Tag Archives: Vaduz

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.

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 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.

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 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 1024The 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.

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

 

 

 

Feb 19 2019

Liechtenstein 1. Plans

Liechtenstein is the next small country I am going.

I don’t know much about this little country yet.

  • It’s not part of the EU, its between Switzerland and Austria.
  • It’s really hard to spell.
  • It has a prince that runs it with his own castle and winery.
  • Its biggest industry is making false teeth.
  • It is double landlocked.
  • The capital is Vaduz
  • It uses the Swiss Franc as money, almost the same as a US Dollar, as 1 CHF = $0.99 as of February 2019.
  • Cars have stickers/plates marked (FL) which is Federation of Liechtenstein, and web sites and email addresses instead of .li
  • It’s flipping expensive like Switzerland.
  • There are only one Youth Hostel and its shut in the winter, so I will have to stay 15 km away in a town in Switzerland.

I bought two one-way tickets, one into Germany and one out of Switzerland.   I have friends in Munich in Germany who is originally from my home town of Portsmouth UK, and another friend from Basel Switzerland who is going to rendezvous with me in Zurich before I fly home.

Plus I thought it would be fun to get all the non-EU countries done before the media tells me the world ends (29/3/2019 = Brexit)   haha.

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

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