Last stop before home

The principality of Liechtenstein is the smallest German speaking country in the world; it is landlocked on both sides by high alpine mountain ranges, and at just over 160 square kilometres has a total population of 35,000 According to Wikipedia it is the world's largest producer of sausage casings and false teeth - go figure!

The "capital city", Vaduz, is not actually the biggest town in the country but is still the seat of the national parliament (consisting of 25 members!) and the home of the reigning princely family. Apparently it is also one of the very few capital cities in the world without an airport or railway station.

Vaduz is an extremely compact and very neat little town, but for such a small town has alot of art! The dark block-like museum of modern art dominates the centre of town, and everywhere you walk there are sculptures, including a piece from that famous Colombian artist Botero. Liechtenstein is also famous for postage stamps, so of course Vaduz has a museum dedicated to those miniature works of art!

The most prominent landmark of Vaduz however is the Vaduz Castle. It remains the home of the princely family and is visible from almost everywhere in town, being perched atop a steep hill in the middle of the city. The castle is not open to visitors and the flag was flying when we were there, meaning the Prince was at home!

Being situated between 2 mountain ranges means everywhere you go in Liechtenstein is up, up and up. But what goes up must come down! We also made a visit to Liechtenstein's one and only ski village of Malbun (if you say it quickly enough it sounds like ... Melbourne !) Vaduz lies at an altitude of just over 700 metres and Malbun at 1,600 metres and with just 15 kilometres between the two that road was pretty steep! And the road literally ends in Malbun, there is nowhere else to go except turn around and go back down again.

Although not the cheapest place we have ever been, Liechtenstein was well worth the quick visit; and we now have yet another weird and wonderful snowdome for our collection ;-)

Alli xxx

Campsite in Liechtenstein

Just like we did in Salzburg on the way to Croatia, we stayed here for 2 nights on the way home.

This was a perfect campsite for a short stopover, not really the place you would stay for more than 2-3 days. And it seems that is what most of the people there in tents and campervans were doing - stopping on their way to somewhere else. The 3 Spanish guys for instance, who were on their way to Poland! Jeroen was gracious enough to congratulate them on Spain's World Cup win ;-) and admitted that Spain was actually better (although he did it with pain in his heart!).

The campsite is right at the foot of a spectacular mountain which always seemed to have threatening clouds hanging over it. We almost didn't stop here in Liechtenstein because the weather forecast was not very positive. We eventually decided to stop here anyway and were very lucky - got the tent up and managed to finish BBQing JUST before an amazingly heavy rain storm passed over. It rained almost all night, washing all the dust and bird shit of the previous 3 weeks off the tent :-)

Seems the campsite is also popular with more permanent guests who have literally built their caravans into small chalet-type constructions, complete with wood burning fireplaces, satellite tv, and bathroom/kitchen. The area is hugely popular for walking, cycling, and skiing so I guess there are people who take advantage of it all year round.

Alli xxx

Searching for the real Heidi

On our way from Lake Garda to our last stop in Liechtenstein we passed through Switzerland, and just before crossing the border to Liechtenstein, we noticed a sign along the highway pointing to "Heididorf" (Heidi village !).

I was VERY curious if this actually had anything to do with that beloved literary creation of Johanna Spyri so we drove back there the following day. And guess what? Heididorf (better known as Maienfeld) is THE village featured and named in the Heidi books and was where Heidi, Peter and Clara lived!! Apparently Johanna Spyri spent several summers in and around Maienfeld in the years between 1845 and 1852 and was inspired by the beauty of the surrounding area.

Wandering through the charming little village you are transported back in time, and I can imagine that it still looks the same as it did when Heidi "lived" there :-) You can visit the original Heidi house, but the highlight for most people is the "experience path". This path leads from Heidi's village up to the very alpine meadow where she spent her summers with her grandfather, Peter and the goats!

There are 12 stops along the way; each stop relates back to an event in the book and includes an excerpt of text on a board - stops include the Little Bear & Little Swan natural spring where they always stopped for a refreshing drink on the way up the mountain; the spot where Alm-Uncle collected his firewood; a view to the Eagle's Nest; Peter's place; the tree house; and the last stop is Heidi's alpine meadow itself. With no food or water with us, and wearing flip flops as footwear, we only made it to Peter's place before deciding it was probably better to turn back instead of risking bad weather higher up! Still got to see Heidi's house though :-)

Oh and it's true, the cows in Switzerland really DO wear bells! As we wandered up the hill towards the alpine meadow the romantic tinkling of cowbells drifted through the air :-)

Alli xxx

Sirmione

Yet another fairytale-looking village on the shores of Lake Garda - this time the village within the castle walls of Sirmione.

If you look closely at the map here you can see a small peninsula jutting out into the southern end of the lake, that's Sirmione !

It was a pretty hot afternoon to be wandering around in the sun, and the seemingly countless gelati/ice cream shops were doing a roaring business. Have never actually seen so many ice cream shops in such a small area!

Alli xxx