šø ā Vaduz, Liechtenstein
So things got a little randomā¦.
After arriving in ZĆ¼rich, Switzerlandā¦ Maeghan realized how close we were to Liechtenstein (just a short 1 hour bus ride!)
Maeghan has been stoked about the idea of Liechtenstein since she was a teen. She remembers is from a few random moviesā¦ The Princess Diaries and A Knightās Tale to name a few and has always wanted to visit, meaning she had no idea what there was to actually do there, but if itās in the teen movie scene... it has to be cool.
Well, we wanted to do a hike and decided to take the adventure across the border to Liechtenstein and learned a few cool things along the way.
Liechtenstein is tiny and the country has a population of 37,000. Itās land mass is super small, only one fifth the size of Calgary! August 15th it is the national holiday of Liechtenstein and the reigning Prince and his family invites the entire country to his castle to enjoy free beer with him (this is not a joke, we missed the event by a week!)
Further, Liechtenstein was neutral in the world wars, following itās neighbor Switzerland, and has since become a tax haven for companies and individuals, was the first main route for mail into Italy and became popular for itās stamps.
They also have great mountains all around in a very fairytale like setting, and in our experience, has the nicest locals! They get SO excited to know where you are from. You came all the way from Canada to visit our tiny country?? That is so nice!!
Itās as if they assumed we didnāt even know they existed.
We hiked, we ate McDonaldās, and enjoyed the day in a country we never expected to one day visit.
See more on our website www.alittledetour.cašāļøš«
We got to the tourist center to ask about hiking trail options. The kind woman offered her suggestion to do the āPrinceās Wayā hike, and asked if we were experienced hikers / not afraid of heights. We replied yes to the experienced hikers part and had no idea what we were in for.
On another note, Maeghan noticed that there were some kids that had Liechtenstein crownsā¦ and asked if she could have one.
Maeghan then decided to wear her crown on the entire hike, and gave her backup crown (yeah she took two) to a little girl on the bus who was admiring her glam. Totally made that little girlās day.
We had to catch a connecting bus to get to the base of the hiking trail but accidentally got off at the wrong stop and waited 30 minutes with no other buses passing by. The first one we saw we stopped and asked if there was another way to get to the topā¦ and this gentleman who spoke no English, French or Spanishā¦ only Deutsch, and tried to help us the best he could. We waited with him in the bus for another 10 min, when he changed the number on his bus and decided to drive us all the way to the top!
He was so incredible and actually picked us up after the hike too. We were told that Liechtensteiners were probably so stoked that we left the Swiss Alps for Liechtenstein that they were flattered to have us.
Long story short, the driver was awesome. The woman who helped us upon arriving was awesome, and everyone we met on the trail was awesome.
See more on our website www.alittledetour.cašāļøš«
