Day 64 - Learning about Liechtenstein

Annoyingly the LLL (low level lurgi, for those who haven’t learnt my lingo yet) was very much still with me today, but nothing was going to stop me achieving a long-held ambition to visit Liechtenstein.

After a quick breakfast (I may have pressed snooze on my alarm a few times), I found the bus conveniently right outside my hotel. There is no train station actually in Vaduz, Liechtenstein’s capital city, so I enjoyed a nice Alpine bus journey instead.

It would be fair to say that Vaduz does not give capital city vibes - which is probably unsurprising given that it has a population of under 6000 people - but it does have a Postal museum, which perhaps unsurprisingly, was the first place I went.

Essentially the free museum was just an opportunity to admire lots of historical stamps. There were many that I enjoyed - these are some of my favourites:

I did then choose a postcard to send to my Global Politics class at Haileybury - imagine my frustration when the cashier put the stamp on upside down - and the stamp was also a rather… interesting… piece of artwork.

With AdLabs as my guide, I then walked to see some of the other sights of Vaduz, including the Cathedral of St Florin, the town hall, and government building. I was also able to get a couple of geocaches, which was obviously necessary to tick off another country!

I then had a break for lunch. It was hot today - about 30°C - so cooling off was definitely necessary, especially as I emotionally prepared myself for the climb up to Vaduz Castle.

To be fair, whilst the castle did look a long way up, there were interesting information boards to read as you went (a.k.a. rest stops!). Did you know that the first mention of the castle in documents was in 1322? Or that it has 130 rooms? How about that Liechtenstein became a sovereign state in 1806, and dissolved its army in 1868? I was starting to really like Liechtenstein until I learnt that women only got the vote in 1984!

Anyway, the views were excellent, and the castle worth seeing up close.

I had hoped that the royals would invite me in for a cuppa, but sadly they didn’t so I walked back down the hill and treated myself to an ice-cream instead.

Feeling quite hot 🥵 and also lurgi-ed, I decided it was then time to get back on the bus to Feldkirch. I was able to shower, and then enjoy a DC (actually, I confess, a Pepsi Max) whilst watching the second half of the women’s rugby World Cup semi final. I am off to find some dinner now, and will be exploring Feldkirch tomorrow.

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