Toussaint Holiday- Vaduz

Vaduz Castle, which overlooks the city.

On Friday, we woke up and caught a bus to Vaduz, Liechtenstein.  Liechtenstein is the fourth smallest principality in Europe, at 25km by 6km. Upon arrival, we checked out the tourist office, where we picked up a city map and got souvenir stamps in our passports for two euros apiece.

Sheep in the royal vineyards.

We first set out to pick up a few bottles of Liechtenstein wine as gifts, something I had done myself when I was there about five years ago.  On our way there we passed a few sheep grazing in the royal vineyards.  While most were skittish, this one to the left was rather bold and hung around to check us out.  We got a few bottles of wine in the Hofkellerei des Fürsten von Liechtenstein, the Princely Wine Cellar, and headed back towards town through the vineyards.

Leah, overlooking the city.

We then headed up the mountain towards Vaduz Castle.  Although the castle itself is closed to the public, the hike up there afforded us some great views of the city and surrounding mountains, as well as placards that taught us all about the history of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, and the royal family.  After that, we came back down the mountain and checked out the rest of the city, including the cathedral and the princely vault, the burial place for the royal family.

In planning this trip, we had originally intended to spend two days in Vaduz, but decided not to because of the high cost of lodging.  I'm happy with the decision we made, because as pretty as Vaduz and Liechtenstein are, I don't think we could have spent two days there.  There just isn't that much to do.  I'm glad that we split up our time between Feldkirch and Vaduz.

As usual, the rest of these photos are available here.

Toussaint Holiday- Feldkirch

Wolves in the WildPark.

After visiting Luzern, Switzerland, we got on a train and headed East to Feldkirch, Austria, a small border town near Liechtenstein.  We arrived at our hostel around 7 PM, and after some delay, got checked in and settled.  We then proceeded to have dinner at a Chinese place next door to the hostel, played cards for a bit, and went to bed.  The next day, we woke up early and hiked to the 'WildPark', a wild animal preserve near our hostel.  They had a number of animals housed there, including lynx, deer, and the local wolves, Pepe and Inga.

Riding bikes along the river.

We then went back to the hostel, ate leftover Chinese, and rented bikes from the hostel.  We rode them uptown, to the town center, where there was a pedestrian only zone and plenty of shopping.  The river, as you can see to the left, was a striking shade of blue.  We followed the river for quite a while, and it never changed color.  Although I meant to ask the hostel owner why that was the case, I forgot to, and it remains a mystery to this day.

We rode along the river for about two hours, leaving Feldkirch and riding through some smaller towns and countryside on our way.  We were rewarded with some amazing views of the Austrian Alps, traditional chalets and expansive valleys on our ride.  We turned back when we got tired, and headed back to the city.  On our way back, we stopped by Schattenburg, a castle built around 1218 that overlooks the city.

The view from Schattenburg.

That evening, we came back uptown to eat dinner at a pizzeria that we passed earlier in the day.  We were very pleasantly surprised by the place.  It was a very nice, upscale restaurant with a nice ambiance and really reasonable prices.  For comparison, we paid about 9 euros each at a kebab shop in Luzern, and in Feldkirch, we each got a great dish for less than 7 euros each.

All in all, we were quite impressed with Feldkirch.  We set upon it because lodging in Vaduz, Liechtenstein was too expensive, but it proved to be a great destination in itself.

The rest of the photos from this day can be see here.

Toussaint Holiday- Luzern City

The Lion of Lucerne

On day two, we woke up early and explored Luzern before catching an afternoon train over to Feldkirch, Austria.  On our way to drop our bags at the train station, we stopped by the Lion of Lucerne, a monument to the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 in the French Revolution.  Mark Twain remarked in 1880 that the monument was "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."  The monument is enormous, at around 18 feet tall and 30 feet long.

Church of St. Leodegar

After that, we went by the church of St. Leodegar.  The church was enormous, covering roughly a whole city block.  Inside, there were gorgeous scenes wrought in gold, a grand pulpit, and intricate works carved in wood.  Outside, the entire church was surrounded by burial plots of the priests and nuns that had served at the church, some dating back to the 1600s.  Because they didn't really have a lot of space, some of these plots are buried four deep.  It's an interesting solution to a space problem, and one that seems to work still, since we saw grave markings from the 2000s there.


After wandering around the city center for a while, we eventually found our way to the ramparts, the wall that surrounded the old city.  They had a few of the towers and a section of the wall open to the public, and the view of the city from the top was amazing.

The view from the ramparts

As usual, the rest of the photos in this album are available here.  And I will post the rest of the trip soon, I just need a few minutes to get my computer to stop acting up...

Toussaint Holiday- Mount Pilatus, Luzern

The view from Mount Pilatus

Last week, Leah had a vacation from work, so we went on a last-minute vacation through Switzerland, to Austria and back through Liechtenstein.

We had thought about going to Paris, but that proved to be too expensive.  Long-distance travel in France proves costly if it's not arranged in advance.  Switzerland, on the other hand, is not so bad.

Initially, we had planned on going through Zurich to Vaduz, Liechtenstein and spending two days in each town, but there were no reasonable accommodations available in either city.  So Zurich changed to Luzern, and we decided to stay in Feldkirch, Austria for two nights and see Vaduz on the day we returned to France.  That turned out to be the better choice.

Leah at the peak of Mt. Pilatus

 On day one, we woke up at 5 AM to catch the train out of Obernai to Basel, Switzerland, and from there to Luzern.  We arrived in Luzern at about 10 AM and stopped at the tourist office to check out Mount Rigi, which is one of the Alps near Luzern.  Turned out we needed to arrive about two hours earlier, since Mt. Rigi is a 5-6 hour day trip, and it would likely be two hours before we could get back uptown after stopping at the hostel.  So, we decided to check out Mt. Pilatus, a slightly smaller mountain right in Luzern's backyard.

The world's steepest cog railway: 48% grade!

In order to get there, we had to take the world's steepest cog railway to the top (we could have hiked, but that was a serious hill).  The railway has a 48% grade!  It felt like being on a roller coaster the whole way up; it was that steep.  After roughly 40 minutes heading up, we arrived at the top and were immediately amazed by how far we could see.  There were dozens of peaks, lakes, and small towns visible from the top.  Then I looked at the map and found that we weren't even at the top!  There was a hiking trail that led off into the distance that led to the summit of the mountain.  So of course we wandered down it.  It sent us past some harrowing cliffs and amazing overlooks, and in the end, one of the most amazing views I can recall from the top of a mountain. 

There are a lot more photos of that day here.  And for day two, Luzern city, click here.