖੜਕਾਓ, ਤਾਂ ਤੁਹਾਡੇ ਲਈ ਦਰਵਾਜ਼ਾ ਖੋਲ੍ਹਿਆ ਜਵੇਗਾ। ⁸ਕਿਉਂਕਿ ਹਰੇਕ ਮੰਗਣ ਵਾਲਾ ਪਾ ਲੈਂਦਾ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਢੂੰਢਣ ਵਾਲੇ ਨੂੰ ਲੱਭਦਾ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਖੜਕਾਉਣ ਵਾਲੇ ਲਈ ਦਰਵਾਜ਼ਾ ਖੋਲ੍ਹਿਆ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ।

May 16 2019

East Switzerland – 2. The town of Grusch

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Switzerland seems to integrate housing estates, farms and factories very well. Ordinarily, there is always worry about noise or smell when you have a combination of places in the UK maybe.

Grusch is a postcard-perfect small Swiss town with around just 2,000 people. Its part of the Canton of Graubunden, and has been around since 1340. This area of the country is German speaking.

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A lot of the houses are these distinct nice wooden chalets with balconies and shutters. Someone put a mannequin out on the porch with a costume. I think the Swiss have their own unique sense of humour.

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Where else do people have an outside shed/workshop and not worry about someone taking stuff.

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This herd of Jersey cows were friendly and licked my hand. These types of cattle are prized also in Britain for making better quality and quantity of milk, they would suit the Swiss well for making cheese and chocolate.

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This railway siding is right by another old factory, where the track has been laid from the beginning to help raw materials or finished goods from industries to get sent around by train, rather than clog up roads. So, so, so far ahead of Britain in this regard.

Grusch looks even better at night with the snow with the 30cm or so (ie; standard school ruler) of snow glinting in the moonlight, and a lot of stars visible without any light pollution.

May 16 2019

East Switzerland – 1. Trying to do ‘cheap’ Switzerland

After leaving Friedrichshafen in Germany, once leaving the lake, I got on a train and went directly to Grusch, a small town on the east side of Switzerland. I chose this town as it was close-ish to the tiny nation of Liechtenstein and all other places I looked into staying were not open during the winter.

Switzerland is probably the most famous non-EU European country. I’ve been to this lovely country before but the other side going from Basel to Interlaken to Geneva. Flights are cheap because cities like Basel, Zurich and Geneva are kind of dead centre in the middle of Europe, thus being a great hub for transferring to somewhere else.

Everything else is definitely not though. The Franc, seen often as “CHF” the local currency is almost identical to a US$ but everything seems to be 2 – 3 times what would cost in the UK.

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This hostel cost me CHF62.60 for two nights, £24 a night. That’s absolutely unheard of for Switzerland. But actually, the Sporti Grusch is a restaurant for skiers and snowboarders, with three rooms in the basement.

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This is my room. The bunk is built into the wall. I didn’t have to share with anyone. There is a shared bathroom which you have to go outside to use. This is a great place for a scouts or youth group I think. I’m used to simple places to sleep so this is quite adequate for me. There is no lounge to sit and read. So during evenings I sat in the restaurant with usual Swiss prices and drink tea. Beer is about £9/pint, food is also very high so I visited a local shop.

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This was parked next to my hostel. It seems Swiss landowners can’t rely on local municipality services to clear snow and have the means to clear it themselves. This 1990s Toyota truck has been adapted for this purpose.

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A Christian discovering the roots in the holy land….

Monthly Archives: May 2019