Vaduz government buildings are here, they look very modern.   I didn’t get to go inside or learn much about their administration system.

What was also very modern was this modern art museum.   I went here by mistake, don’t go it is really boring and a waste of 15 Francs.   There is another museum with a proper history of this country which I didn’t visit and I need to get back to my hostel on the train as it was getting late.

I wanted to get back to this little country but here and Switzerland have already massively busted my budget, and I still had to get to Zurich to spend the last few days before flying home.

Lastly, I finally get to meet and chat with a local person, actually, the two ladies who work for the stamps museums.   All these micro countries are very proud of their functioning post office and own stamps.   I bought some postcards and stamps.   They told me they only real thing this nation lacks is a maternity ward, and the hospital here in Liechtenstein is too small and new babies have to be born in St Gallen in Switzerland.

That’s all.   I achieved my bucket list of visiting some of the weird obscure small countries of Europe (which most aren’t part of the EU and are jolly pleasant places to live) before the UK Brexit leaving date which is in October 2019.

The only ones I need to visit are San Marino and Vatican I’ll do one day.

Related:  Other tiny countries I have seen:- Andorra, Gibraltar, Iceland, Liechtenstein,  Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco

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

This is the church in Vaduz, which is Catholic.    I think this is the main religious hub here in Liechtenstein.

This is a fairly ordinary sort of typical Catholic church.

In 1880, the Duke of Liechtenstein permitted religious freedom in the country. For several years pastors from Switzerland and Austria served the Protestant community. In 1963 a church was built in Vaduz. The Evangelical Church in Liechtenstein adopted this name in 1970 and includes Reformed and Lutheran churches.

Outside there is a poster for service for a young (maybe late 40s) woman who passed away from cancer.

I didn’t find any functional churches in Andorra.   I’d like to see if there are any evangelical churches that meet in a dedicated building or a community centre or someone’s home.   The small close-knit community seems appealing.

It was hard to find local people to chat about life here.   I got to do this on my next post.

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

So the Germans can do industry like Mercedes and Siemens, and the Swiss can make small and precision things like watches, this nation has its only unique portfolio of industries.

One of the places I really wanted to see in Liechtenstein was the headquarters of Hilti.  I didn’t get time to, but I’ll demonstrate from this 3D map.

This is in the bigger town of Schaan.   Martin and Eugen Hilti who are brothers set up this company in 1941, and is now a $5B company with offices all over the world and 29,000 staff, yet amazingly, they are still in this teeny nation.

Wikipedia tells me Liechtenstein has a population of only 37,877, yet about 20,000 people actually commute into a tiny country.

Ivoclar Vivident is the world’s largest maker of false teeth, also based in Schaan.

This might be the wrong poster, but a sign similar to this was advertising a current mayor who I spotted had the surname Hilti.  When I visited another tiny country, Malta in 2014, I noticed there are a lot of very common occurring surnames, from certain families.

https://www.hilti.com/content/hilti/W1/US/en/company/about-hilti/company-profile/history.html 

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

This is really something you don’t expect to see in Switzerland at all.

This is a museum that is part of Zurich University.   The collection of stuffed animals is pretty good, but what really surprised me was this:

This is a Tanystropheus, its a 3 metre long dinosaur I’ve never seen before.  I never expected dinosaur bones to be found in the Swiss Alps.

The other one not pictured is a Helveticasaurus, could be a posh type of font found in a dictionary.   Helvetia is actually the Latin word for Switzerland, where the letters “CH” are used to denote Switzerland, being Confederation of Helvetia.

This reminds me of a story.   When I was about 9 years old, my teacher asked me to go to the library and look up what was the biggest dinosaur.   I looked in 4 different books, and each one told me something different.    This was because one of the books was very old, and one very new, and few in between, new types of scientific discoveries happen over the years.

A few months later I was asked to research planets, how many moons around Jupiter.   Because of the books being of differing years, one was 3, another 6 another 12.

This is taught me a lesson in life, and that is to research and question everything you are taught and respectfully challenge authority.   I’ve applied this to my way I look at the bible, science, government and work (I am in IT)  but sometimes gets me in trouble!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanystropheus 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helveticosaurus 

https://www.zm.uzh.ch/en/ 

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

In February I was back to my flat in Harrow, north west London with a lot of things on my mind, about to move house, worries at work and concerns over lots of future plans.

I walked past this street and could smell flowers, like roses on a hot but slightly windy day.   I look around and I don’t see any.  I look around for the second time.   I’m walking in bewilderment.

I then walk on.   After 3 or 4 houses later I can still smell flowers.  It is mid-February and people’s front gardens are not in bloom yet.

Today I’m reading this passage and remembering how the Lord can remind us of his love through experiences that don’t have any tangible reason why.

2 Corinthians 2 : 14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? 

Where as Liecht (I can’t actually spell this place without checking) comes across as just as conservative, prim and proper as Switzerland, as well as the biker place I mentioned, there are signs that this little country is a bit rebellious.

Kind of a bit like your parents are Switzerland and Austria, and they are vicar and lawyer and you are trying to shed your nice boy image, there is a tattoo place and several bars like this one which is aimed at a clientele which a bit different from you expect from somebody who grew up in a cute mountain village.

This place Micros and the Coop are your go-to places when visiting here.  The main supermarket chains in Switzerland, but also in Leicht.   Eating out is so hideously expensive, it’s simply better to cook yourself as I did later in Zurich.

Antique shop, actually it’s more like a government surplus place.  There is no army in Liechtenstein.

These flags were interesting, it mentions “Liechtenstein Olympic committee.”

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

This is the Prince’s castle.  Hans-Adam II is the current reigning monarch of Liechtenstein who is 74 and has been in power since 1989.  Like Monaco, there is no ‘king’ just a prince as a leader, as this asymmetrical building is on a shelf on the side of this mountain.

Interesting enough, he is the richest monarch in Europe with an estimated wealth of US$4B and owns Liechtenstein’s LGT bank.

You can’t visit here.   As this is his actual house.  Can’t remember and can’t read this sign said.  I can’t see any other entrance, but there is this garden, with some security guards who seemed quite laid back for me to take pictures.    On the other side of the road is a big house which I think is where his servants live.

Apparently, the prince has a garden party here each year, and locals can join in.

Families and children are enjoying this park with the castle and the mountain overlooking.   There is one other castle here in this little country but I didn’t get to it.

Meanwhile back in Vaduz, I saw this vineyard by the main road.   I am not completely certain, but I think this is owned by the Prince, as they do their own exclusive wine in this country, obviously in small quantities.

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

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.

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.

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.

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