Tag Archives: liechtenstein

Thursday 3rd July 2014 – WHEN I SET OUT FROM BENDERN …

… There was 670 kms to travel in order to reach home. By the time I’d done a day’s driving, there is all of 520 kms left to travel and I’m about 10 kms from Zurich airport.

You might wonder how this could possibly be, but it all went wrong about 15 minutes after leaving the hotel. However before I get too far ahead of myself, just as you would expect seeing as how today is the day that I’m moving on, we are having a gorgeous day of clear blue skies and not a cloud in the sky. What a contrast from yesterday when I was walking around in the rain.

So to resume my story, there was a guy in uniform stopping the traffic and interrogating the drivers. Some he was allowing to continue, and others he was directing elsewhere. When it came to my turn he asked me where I was going. When I replied “France”, we had quite an interesting and lengthy discussion of which I caught about one word in 20, but enough to discover that there had been a landslide in the mountain pass that I needed to take. He recommended a diversion over another mountain pass that involved a detour of about 60kms.

Off I said and eventually found myself on a Swiss autoroute – without a vignette of course because I had no intention of driving on the autoroutes here. Realising my mistake I took the next exit, where there was of course a police barrage. Having dealt with that, and luckily the police didn’t notice the absence of vignette, I took the wrong turning at the roundbout and ended up climbing up the side of a mountain.

This turned out to be a dead end, after a drive of 12kms, but at the far end of the car park is one of the best views that I have ever had – 1700-odd metres up in the Alps. The Walensee is down there at the bottom of the valley and way, way in the distance is Lake Zurich.

It was such a gorgeous view and such a lovely day that I sat there for a couple of hours and read a book, being joined for a while by a group of old ladies out for a walk


That took me up to lunchtime quite nicely and so I descended the mountain and found a bakery where I bought myself a loaf.

Next stop was at a layby by the side of the Walensee with a mainline railway line just below me. Here I stopped and made myself a butty and read another book, watching the trains go by. After all, it was far too hot to drive anywhere by now. The temperature was registering 34°C

Heading off towards Zurich I hit the start of the rush-hour traffic and it was stop-start for about 15kms and that got me fed up in the heat.

Looking around for a diversion, I noticed a ferry going across the Lake. As you know by now, I can’t resist a ferry at any time, and in this heat there was no question of anything else.

It was gorgeous on the water with a cool breeze blowing, and it was a shame that the crossing came to an end. Mind you, the traffic had calmed down a little and negotiating the streets of Zurich wasn’t quite as difficult as it might have been.

On the western edge of the city I came across a motel and here I am. A whole day and just 150 kms closer to home. It’ll take me a week to get home at this rate.

-1

Wednesday 2nd July 2014 – THERE MUST HAVE BEEN QUITE EXCITING TIMES …

rheinstadion vaduz national stadium liechtenstein… at football matches in Liechtenstein in the past if the sign here at the National Stadium is anything to go by.

Who in their right mind would have gone to a football match in the past with a knife, a pair of knuckle dusters, a rocket launcher and a firearm? Not even a Millwall fan I suspect (“and of course, this is three years before Bala Town were drawn to play here in a Europa League match” he added in 2017).

Still, they wouldn’t have put this notice up if they hadn’t had any issues with these in the past. That’s why I reckon that it must have been quite exciting to have watched a match here.

rheinstadion vaduz national stadium liechtensteinNever mind the football – come here to watch the spectators.

And you have a nice stadium to do it in too. It’s quite modern and comfortable, currently undergoing refurbishment too, and which has a capacity (following the renovations) of 7838.

“Not a lot” you might be thinking. But then again, the population of the town is all of 5429 at the last count, so the inhabitants can have about 1.4 seats each.

liechtenstein bus vaduz bendern sargans vaduzSo in the pouring rain I crossed the road from Ze Gasthof zum Deutschen Rhein to the bus stop and here’s the bendy bus that brought me into the city of Vaduz. I’m becoming quite adept now at public transport in strange lands.

However, in contrast to everywhere else I’ve been (except the UK of course), I’ll be passing an adverse comment about the bus fare. Despite the minimal sales tax of 8% here in Liechtenstein, it was still CHF4:80 each way.

And it wasn’t just the bus fare either. A pot of coffee cost CHF7:80 and two tomatoes cost CHF1:00. Liechtenstein is definitely not the place to be if you are on a limited budget like Yours Truly.

Mind you, this is one of the richest countries in the world with the second-highest standard of living and the lowest amount of income tax so I suppose that the people can afford it.

vaduz liechtensteinSo I ambled around the town in the pouring rain and, believe me, it doesn’t take long because there isn’t very much of the town to see. My memories of the place from October 1988 were that it was just two roads – into the centre on one road, do a loop around at the far end, and back out on the other.

It’s very different today because one of the roads has been pedestrianised. So there’s just one road through the town today. And there’s a fair bit of traffic trying to negotiate it.

royal castle vaduz liechtensteinAnd Nerina wouldn’t recognise the place either from those days as many of the old buildings that I remember have been ruthlessly carved down and modern monstrosities built in their place.

The royal palace is still perched up there on its cliff, and that is a surprise seeing all of the other changes around here. I would have expected that to have gone too.

Mind you, I wonder what Prince Hans-Adam II, the ruler of the Principality of Liechtenstein, has to say about the changes to his view of the city from the terraces up there.

government offices vaduz liechtensteinWhen they built the Government offices at the beginning of the 20th Century they made a good effort to try to keep something of the Medieval traditions. Today however, there is not even a pretence.

Having “done” the city I went for a walk out of town to the River Rhine. It’s not very far, even in the pouring rain. Formerly the river ran in a meandering course much closer to the city but a disastrous flood in 1860 caused the inhabitants to divert the river away from the city and reinforce the banks.

covered bridge river rhine switzerland vaduz liechtensteinCanada might well have a preponderance of covered bridges as we all know, but Europe has its share too. I saw one at Lech the other day, and here’s one crossing the Rhine.

By the way – on the other side of the river is Switzerland. So the border is clearly defined. In other places it isn’t, and the Swiss Army has “invaded” Liechtenstein 3 times “by mistake” in recent times.

And why didn’t the Liechtenstein Army fight back? The answer is that it doesn’t have an army (that’s why taxes are so low). Well, it does. It consists of two men – one to fire the rifle and the other one to ask for the bullet back.

By the way, Liechtenstein is one of the smallest countries in Europe. The Papal Enclave is certainly smaller (we were there in 2000 if you remember) and it’s quite possible that San Marino is too.

interior cathedral vaduz liechtensteinAnother thing that is quite surprising for a capital city is that it was not until the last 20-25 years that Vaduz became a city in the traditional sense of the term when the parish church was consecrated as a Cathedral. And it’s certainly one of the smallest cathedrals that I’ve ever been in.

Another claim to fame that the city possesses – or maybe doesn’t possess – is that it is probably the only capital city in the developed world that possesses neither a railway station nor an airport. You have to fly in to Switzerland or Austria and catch a bus.

Anyway, that was my trip to Vaduz and, soaking wet, I caught the bus back to the hotel.

And the verdict on Vaduz? Frankly, Nantwich has much more to offer. Not that that’s any surprise either. Nantwich has a population of about 12,000 if I remember correctly. Vaduz has less than half of that and is probably the smallest capital city in the world.

It’s a fact that there are more Limited Companies registered in Vaduz than there are inhabitants.

-3

Tuesday 1st July 2014 – THERE’S ONE THING ABOUT MOUNTAIN AIR …

… and that I was out like a light at 22:00. Didn’t feel a thing at all. And I slept until about 06:30. And I was busy too during the night. I can’t remember where I was (it might have been Electricity Street in Crewe) but I was working for some organisation that was doing something with the public and while our office still stayed in the same place, our job of interacting with the public meant that we had to go to the local shopping precinct that was 25 minutes away on a tram.

We needed a girl to come with us and we asked one of them but she was proving to be difficult. She said that she couldn’t possibly be ready for a 09:00 start as she didn’t arrive at the office until 08:30. I explained about the 25 minute tram ride and how not only were your travelling expenses reimbursed but so was your travelling time, but she was still being difficult about it.

hotel post trafoi alto adige south tyrol ItalySo wide awake, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed I went down to breakfast. And on leaving I was presented with the bill for my evening meal, room and breakfast.

For my three-star hotel etc, it came to a total of €60 and so I’ll be stopping here again, that’s for sure. I don’t think that I’ve ever before slept in such comfort at such a price, and made so welcome too.

stelvio pass alto adige south tyrol italyLeaving the hotel, I set out to assail the Stelvio Pass, all 2700-odd metres of it. I’ve never been up it before and so I didn’t know what to expect, and I wasn’t disappointed.

From Trafoi the road zig-zagged up to the summit via a series of hairpin bends. I don’t know how many there were, but I lost count at about 47 and there were still plenty to go.

stelvio pass alto adige south tyrol italyThe road itself dates from just after the Napoleonic War when Austria had possession of some territory south of the Pass and needed a road to connect with it. Although there have been many improvements to the road since those days, the actual trace of the road is still the same and that’s something that is quite astonishing.

Mind you, it’s not easy to see how else they could do it.

bus stelvio pass alto adige south tyrol italyNo vehicle longer than 10 metres is permitted on the road and I can’t say that I’m surprised.

This bus here was having quite a struggle upthe hill, not just against the hairpin bends but also against the traffic coming down the hill that, for the most part, refused to give the driver the room to manoeuvre.

caliburn snow 1st july stelvio pass alto adige south tyrol italyThere was plenty of snow at the top of the pass and again, I’m not surprised by that either. We’re at 2700-odd metres of altitude here as I said before, and you may remember that it was snowing in the Tyrol the day before yesterday at half of this altitude.

As an aside, this was once the border between Italy and the Austrian Empire after the reunification of Italy in the 1860s and in World War I there was actually fighting up here at the pass.

Still, Caliburn enjoyed a good wander around in the snow.It’s been a good few weeks since he’s been in it. But who would have expected to have seen him up to his axles in snow on the 1st of July?

Down the hill from the Stelvio Pass there’s a fork in the road and turning right, I’m in Switzerland. Much to my surprise, there’s no border controls here (Switzerland isn’t, of course, in the EU). I suppose they think that if you’ve made the climb all the way up the Stelvio then you deserve the right of entry.

caliburn train under the mountains fluela pass switzerlandIt’s all downhill from here until you need to climb up and over the Fluela Pass to Davos and Klosters. And so what am I doing in a train then? It looks like the Channel Tunnel train but I’m a long way from there.

The simple answer to this is that the Fluela is a pretty desperate road. It takes about 60 or so kilometres and no end of climbing and descending through a series of hairpin bends. However, there’s a 19-kilometre rail tunnel where, for a not-insignificant price, you can make the journey for about a tenth of the time.

It’s a straight road from there to Liechstenstein and the drive there was much easier than finding a hotel. The first hotel that I tried wanted CHF199 for a night and they can forget that. Then there was a whole series of hotels that were closed. Then we had one that was full (no surprise, that) and he referred me to another two – both of which were closed.

gasthof zum deutsches rhein bendern liechtensteinI gave up on the idea of staying for a night in Leichtenstein and headed for the Swiss border. And there, just on the Liechtenstein side of the border I found a hotel. Quite basic but B&B is only CHF70 per night.

And so I’m staying here maybe two nights and tomorrow I’ll go for a bus ride into Vaduz. There’s a bus depot right across the road from here.

0