Liechtenstein – Vaduz

Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Ok, some facts on this country first. It is one of the most wealthy countries in the world, is the fourth smallest in Europe, with a population no bigger than a UK town, is known as a billionaire’s tax haven, has no airport and you can drive from one end of the country to the other (longest route) in 25 mins. Whenever you are in Vaduz city look up to the side and you see not only buildings but the towering cliffs of the mountains next to the city and a little Royal castle perched on the edge!. It has lovely perfectly restored old buildings but a town feel rather than a capital city.

I wanted to visit around 3 or four places on this trip. Well, that’s what I did as I visited Zurich (click here for info), Lucerne (click here for info), and Basel (click here for info), on a week trip. I managed to slip into Vaduz in Liechtenstein for 2 days as well, as it borders Switzerland and was easy to get to by train and bus from Zurich..

I had always thought of Liechtenstein as something of an enigma, a leftover of past ducal infighting and just a large piece of land for companies to hide away their wealth in its famous bank accounts. It is definitely a strange concept of a country and full of interesting facts – some of which I’ll mention here

• Its currency is the Swiss Franc
• Its Language is German
• There are actually no border crossing controls from Switzerland to mark when you cross the border, except a small roadside sign.
• It is not in the EU but trades freely with it and has a customs union with Switzerland.
• It is the 4th smallest country in Europe after the Vatican City (1st), Monaco (2nd) -click here for my review and San Marino (3) – click here for review.
• You could drive from one end of the country to the other in 25 mins! (I once lived in a city that was bigger than this whole country!)
• The citizens do have their own passport
• Women only got the vote in 1984
• It has no army, airport, railways, motorways, trams and virtually no crime.
• It has one of the highest standards of living in the world
• The workforce is 60% foreign born and they have virtually 0% unemployment.
• They live in an absolutely pristine and ultra-maintained environment.
• It is 63 square miles with a population of 37.000.

As I said, quite the enigma.

So, what’s Vaduz like?

Would I live here, is my gauge of how captivating I find a country. Well, yes and no. Its clean immaculate public areas and mix of modern and perfectly maintained older buildings really appeal to me. The organised life style, small traffic volumes and the beautiful forests, mountains and general greenery also appeals

…… so what is it that I don’t enjoy here.

Well ……the city feels a bit sanitised and somewhat lifeless. There were a couple of bars and several high-end restaurants but nothing that seemed to shout nightlife, exuberance, music concerts, adventurous/rough around the edges.

The population I met were nearly all of an educated, mature or well to do nature. Hardly ever saw kids, traffic jams, Police, reduced income people, graffiti (I searched the whole city n saw one felt tip etching as the total sum of tagging/graffiti here!) or a piece of litter. Maybe I had just become so used to seeing these on my travels as the norm, that here that felt abnormal.

It is a lovely city and screams wealth and affluence but everything seemed so quiet after 9pm at night.

This did not stop me from enjoying the city, it just put a different edge on my visit …. and isn’t that what travel is about, right – experiencing the difference?

How to get to Liechtenstein.

To get to Liechtenstein there are relatively few options. The nearest airports are at St Gallen in Switzerland or Friedrichshafen in Germany.- Leichtenstein does not have its own airport and take a bus from there. Both small and whilst they are effectively international you may be hard pressed to find a flight from your city to these without a transfer.

The nearest truly international one is Zurich …. Guess where I flew into!?

Otherwise you will have to catch a train to the nearest towns near the border ie Sargans in Switzerland or Feldkirch in Austria and take a bus or taxi from there to Vaduz. There are no railways in Liechtenstein.

How to get from Zurich to Vaduz.

I caught the train from Zurich to Sargans (still in Switzerland), easy to get to from Zurich on direct trains and change at the train station for a bus. Trains leave about every 15 mins and cost between 8-16 CHF depending on which service you catch direct. They take around 55 mins to 1 hr 15mins depending on the service, for trains that continue on to Chur.

There is another service that goes via St Gallen but this is a longer route and takes over 2 hours.

A fabulous feature of the train ride is that it is on superbly modern and clean trains but also gives you great views of Lake Zurich, Lake Ober and Lake Wallen from its windows.

Seeing these huge lakes, the water craft moored up and the ascending lakeside mountains whizz by as the train almost touched its shores, was an unexpected delight.

Get off at Sargans station and exit heading for the big open-air bus station outside.

To get from Sargans to Vaduz is really easy as the bus (number 11 or 12), often called Vaduz Post, waits at the new bus station outside the train station. It coincides with timings of the trains from Zurich.

If in doubt ask at information desk or a local and you will see it. Mine was painted bright green if that helps. Its about 30 mins on the bus and takes quite a scenic route through villages and southern Liechtenstein (you see the Burg Gutenberg castle on the way in Balzers).

Can’t remember the price but it was cheap and the route is displayed on a screen at the front of the bus, with the next stop showing so it’s easy to know when to get off. The drivers invariably speak good English anyhow if you need to ask.

It will drop you right in the middle of Vaduz so if you have a map you can orientate yourself from there as Vaduz is so small. Just to note that there is no border control between Liechtenstein and Switzerland so no-one on the train or bus will ask to see a passport.

Where I stayed in Vaduz

I stayed at the Hotel Meierhof,(click here for info), which was a good bet for me.

Hotel is of an older style and very much an Alpine look. Think pine wood furniture and wall pictures of the local area and you have it. It was however very comfortable, great wifi, comfy bed and very, very quiet. It was next to woodlands just out of the centre of town.

My Breakfast was good and the staff very chatty and helpful. My room had a big balcony with a table and chairs outside to help me enjoy the spectacular vista. It looked out onto a residential area below as it’s on a hill but with great views across to the distant snow-topped mountains.

My arrival day was a bit cloudy, so much of the mountain tops were mist and cloud covered, especially when it began to rain sporadically throughout the day.

It was a straight route, 20 mins walk into town on a slight downhill with lovely views of the mountains and forests to the side on the way. There was a well maintained wide pavement along the whole route/ There were wide fields of crops and a few houses on the way and it felt very countrified even though I was only 20 mins from the Parliament Building. Such is the small size of Vaduz as a capital city!

What to see and do in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.

My walk in took me straight to my first stop. The picturesque Cathedral.

St Florins Cathedral, Vaduz.

St Florins Cathedral is small by European standards and it would be the size of a town church in the UK. It is neo gothic in style with a tall spire that dominates the surrounding area. However, the nearby forested mountains surpass it in height and its backdrop against this picture of green natureland is a wow factor for it. Nativity and Pieta statues by the stairs are interesting in their modern interpretation and look.

It is very quiet, solemn and a bit plain inside but the windows are full of brightly coloured glass that even gave the inside a pinkish hue. Despite dating from 1874 (its foundations are mediaeval however), it was only upgraded from a church to a Cathedral in 1997 by the Pope.

Recent past Princes and rulers of Liechtenstein are buried here and there is a memorial outside to the parents of the present Prince of Liechtenstein – Franz Joseph II and his wife Georgina – in the form of two busts. Franz Joseph II was Prince for 40 years until his death and is renowned for much of the development of current Liechtenstein.

Memorial to Josef Rheinberger.

Josef Rheinberger was born in Vaduz, Liechtenstein in 1839, and from the age of 12 was seen as a musical genius. He lived and died in Munich, Germany in 1901 at the age of 62. He was a local man and an accomplished organist and composer, but spent most of his life in Germany.

The sculpture is a bronze bust on a console on a monumental wall. A stone relief of a lyra (symbol of music) is to the left, and to the right is a stone with an inscription. This sits opposite the Registry office and near the Vaduz Music College, where he once taught.

Old Parliament Building, Vaduz.

Just along from the Cathedral is effectively the start of the small centre and starts with the old Parliament building which is now Government Offices. Built in 1905, it is very Alpine looking with a big sloping tiled roof, two side turrets and an ornately painted area around the higher façade windows and eaves.

It sits in a modern brick paved square and across the way faces gardens of small planted trees with gravel and several modern outside sculptures.

New Parliament Building, Vaduz.

The old Parliament building was replaced in 2008 by the modern version of a Parliament Building, which in my view is very bland, uninspiring and basic. To me it looks like a large inexpensively built meeting room of a church from the outside with its plain beige bricks and exaggerated sloping roof.

The side buildings and behind are in yet more different designs and are the admin buildings and offices and the area is called the Government District.

It was definitely not what I was expecting. The Parliament looks too functional and the mustard coloured bricks feel alien in this area of a green forest back drop and stucco painted cream walls of the old Parliament Building. Just my opinion but it was something of an architectural nature that failed to impress me, unusually.

Postal Museum and Liechtenstein Centre.

Walking on further through the square and into town you pass the Liechtenstein Centre and Postal Museum on the right, (click here for info). The centre holds the Tourist Info Centre and is a good place to stop off if you want info. It has a gift shop and something that many people stop here for.

You can get your passport stamped with an official Liechtenstein stamp if you want for a small charge. I didn’t and I had all the info I needed, so carried on by.

The Postal Museum got nice reviews, but even though it was a beautiful building from the outside, sorry, but postage stamps do not float my boat in excitement, so it was another miss. Besides what I wanted to see was just further up and as I approached it, I was surprised.

The Kunstmuseum.

The Kunstmuseum or Art Gallery, (click here for info), was a solid cube of grey stone work that was turning black in the beginnings of the rain that was now falling. It was brutally modernist with just a ground floor big floor to ceiling window and its name on the side of the building. It was a surprise to see yet another brutally plain modern building and my heart sunk as I was thus expecting the interior to reflect the rather boring and functional exterior.

Happily, that was not so as the interior held great works of art, albeit in very plain white walled rooms. More varied than I imagined and with a great collection of modern & contemporary artwork, mostly from artists that I had not heard of. It is on two levels with a completely glass covered roof that allows streams of natural light into the rooms.

Although small it is very spacious. In fact, maybe too spacious as it often felt like there were not enough artworks in the room to fill the space. There are paintings on the walls but also sculptures on the floor. The museum has an extension, this time a white cube.

It is here that the more famous artists of the world are kept in the private Hilti Collection – Miro, Gaugin, Calder etc – this was probably my favourite room of the entire gallery.

I took my coffee break here in the again minimalist café styled in dark pine with heavy square tables and chairs.

A walk along this main pedestrianised street call Stadtle takes you to all the main attractions of this very small city, so there is no chance of getting lost.

Further along the road are restaurants, shops, offices, banks, a few up market branded shops etc but no big mall or rows of designer stores – where do the rich folk of this city buy their stuff then?

Keep walking along the immaculately maintained street and past immaculate stores and in a few minutes, you arrive at the City Hall.

Street Art.

On the way you will notice several pieces of street art in the form of metal sculptures and artwork that shows the affluence of the country. Why have art work inside galleries when you can have in in the open for the public to touch and admire!

City Hall.

The City Hall has an almost Venetian/Alpine/mediaeval look to it, yet was built in 1933. It is used as a conference and exhibition hall also and the outside open areas are often the venue for concerts and small festivals. Outside in front of it is a set of three bronze horses, in a Dali-meets-classic style.

The area around also has several large restaurants (open air in Summer), a few bars and a general socialising atmosphere. Well, that is really it for Vaduz. Yes, there are a few side streets and another main road for shops and supermarkets but in the centre of town, that is all there is.

As you walk the streets you will encounter some beautifully restored and often brightly coloured buildings that are just eg libraries, banks or offices but are impressive. Even new buildings are stylish and although not big in a New York or Dubai sense are clearly designed with art and design in mind to complement the other buildings around.

Vaduz Castle.

The only other place to see is Vaduz Castle, the residency of the Prince of Liechtenstein. As You walked down the Stadtle street you can see a huge escarpment on the right side of an almost sheer cliff face covered in forest. At the top is perched an overhanging castle that looks quite precariously placed.

You can see this sight from many places in the city and its quite a unique feature as the cliffs feel as if they could tumble down into the city at any time.

To get to the top of this for a castle visit means taking a car up and parking nearby or be eco-friendly and take the very accessible and wide forest path up the zig zag escarpment.

To get to the walkway take the road called Beckagassli between the Brasserie and Asian restaurant, opposite and  further right from the City Hall. You then take the first fork to the right and just basically follow it past the modernist wood and white painted house to your left and follow it round. It goes upwards and past more large houses till you start to enter the more wooded part of the route.

Ok, it is steep in places so don’t try it unless you are able but even at my age, I found it easy enough at a gentle/slow pace. Along the way up the trees clear in places and you get a fantastic view over the land below across the Rhine River and into Switzerland.

There are even a few lookouts specially built outwards from the side so you can get a great pic of the city below and the snow-capped – even in Summer – mountains nearby.

At the top of the climb, that took me about 30 mins, is the impressive but smallish Vaduz Castle. You can’t go inside as it is lived in by the monarch but from the outside you can see this very solid stone castle with its wooden roofs and grand gateway.

It is clearly placed there for its past strategic views over the city and surrounding areas and the lush green of the forests and fields even make the air feel cooler.

I descended the way I came – easier on the way down! I stopped off at a local supermarket on the way back to the hotel, noticing the higher prices than I was used to back home, for a few evening snacks. This was to set me up for the night as tomorrow would be a leisurely breakfast and wind down as I was to take the train back to Zurich for my afternoon flight back to London.

I’ve now seen Liechtenstein, which I have always wanted to, as none of my friends have been there and many have not even heard of it. I can cross it off as worth the visit even if just to say Vaduz’s setting and buildings were in many areas much more modern than I was expecting, but it was also much more mountainous and tree surrounded.

June 2017.