Leichtenstein

     At 8:30 on Sunday morning we were in the car headed for Leichtenstein. The main draw to this little country between Switzerland and Austria was just to be able to say we'd been there. How many people can say that they've visited Leichtenstein? Well, now four more people can. The four hour drive went pretty smoothly. Gertrude insisted on taking us through some scenic back roads. I am sure that must be a more direct way to get to Leichtenstein but without a map we just have to go where Gertrude directs. Going through the middle of some of these little towns is more interesting than just the plain old freeway, I guess. Though, when we haven't much time it would be nice just to get to our destination. Anyway, I'm done ranting on that. = ) About half way to Leichtenstein, we drove by the town of Rottweil - I assume this is the homeland of the Rottweiller dog. A little while later, we suddenly found ourselves in Switzerland. (I keep forgetting that the German word for Switzerland is Schweiz so, though it was posted on road signs that we were getting close, I was still surprised when suddenly, there was the border.) Again, we just drove right in - no border guards in sight.
     Going into Leichtenstein was even easier. There was just a sign on the side of the road. (It still amazes me.) Leichtenstein is a tiny country - only 62 square miles (160 square km) with a population of  about 37,000 people. It is 11 towns including its capital, Vaduz, nestled in the Alps. Standing on one of their mountains you can see both Switzerland and Austria on either side. It is one of only two doubly landlocked countries. (The other is Uzbekistan.)
     It has an interesting history. The Leichtenstein dynasty, from which the country took its name, bought this piece of land purely for political reasons. They were a very wealthy family that owned large amounts of land in Austria and present day Czech Republic. But all of these lands were under more senior feudal lords. In order to have a seat in the Reichstag, the Imperial Parliament. So they purchased the lordship of Schellenburg and the county of Vaduz. These territories had no other who had claim to the land except for the Holy Roman Emperor. So the Leichtensteins got a seat in the parliament in 1719. But no one of the royal family set foot on Leichtenstein for almost 100 years after that. Napoleon swept in 1806 and much of the Holy Roman Empire come under his control. When that empire dissolved 1813, Leichtenstein suddenly didn't owe anyone allegiance. In World War I they were closely tied to Austria (probably because they spent much of their time in Vienna) but in World War II they stayed neutral and became closely tied to Switzerland. That bond remains today. The reigning prince of Leichtenstein, Hans-Adam II is the first reigning prince to be born in Leichtenstein. (He is also 1,305th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Austria.) He has a grandson about Piper's age . . .
     Okay, enough history. Here's the pictures.

Mountains in the distance as we near Leichtenstein

The Alps of Leichtenstein

Vaduz Castle, where the prince and his family live

      Our first stop was the tourist information. We got our passports stamped as proof of our visit and picked up a few brochures and a map. We also found some pre-stamped postcards (we had to add another stamp to get it over the Atlantic) so we picked up a couple of those. Then it was lunch time so we found a restaurant and got some food.

Writing postcards while we wait

Our lunch

    Then we browsed a very over priced tourist shop and made our way to the Postage Stamp Museum. It was all in German, but we enjoyed looking at the hundreds of stamps Leichtenstein has made in the  last 100 years.

Taran tries on an Alpine herder's hat

At the Postage Stamp Museum, the kids made their own postage stamp postcard.

There were a lot of stamps.

I mean, A LOT of stamps.

     We next went to get a closer look at the Prince's castle. It, like most castles, has some very old parts and some newer parts. The oldest parts, including the tower, were built in the 12th century. The Leichenstein family did extensive restoration in the early 20th century and it has been their primary residence since 1938.

View of castle from town

Another cool building nearby

Behind castle

View of Leichtenstein from just above castle

     Since the princely family (that's what they call them there) still lives in the Vaduz Castle, we couldn't go in. We decided to find a castle we could go in - Schellenburg Castle (admittedly less royal looking since it is now in ruins but funner for at least one of our group). But we weren't sure where it was and Gertrude wasn't much help. So we drove around the area we thought it was in and then Andrew asked so people walking by for directions. We were actually very close - right in the parking spots below the castle but we couldn't see it because of the trees surrounding the ruins. It was a quick hike up and we spent the next hour or so climbing around the ruins. This castle was built in the 12th century and inhabited until 16th century when it was abandoned and left to fall apart.

The mountain goat comes out in the boys in places like this.

Piper explored every nook and cranny, planning out the restoration.

Climbing to the castle's highest point

Almost there.

They made it!

Piper in the doorway of "her room"

Sitting on the wall of "Taran's room"

The view from the castle

Bridge over the moat

     There was a scenic spot just on the other side of the trees surrounding the castle where we sat and ate our picnic supper. The view was so majestic that I didn't want to leave.

The mountains in the background are in Austria

Beautiful, isn't it?

    But we had a long drive back to Bruchsal, so we tore ourselves away and went back to the car.

Looking up at the ruins from the trail

Fountain next to parking lot - there are many of these scattered everywhere

The chickens recognized a former chicken care giver.

    Before starting out, we tried to find out if we could get home quicker by adjusting Gertrude. Unfortunately, we found she was already set to go the fastest route. We did find that she was set to avoid tunnels so we took that off - who knows - maybe she took us a longer route to avoid a tunnel. We got rolling and Gertrude directed us down some of the narrowest two-way roads I've ever seen, right on the side of a hill! With no guard rail! We survived that and suddenly found ourselves in Austria! Just a little sign in German to mark the change. We drove through Austria for a little while.

I love mountains.

     Then we drove through one of the longest tunnels I've ever been in. It went right through a mountain. We had no chance at holding our breath through that tunnel. But we tried. = ) We made it back to Bruchsal considerably faster than the trip to Leichtenstein. So maybe allowing tunnels did help speed up the trip . . . that and Andrew took advantage of the no speed limit on the Autobahn. He reached a top speed of 181 km/hour - that 112 miles per hour! We were flying along. It made 100 km/hr (62 mile/hr) seem like crawling along.

      So ended another adventure filled European weekend. = )