Liechtenstein, Heididorf, Chur
Liechtenstein is an independent country on the borders between Switzerland and Austria, it is called a Principality rather like Monaco. It has its own government and all new laws have to be passed by the Prince. It shares its currency with Switzerland and also uses euros, in fact when we used our travel card it gave us the option of using NZ$, which was great, it also shares obvious things like rules of the road and seems to make most of its money on tourism and taxes (I hesitate to use the words tax evasion, but it is a tax haven for some).
We had quite a fast trip along the motorway, we are fascinated by the little villages high up in the alps, why? Why would anyone start a farm up there and why would three or four others join them, why are there no boundaries or fences, why are there so few cattle and no sheep to be seen, and yet these alps look manicured, who cuts the grass and why? These little farmlets, and sometimes bigger villages are spaced at intervals of about 12 k. We wondered if back in the day this was the distance a horse and cart could travel before the horse would need resting. Another thought was that the 'King/Prince' wanted his kingdom protected from invaders and perhaps it was a convenient way of protecting the boundaries. Looks like a research project.................
Along with all this medieval talk came a phone call from Julian, back in NZ, and we were on the motorway almost at Liechtenstein and chatted like as if he was on the next room. Such is progress!
We had a problem finding a car park, tried several parking buildings but most of the parks in it were private or business parks, duh? A little more out of town and we were in luck. We walked into town, the buildings were pretty standard Swiss, perhaps not quite as ornate as we had seen elsewhere, and more modern, like a bit 'blocky'. We walked down the centre or promenade of Vaduz (the capital of Liechtenstein) and it was busy and buzzy, lots of souvenir shops, cafes, restaurants, we stopped and browsed, some of these goods included lovely embroidered table cloths, cuckoo clocks, fine wood music boxes and Swiss made watches in all shapes and colours, none of which were 'cheap' but good value, and of course Toblerone in many shapes and forms!
James, Rach and the kids climbed up the path to the castle where there were some lovely views over Vaduz and the Rhine Valley, no visits into the castle of course as the royal (or Princely as it is known) family live there! The castle was built in the 16th century and is a land mark which dominates the city. The Museum and Art Centre is housed in a modern new building, which to me looked just like a big black square with big windows, out of step with the general look of the other buildings. The town hall was impressive with ornaments around the windows and frescos, much more in keeping with the general ambience of the place.
Liechtenstein is very multicultural and we saw many more Asian people than we had seen for sometime, we stopped at a restaurant which could seat the 7 of us - and there weren't many as most of them fill up quickly, and had a choice of Thai food which was such a treat for James et al as it is not something easily found in France, and we hadn't come across much of it on our travels either. David and I stuck with the local food and had a bowl of Goulash soup (full of beef and vegetables) yum and of course some wonderful crispy brown bread.
We were soon heading home and going via Chur so we could tick another one off our list. On the way there were many signs pointing the way to Heidiland. As it was so close we thought we would check it out. Heidiland was in fact a rest stop on the motorway, but it was decorated in a charming Heidi way. We did pop into the information 'shop' and the lady there gave us a brochure on Heididorf which is a large area further down the motorway which has a Heidi Village containing a genuine Heidi house, with walks up the mountain to Grandmothers house, and the smallest post office on Switzerland. As we were now running out of time we pressed on to Chur.
Our first impressions coming into the city was disappointment at the large blocks of high rises on the outskirts, but as this city was probably a feeder for workers on the ski fields I guess we could turn a blind eye. As we got into the city we became more impressed, nice sculptures and fountains, the commercial and business centre was a mix of traditional and modern, but worked well, as ever on 'park alert' we were lucky enough to turn up the right street and found one without too much trouble.
We wandered down into the city centre admiring all the shop windows and peering up at the tall buildings, and spotted a weird wooden construction very colourful but almost an affront to the beautiful Museum building it was next to, we went in and it was a kids playground, so of course that was it for the next 15-20 mins! The children have been so good travelling in the car, they sit quietly in their seats for hours on end and as long as they have got some toys to play with or a DVD to watch they are happy, but they do deserve to have fun at any play park we come across.
We drove home through the Albula Pass, not quite but almost alongside the train journey we took on Monday.
So we arrived home just at the right time for dinner, the children were looking a bit green but soon recovered. Another great day.
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