Liechtenstein

So today Thorin and I ventured to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein is a teeny tiny country (61 square miles with a population of 35,000) sandwiched in between Switzerland and Austria. There's almost nothing to see there but hey, it's country #10 for me, and it was only 90 minutes away by train!

So the trip there involved 4 short train rides (on the way, we learned exactly how huge Lake Konstanz/the Bodensee is, because we were following it the whole way) to the Swiss-Liech. border, where we then took a bus through Schaan and Vaduz, the two biggest cities. We stopped in Vaduz (pop. 5,000?), where we got a souvenir passport stamp from the tourist office (major highlight of the trip). Liechtenstein is essentially a principality of Switzerland, so they use Swiss francs and speak German. Since they use Swiss francs (although euros are accepted pretty much everywhere), everything is accordingly expensive. We found a fairly cheap place for lunch and enjoyed the nice weather.

After lunch, we wandered around town, which took all of an hour. Sights include some souvenir stores, the St. Florin Church, the Rathaus (town hall), and the Schloss Vaduz. The Schloss Vaduz is high on a hill overlooking the town, and the Liechtenstein royal family still lives there, so you're not allowed to visit (although the climb looks pretty exhausting, so I'm not sure I'd want to). Liechtenstein is one of the remaining monarchies of Europe. There's not much to see in Liechtenstein, but the tiny town/country does inspire a lot of jokes. Thorin ordered a Liechtenstein Brauhaus beer at lunch. The slogan on the label read "Ein Land. Ein Bier." which translates to "One country. One beer." This led to a lot of jokes like "One country. One....noun.", etc.

The trip home got a little complicated due to limited transportation but we made it back! And while we were waiting for the train in Switzerland I even got Ben & Jerry's. yum. So a short day, and I've definitely been to more interesting places in Europe, but the mountains make Liechtenstein quite picturesque.

So, to finish up this post, some fun German idioms I've learned:

der Löffel abgeben: to give up the spoon (English equivalent=to kick the bucket)

Daumen drücken: to press the thumb (English equivalent=cross your fingers)

Eine Jacke, eine hose: jacket or pants (English equivalent= six in one hand, half a dozen in the other)

me in Liechtenstein!

Schloss Vaduz