Liechtenstein, or Snow in June?
As promised, here is a post on our recent trip to Liechtenstein, where we decided to visit after I remembered that it is one of two doubly land-locked countries in the world (I have already been to the other: Uzbekistan, where I spent a couple of months just before and just after my first deployment to Afghanistan in 2001/2002). Photos to accompany the post at my Flickr stream
The drive down to Liechtenstein was mostly on familiar Autobahnen, as most of the way corresponds to a trip to Mittenwald, in Bavaria, where I have been a few times for winter sports. At the end, though, it slips away from Germany and into Austria, one of the two countries bordering the tiny little principality (in German, Lichtenstein is formally Furstentum Lichtenstein, thus FL on the little European stickers). On the trip down, I mistakenly decided to skip the Austrian toll roads, which put us on side roads through numerous towns, and added over an hour to the trip, as, due to numerous Staus (traffic jams) we hit Austria right at rush hour. Between the Staus and rush hour, the 4.5 hour drive took nearly seven hours, which is far longer than I care to drive. Oh well.
Arriving in Liechtenstein, we quickly left the Rhine valley floor and ascended through several towns, up and up, before arriving in Malbun, where we lodged for three nights. We were amazed to see that it was snowing there, and there was several feet of snow in the high valley, despite arriving in the last week of May! (Erica asked at the restaurant on our final night and learned this is quite unusual, usually the last major snow there was in mid-April, the waitress seemed very tired of the cold.)
The next day, we took off to Vaduz, the capital city, and undertook a small hike up to the royal castle, where the royal family still lives (the castle is closed to visitors, but is quite nice to see, especially from the banks of the Rhine.) The weather was intermittently rainy down on the valley floor, and Erica was still fighting a week-long illness, so we headed back up to the hotel for the afternoon, after a little sightseeing in Vaduz, and lunch at a restaurant overlooking the valley in Triesen.
Upon return to Malbun, where it was still snowing, I dropped Erica off, and headed out for a more ambitous hike of my own. I headed up into the valley, planning to hike up into the snow line, and hopefully reach the Liechtenstein-Austrian border (almost the entirety of that border is steeply mountainous, but there are marked hiking routes just along it.) Unfortunately, the snow was deep enough at that height to hide the trail markings for all but the easy Panoramoweg, so my plan was foiled. I did have a nice hike, still, and saw several Alpine marmots near their burrows, who were clearing the snow from the green grass to forage.
The next day, Friday, we descended again to the valley, and biked for several hours along the Rhine, crossing into Switzerland (just across the river) for the southward trek, and back into Liechtenstein for the return north. Despite the extremely mountainous terrain that covers most of Liechtenstein, the Rhine valley floor is quite flat, which makes for a nice day out, even in the rain. Lunch was more of a challenge on Friday, as we stayed too long on the bicycles, and most of the restaurants there closed at 1400. We found a tourist-friendly spot and had soup and pizza, and I had a taste of one of Lichtenstein's two locally brewed beers, Liechtensteiner Brau (I suspect a good deal of though went into naming the brewery ;)) After lunch, we returned to the hotel and lazed about until dinner (both of us nose deep in our Kindles, absorbing some non-fiction for a change)
Dinner all three nights was at the hotel restaurant (we stayed at the Hotel Turna, which was lovely) as it was highly recommended on booking.com, where I do most of my hotel shopping, and we were quite impressed on the first evening. Food in the area is, unsurprisingly, quite similar to German. The last evening's meal, though, was worth mention, if only because we believe it to be the origin of Denny's popular breakfast skillets. Erica and I both had Rosti Pfanne, I the Alpler Pfanne, and she the Vegetarische Pfanne. In both cases, a skillet came to the table with pan fried hashbrowns covered with onions, Emmental cheese and a fried eggs. Mine also had bacon, Erica's had fresh local vegetables, including mushrooms and white asparagus. We mentioned to the waitress the similarity to a Denny's skillet; she was aghast at the thought of eating something so heavy for breakfast.
The drive down to Liechtenstein was mostly on familiar Autobahnen, as most of the way corresponds to a trip to Mittenwald, in Bavaria, where I have been a few times for winter sports. At the end, though, it slips away from Germany and into Austria, one of the two countries bordering the tiny little principality (in German, Lichtenstein is formally Furstentum Lichtenstein, thus FL on the little European stickers). On the trip down, I mistakenly decided to skip the Austrian toll roads, which put us on side roads through numerous towns, and added over an hour to the trip, as, due to numerous Staus (traffic jams) we hit Austria right at rush hour. Between the Staus and rush hour, the 4.5 hour drive took nearly seven hours, which is far longer than I care to drive. Oh well.
Arriving in Liechtenstein, we quickly left the Rhine valley floor and ascended through several towns, up and up, before arriving in Malbun, where we lodged for three nights. We were amazed to see that it was snowing there, and there was several feet of snow in the high valley, despite arriving in the last week of May! (Erica asked at the restaurant on our final night and learned this is quite unusual, usually the last major snow there was in mid-April, the waitress seemed very tired of the cold.)
The next day, we took off to Vaduz, the capital city, and undertook a small hike up to the royal castle, where the royal family still lives (the castle is closed to visitors, but is quite nice to see, especially from the banks of the Rhine.) The weather was intermittently rainy down on the valley floor, and Erica was still fighting a week-long illness, so we headed back up to the hotel for the afternoon, after a little sightseeing in Vaduz, and lunch at a restaurant overlooking the valley in Triesen.
Upon return to Malbun, where it was still snowing, I dropped Erica off, and headed out for a more ambitous hike of my own. I headed up into the valley, planning to hike up into the snow line, and hopefully reach the Liechtenstein-Austrian border (almost the entirety of that border is steeply mountainous, but there are marked hiking routes just along it.) Unfortunately, the snow was deep enough at that height to hide the trail markings for all but the easy Panoramoweg, so my plan was foiled. I did have a nice hike, still, and saw several Alpine marmots near their burrows, who were clearing the snow from the green grass to forage.
The next day, Friday, we descended again to the valley, and biked for several hours along the Rhine, crossing into Switzerland (just across the river) for the southward trek, and back into Liechtenstein for the return north. Despite the extremely mountainous terrain that covers most of Liechtenstein, the Rhine valley floor is quite flat, which makes for a nice day out, even in the rain. Lunch was more of a challenge on Friday, as we stayed too long on the bicycles, and most of the restaurants there closed at 1400. We found a tourist-friendly spot and had soup and pizza, and I had a taste of one of Lichtenstein's two locally brewed beers, Liechtensteiner Brau (I suspect a good deal of though went into naming the brewery ;)) After lunch, we returned to the hotel and lazed about until dinner (both of us nose deep in our Kindles, absorbing some non-fiction for a change)
Dinner all three nights was at the hotel restaurant (we stayed at the Hotel Turna, which was lovely) as it was highly recommended on booking.com, where I do most of my hotel shopping, and we were quite impressed on the first evening. Food in the area is, unsurprisingly, quite similar to German. The last evening's meal, though, was worth mention, if only because we believe it to be the origin of Denny's popular breakfast skillets. Erica and I both had Rosti Pfanne, I the Alpler Pfanne, and she the Vegetarische Pfanne. In both cases, a skillet came to the table with pan fried hashbrowns covered with onions, Emmental cheese and a fried eggs. Mine also had bacon, Erica's had fresh local vegetables, including mushrooms and white asparagus. We mentioned to the waitress the similarity to a Denny's skillet; she was aghast at the thought of eating something so heavy for breakfast.