The bus dropped us off and we wandered around a bit. We walked past the castle just as the lights were starting to come on. It's such a pretty site at night.  We found lodging at the Landhaus Prasch Hotel Garni. A nice little place along our path. After unpacking, we were getting really hungry and struck out for something to eat. We came across an inn that had a warm glow coming from the windows. It was perfect and inviting. We ordered and had ourselves a couple Meminger beers to help recap the days events.  An after dinner stroll brought us back to the hotel, where we hoisted a couple more out of the mini bar. It was a good day. Tommorrow Austria.

We were staying in Vaduz over night and happened upon the charming looking hotel. Well manicured hedges and flower boxes full of colorful blooms hanging from the balconies, welcomed us from the street. We weren't disappointed inside either. The rooms were comfortable and clean. Contemporary wood furnishings and comfy beddings made the room feel home-like. The balcony view was wonderful as well. You could see the mountains to on side and a friendly row of white houses down the other. A continental breakfast greated us the next morning. Quite a nice experience.

We left Switzerland for just a little while, to go into Liechtenstein, one of the smallest countries in Europe.  I think it might be the fourth smallest, after the Vatican City, Andorra and Monacco.  Upon telling people from home that I was going there, they didn't believe it existed, seriously.  I had to buy them maps when I was there to prove its existence! I kid you not.

We weren't even in the capital - Vaduz, for that long.  It's lovely but there isn't that much to see, on account of it being so small.  From what I can remember, it's basically made up of one main street, with a couple of smaller streets jutting off of it.  I bought a cardigan from what I'm sure must have been the most expensive Esprit in the world, but I had no desire to relive the nightmare of the cold of the cuckoo experience, so I spent like 60 euro on a cardigan, funfun...

Hehe, I got my passport stamped with a Liechtenstein stamp!  It was the very first stamp in my new passport because hardly any European countries stamp it because most of them, like Britain, are in the EU, or something similar to that?  Oh and I had kaffee in this adorable little cafe, caramel coffee, it was delicious!

My sister had to work early, so I could also leave early to make a trip somewhere. I didn’t know where I would go, but I like it that way. I took the map and figured out that I know the east-side of Austria if you take Innsbruck as central point. Because I go for winter sport there every year. So I thought it would be nice to go west this time. Jippiyahooo, jippijahee!! ;- )

More than 10 years ago I visited the very small country ‘Liechtenstein’ with my parents, but I didn’t know too much of it, so I decided to visit it again, now alone because Elise had to work again. I took the highway but decided to go off, when I could choose between a tunnel or a pass. A pass is a road through the lowest point between two mountains. I took the pass, because you had to pay €8,50 for the tunnel, and I thought it would be nicer the take to route between the mountains. And it was beautiful but cold! I drove on to the bundesland of ‘Voralberg’. By Feldkirch I crossed over the border. I was in Liechtenstein again! Quite different than I remembered, but it was more than 10 years ago, so that was quite logical. I drove to the capital ‘Vaduz’ and I noticed that all the children were wearing reverberating jackets so they were noticed in the traffic. On clear daylight! Well, I think it’s a good way to protect your children. I guess the Liechtensteiners are careful for the few children they have. By every crosswalk there were adults standing to hold the cars driving by. I drove to the old castle of Vaduz what I wanted to visit. But as turned out, it was a private residence… very nice house ;-). I drove on to a village called ‘Triesenberg’. I came there with the up-road, not the one in the valley. That’s something I recommend. Beautiful! A very small road going right through the forest. Well and after that I basically took the same way back (this time through all the tunnels) because of the time. Again early to bed, so I could get up early the next day for my biggest passion…

Got bored this morning and decided I wanted to go for a drive...but where to go?  I've been to almost every city in normal driving distance, and kind of felt like making today's trip something special.  Did a quick distance check and realized that if I left by 9AM, I could be in Vaduz, Liechtenstein around 4PM, and back by Midnight.  I can do that...I've done worse before...so off I went!

Drove down via A67->A61->A6->A5->A8->A7->A96->A13 with some local roads in between in Switzerland.  Arrived just on time, at 4PM (better than planned in fact as I had a delay at the start to put some oil in the car ... thanks Avis!...and had some traffic jams due to construction).

I got a stern look from customs as I drove into Switzerland itself, but no troubles there.  Was a great border crossing on small town roads, not the big highway traffic jam you get when crossing in at Basel.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I saw was not at all what I expected!  Liechtenstein is a very small country.  Switzerland officially ends at the Rhine river to the east, but Austria does not begin until you cross the mountains on the east of the Rhine.  Liechtenstein is the area on the East bank of the Rhine up to the mountains.  There is an open border between Liechtenstein and Switzerland...I guess you can only get in via Switzerland. 

The city, well, town of Vaduz is quite small.  There is a nice center area, from the Cathedral on one end to the area around Town hall on the other end.  Overlooking it all is Vaduz Castle.  You cannot go into the castle itself as the Prince still lives there, but you can walk along a path towards the castle which is supposed to offer great views of the Alps.  I did not have time to do this walk today, but will try to go back another day to see the view and spend more time.

In the center, there are numerous restaurants and pubs that were all quite busy, it looks like a fun place to hang out, have a drink and watch the Alps on the west of the Rhine, and Paragliders coming over Vaduz castle.

For 2-Euros, you can get a passport stamp at the tourist information booth as well, for those who want to prove they were there.

Well I finally made it to Lichtenstein...

Yesterday was mostly a travel day, nothing much exciting happened. I drove from Bayeux back to Le Mans, and returned the rental car surprisingly intact.  :-)  From there it was a train to Paris, and then onto Switzerland.

As I was waiting for the Swiss train at the Paris Est station, I noticed the departures board was flashing “Supremiea” or something like that for my train. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it didn’t sound too bad.  Well, after asking at the information desk it turns out that it means CANCELED.  Doh!  

My first class sleeping berth on a non-stop night train turned into a second class 6 bunk couchette, and 4 train changes, one of which was at 5am in a VERY cold and empty Strasbourg station.  Needless to say I was a little tired when I finally arrived in Switzerland at 11:30am the next morning.

My friend Sacha (who used to work for my company) picked me up at the Sargans station in Switzerland and drove me to his place in Lichtenstein. I had forgotten how beautiful the Switzerland area is, and I found my neck was getting cramped from staring up at all the mountains.

I had a quick shower at Sacha’s house, and then we headed up to his parents place in the mountains for lunch. Their house is very nice, but the view is insane. I’ll put a panoramic shot of it in the pictures section, but it doesn’t really do it justice.

After lunch Sacha and I were going to head up to a local ski area and have some coffee at the top of the mountain. Before we left, he took me into the garage and asked me which sled I wanted to use. It turns out that you are allowed to take sleds on the ski-lifts here, and he wanted to race me on the hill.

I picked out a sled with two skis in the back and one in front for steering, it looked a little small but I thought it would be fast enough. Well, in hindsight speed should have been the least of my worries, not getting killed was a much higher priority.

We took the lift to the very top of the mountain, and I noticed that we were getting strange looks from all the skiers/snowboarders as we fought to get the sleds and ourselves onto the lift. I didn’t think too much about it until Sacha informed me on the way up that he had never tried to come down from the very top before, and they didn’t really like you to bring sleds up there.  

Once at the top we had a couple of coffees with schnapps, or should I say schnapps with a dash of coffee. Both of us were getting a little bit tipsy, so of course we decided it would be a good time to sled back down the mountain. The trip down was one of the scariest and most fun things I have ever done.  I’ve sledded down some pretty steep slopes before, but never a double blue ski run with LOTS of very sharp turns and cliffs. I missed a turn at one point and after falling off the sled and skidding on my butt for a couple hundred feet I came within about 3 feet of flying off the edge of a rather large cliff.

After making it back to the bottom in one (soggy) piece, we decided to do something a little more sedate. Sacha took me on a tour around Lichtenstein, where I saw the prince’s castle, and a lot of banks. :-)  I also noticed a lot of people dressed up in crazy costumes and some serious drinking going on.
 
It turns out today was the end of “Carnival” which I had no idea was celebrated in Switzerland. We went out after dinner to a local bar and it was INSANE, but we were both pretty tired and didn’t think it was going to be a very long night.  Well, 8 huge beers latter, some more schnapps and a lot of clapping and singing we realized it was almost 3am and we had better get home.

I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a long day on a few hours of sleep and a swiss style hangover.

gute Nacht