Vaduz

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I'll be honest: the main reason I traveled through Liechtenstein was to be able to say I'd been there, and it happened to be on my route. Liechtenstein is teensy and Vaduz is teensy-weensy, a city of 5,200 people. The city of Schaan is actually a little bigger (still under 6,000), and Schaan is actually where I got off the bus from the Austrian border. I ended up walking to Vaduz.

The weather actually ended up being okay. While it was hazy, the sun was shining, so it wasn't unbearably cold. I followed signs pointing to Vaduz Castle. Finally finding it, I took a few photos, but the princely family actually lives there, so I you can't just wander in. From the castle, I walked down to the the town of Vaduz and saw what there was to see. I went in a souvenir shop, went to the tourist office for a souvenir stamp in my passport and then went to the National Museum. There I learned that Liechtenstein actually used to be a very poor, agricultural country. Only recently did the principality become a wealthy tax haven.

"African King" by Gunther Stilling, 2000
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In the late afternoon, I had Apfelstrudel and coffee at the Ratskeller. The waitstaff wasn't that busy when I arrived, but they got a lot busier, so I had trouble getting their attention to pay. Most Europeans just yell, but I still haven't gotten the hang of that...

Finally, I got on another bus and headed for the Swiss border. In Switzerland, I took a train to Zürich.