liechtenstein

18/1/15

This morning we slept until about 8:15am, and then pottered around the house where we were staying.  We had a late breakfast of food we had bought the night before from the Coop Petrol station.  I had a muffin... the view from the kitchen table was amazing!

Here was where we were staying, a place we found off AirBNB...

 At 9:30 we left, leaving the key on the table with the  Guest Book and headed down to catch the bus.  We had to walk fast - the bus left at 9:38 and only ran once every half an hour.  It wouldn't have been a very long walk though - the bus ride only took five mins.

We got off at Vaduz Post and our plan was to walk around Vaduz. It takes approximately 15 mins to walk from one end of the main street to the other.  It is a pedestrian only walk, through the centre of town.  First stop was the Tourist Office to get our stamps in our passports, so that we could officially say and prove we had been there!  From there we walked through the National Museum Shop - unfortunately we didn't have a enough time to go in but we had a brief look. 

Tourist Shop

Stamp and National Museum 

Next was the New Parliament Building (left building) and Government Building (right building).  The New Parliament Building was described to us as a big Toblerone.   

The Government Building

 

Across the road was the St Florin Cathedral and as it was a Sunday morning there was a church service in progress so we couldn't enter.  The Cathedral was built between 1863 and 1873 in neogothic style, on the site of a former medieval chapel.  Since 1944, the church also houses the Royal Vault of the Royal Family of Liechtenstein.  .   

The Prince's Vault

Main street through Vaduz

We turned back and walked back up the main street of Vaduz. We were briefly, due to the fog, able to the see the official residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein's Castle up on the hill above Vaduz.  You are only able to see it from the outside as it is the actual residence of the prince and his family.  Parts of the castle seem to be built in the 12th Century, whilst the eastern side appears to be the oldest.  The prince's family acquired the castle in 1712.

Vaduz Castle (I didn't take the picture....)

We wandered around Vaduz for a little bit longer before catching the bus to Schaan.

Random Facts about Liechtenstein: 

- Vaduz (the capital city) is actually pronounced Fadoots, however all English say it the way it is written.

- The entire country is 160 km square,but only 17 km square is settlement area.  Liechtenstein is 24.8 km at the longest distance and 12.4 km at its widest, making it the 6th smallest country in the world.  

- Switzerland is approximately 260 times larger than Liechtenstein.

- The principality is a constitutional, hereditary monarchy on a democratic and parliamentary basis.

- The total population is 37,000, with 5,400 living in the capital, and 5,900 live in Liechtenstein's largest municipality Schaan.  

Waiting for the Bus to Schaan 

We caught the bus to Schaan, another five minute trip.  Even though Schaan is bigger than Vaduz, there was less open and less to do.  It was a Sunday!  We walked up to the Church (look at the fog!) and then down what seemed to be the main street before setting off.  Our plan was to walk across the border from Liechtenstein to Buchs (pronounced Books) Switzerland.   

It took us about 30 mins to walk from Schaan right the way into Buchs.  The path took us along a main road, past fields and houses and across the Rhein. In the middle of the Rhein, on the bridge there is a sign which shows when you are crossing from one country into the next.  So we were able to not only go to two countries in a day, but we could stand straddling two countries at once! 

We arrived in Buchs just after 12:30 and we headed straight for the train station....

The next train to Frutigen left at 12:48 but we decided to catch the one after that at 1:15 pm, so we would have time to wander around Buchs.  We bought our tickets and planned our journey with the lady at the ticket counter, and I asked for a map of Buchs (below).  It was massive! We were able to find the main street and we just wandered up and around that until it was time to catch the train.  

Our massive map

We caught the train from Buchs to Sargans, Sargans to Zurich, Zurich to Bern, Bern to Frutigen, then the bus from Frutigen to Adelboden Oey.  We messaged Mara when we were at Frutigen and she met us at Adelboden Oey to drive us back up to the Chalet.  Where we arrived about 30 mins early for dinner!!

I have to say Liechtenstein lived up to all my expectations! Absolutely beautiful country and an amazing place for such a small country.  

innsbruck, austria

17/1/15

Overnight it became apparent that Adelboden and the weather didn't want us to leave.  It had snowed all night and covered the ground with snow.  Still it only took us about 10 mins to walk down the hill from Our Chalet to catch the 0554 bus from Adelboden Oey.  Yeah, 0554... I was up at 0445... WAYYYYYY to early!!

We caught the bus from Adelboden to Frutigen, the train from Frutigen to Bern, Bern to Zurich, Zurich to Feldkirch and finally Feldkirch to Innsbruck.  It took us all morning to get there, but finally at 12ish we arrived in Innsbruck.

Innsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in Western Austria.  After getting map from the information booth and exiting the train station the first stop was the Tiny Arc De Triomphe on one of the main streets.  It was built in 1765 from the stones of the former city gate.  It has two sides - happy and sad.  The happy celebrates the marriage of a son of Maria Theresa and a the sad which remembers her late husband Franz Stephan.

Next stop was the Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof).  Considered Innsbruck's most famous symbol, it was completed in 1500, the roof is decorated with 2,738 fire-gilded copper tiles for Emperor Maximilian I to mark his marriage to Bianca Maria Sforza.  The balcony was used to observe festivals, and other events which took place in the Square below.  In 2007, during an art project a single shingle was swapped from the roof with a wooden one from a barn near by.  From there it was stolen again and found two years later on a roof of another barn.  In 2012, the scaffolding used for restoration work was used to steal another seven shingles.  A week later they re-appeared in post offices around town.  It is still a mystery as to who stole them.  

 

The Goldenes Dachl and Me & The square it looks onto

We continued walking around and looked through several little stores and streets. We even walked in and around a Baroque Church (below). 

 

We found the river 'Inn' and then the bridge which crosses it, the bridge which Innsbruck is named after.  The word 'bruck' comes from the same root as the modern German word "Brucke"meaning 'bridge', leading to the 'bridge over the Inn' or Innsbruck.  

We had a late lunch at McDonalds... some of the most expensive Maccas I have ever had! However it was the nicest and most historically maintained Maccas as well.  They had maintained the original arches of the buildings roof and the decorations were even time period appropriate to the building!

We stayed in Innsbruck and just generally wandered around the city and area after lunch, until we decided to head to Liechtenstein.  Heres where we hit a snag.  We started walking to the Bahnhof  (train st) at about one thirty, we expected it not to take too long.  However some how we managed to get very lost after walking down Universitatsstrasse (University Street) and ending up in the middle of no where.  We found a florist shop along the way and asked a lovely old gentleman where the Bahnhof was and he was able to tell us.  I had completely lost my sense of direction by then and was just following what he had said and hoping he was right.  Turns out he was.... because we eventually found the train line and then the station after that. 

Our plan to leave early then fell through and we caught the train we had originally planned to catch - the 3:45 train to Feldkirch, a 2 hr train. From Feldkirch we caught bus number 21 to Vaduz, Post then changed to bus number 11 as per our Host AirBnB's lady's instructions.  We got off at Triesen, Vaschiel and walk down the hill to her house.  She was absolutely lovely and even had maps and ideas for things to do tomorrow around Liechtenstien.  We arrived around six thirty ish, just as they were sitting down for dinner.

Just after 8 pm we caught a lift with our host lady into Vaduz, to go to the Coop Petrol Station to buy some food for dinner and breakfast.  We just bought an oven pizza and some drinks... It was nice to sit and have a hot dinner which didn't require much cooking on our behalf!!