Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Sept 25, 2012

Today started with the sun shining gloriously, with a forecast for clouds in the afternoon.

So the debate was whether to do a nice flat walk through a nice forest just outside of Bregenz, or go where the views might be magnificent, to wit, back to Liechtenstein. We had downloaded GPS tracks for some trails there. They all hinted at perhaps substantial elevation. But the possibility of great views won out over the probability of knee pain. I'll give you one guess as to who made the decision! I guess my knees don't speak loudly enough...

When we got to Vaduz, the capital city, we found a parkade, but the signs all said that the maximum stay was 3 hours, and we figured on maybe 5-6 hours for the hike that we were planning. But we ended up chatting with a policeman a couple of cars down from ours in the parkade, and he said it would be ok. In the end, we decided to shorten the hike somewhat, aiming to get back to the car within the 3 hour period. The other reason for shortening the hike was, not surprisingly, to eliminate some of the elevation change that we were experiencing!

The round trip was slighly over 6 kms. And the elevation change was about 250 m, most of it in the first kilometer. On the first part, we were actually walking on roads, and cringing at the thought of going up or down them in the middle of winter. They were really steep roads. And mainly cobblestone, which we figured at least helped with traction.

Anyway, here are a couple of Google Earth shots of our track. The first is the view from above.

And the second is a tilted view, generally from the west. Notice that the town is pretty well flat, and then the mountain starts. And that's where we were.

During most of the hike, we were in a forest, surrounded by trees. But we did get a couple of good shots of the city below and mountains to the west (in Switzerland) early on.

After that, the trail looked like these two shots. Notice how the trail is cut out of the side of the hill in the second photo below.

The featured sight on this hike was the castle. It is the permanent residence of the Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein, and so you cannot see what it is like inside.

First, a couple of shots of an informational sign.

And some shots of the castle, including an I-was-here shot. Notice, on the 4th photo, the incredibly thick walls - maybe 6 feet thick.

Liechtenstein is apparently populated by wealthy people. We did see a whole lot of 3-piece suits in the city.

But I was just a bit surprised at this biffy, miles from anywhere. From the outside, it looked like any out-in-the-country potty-for-hikers. But inside - well, that's a reasonably high-quality floor there.

And now for some nature. I hope this shot of a spider in her cobweb comes through clearly for you. The folks at National Geographic would undoubtedly have done a better job. But this does show the sun shining on the cobweb.

A couple of snails.

A couple of flowers.

And some berries.

And now, for something a bit unusual. I guess if you have a lot of money, you can afford the most interesting architecture for your residence. Either that, or the architect had just gotten out of architecture school. Years ago, I remember hearing that you should only hire an architect if he has already done 2 projects. The reasoning was that for his first project, he would be a bit too timid and conservative, but for his second project, he would toss all of his timidity and conservativism out the window, and design something incredibly grandiose and over-the-top. And for his third and subsequent projects, he would settle in between those extremes. So I think that this was a "second project".

After our hike, it was lunch time, so I partook of what is probably not the national dish of Liechtenstein: burger and fries. After a bit of shopping for a souvenir (we were amazed to find that there were more Swiss items in the souvenir store than Liechtenstein items), we headed northward back to Bregenz.

Where my knees are recovering.

It might rain tomorrow, my knees hope.