This is going to be a very short post, probably about as short as my time in Liechtenstein. If you’re here for pictures though, I got you. The quick day trip from Zurich, Switzerland to Vaduz, Liechtenstein was strictly a ‘let me visit a next country real quick’ situation. This would be country #2 out of the eight I was going to visit during my 12-days of shenanigans through Europe.
The day trip I had booked on Viator would take me on a scenic tour through farmlands in Switzerland, to a one-hour visit in Liechtenstein and then finish it off with seeing Heidiland. You can find the tour here, if you’re ever interested in doing this adventure as well.
I started the morning with getting a pretzel that had cheese in the middle at the main station in Zurich. It was delicious, and it was cheap*. (*consider this an unusual phenomenon while in Zurich) After that I walked over to the parking lot area near the station to meet up with the tour group. There are a lot of buses in this area for various tours, so make sure you find the correct one that you signed up for.
Once you find your tour, they will most likely put a sticker with a specific colour/number on you so you can be identified for the duration of the trip among the rest of the tours. Then you’re off! The big bus starts moving and you have a tour guide explaining in 2-3 languages about what you’re seeing. I was lucky because our tour guide was awesome and had a great sense of humour so it wasn’t boring at all.
We drove through some pretty picturesque places on the way to Liechtenstein. On the one stop we were in a little town (Rapperswil) with cobblestone streets that had a medieval church overlooking the center of it. Looked as pretty as it did creepy at the time. But you know what the best part of this city was? There was this INCREDIBLE pasta place I ran into (Marco’s Pasta Bar) before the bus left for the next part of the journey. The owner/chef would actually prepare the pasta in the middle of the restaurant (I love seeing my food made) and the portion size? MASSIVE. If you ever do this tour or end up in Rapperswil, you must go eat at this restaurant.
From Rapperswil we made our way to Liechtenstein finally. The tour actually spent more time in the little city than it did in this country. There is no actual border when entering the place and most of the ride there our guide told us about how the tax breaks are so great in Liechtenstein and that is why many corporations have offices there. Great. I’m too broke for this shit anyways.
So because there is no border, how the hell are you supposed to get your passport stamp right? Well. When you enter the city there are a bunch of tourist offices and if you pay $3 Euros/Swiss Francs they’ll stamp your passport for you. I definitely did that and so did most of the people on the bus with me.
I don’t really have much else to tell you about Vaduz, Liechtenstein because…… I’ve seen high school campuses that are bigger than this country? I walked to the left. I walked to the right. There was a tree, there were very nice cars, a huge watch shop and some skating rink. Then we left. That was literally the time spent in Liechtenstein.
Another 30 minutes of scenic driving and we arrived at Heidiland. You may have heard of this place from stories where you were a kid about that blonde girl named Heidi living in the Swiss Alps. Well this place is named after her. We posed for some pictures, drank from a natural spring and kept it moving. It was literally a stop in a park.
The bus made it’s way back to Zurich after this and we lived happily ever aft…. kidding. Mans just headed home as the night fell, and trust me, night falls super early in Switzerland during winter.
That was it, that was how I found my way to Liechtenstein and paid for a passport stamp. Now I have been to the world’s smallest country (Vatican City) as well as the fourth smallest country, Liechtenstein. San Marino and Monaco, I’m coming for you next!
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Mirna
