Liechtenstein

Woke up to a grey Sunday morning. As usual, Uncle Tan wants to be the 1st at the breakfast table...

So poor Ah Kin had to wake up early also lor...only to find that they serve breakfasts at 8am instead of 7am on weekends. I guess the lady whom we spoke to yesterday thought today was a weekday.

So went back to do packing and ready to check out after breakfast whilst Uncle Tan tries to settle his 'big business' ;p

Breakfast was sumptuous. There's bread, salami, 2 types of ham, cheese, yogurt and a cereal cracker. Not bad for a stay of CHF 60 per night per pax inclusive of breakfast. This is the usual rate for a 3-star hotel in Switzerland .

It was a cold morning with rain. Armed with a few layers, I could still feel the cold so had to hide in a telephone booth whilst waiting for the bus to arrive.

From Sargans, you could take a bus to Vaduz, which is the capital of Liechtenstein.

Liechtenstein is the 4th smallest country in Europe with an area of 160 sq km and a population of about 35,000 people. Singapore is about 699.1 sm km with..4 million people.

It's interesting to note that 1/3 of its resident population are foreign-born, they formed 2/3 of the country's workforce.

Ah Kin's spirit brightened up a little when she saw the shops in Liechtenstein :)

If only the day is clear.

The official language of Liechtenstein is German while the spoken language is Alermannic dialect. Swiss francs is its currency although Euros are also accepted.

Liechtenstein is also well-known for their stamps and hence, they are also considered as one of the souvenirs from Liechtenstein :)


Although a small country, the streets are adorned with sculptures and some huge Botero sculptures as well.

I doubt they will see these type of crocs in SG :)

According to Lonely Planet, the country's history began when an Austrian prince, Johann Adam Von Liechtenstein, purchased the counties of Schellenberg (1699) and Vaduz (1712) from the impoverished German nobles. So it's the only country in the world named after the person who purchased it. Soon afterwards, the territory acquired his name and became a principality under the Holy Roman Empire. It finally gained independence in 1866, after its final military engagement where none of its 80 soldiers was killed. (In fact 81 returned, including a new Italian 'friend'). Liechtenstein follows a policy of neutrality and is has abolished its army in 1868 due to high maintenance cost.

On our way to the Schloss Vaduz (aka Castle), the tourist icon of Liechtenstein. It's not open to the public as it served as the residence of the Princely Family. But you can take a walk up to the Kanzeli where you can have a panoramic view of Vaduz and the Rhine Valley.

Well, the Lonely Planet guidebook says if you wish to have a peek at the castle, be there on 15 Aug, Liechtenstein's National Day where the Prince will invite all Liechtensteiners over to his place for a glass of wine of beer.

The walk takes about almost an hour for us with some stops in between to catch our breath and also to take some pictures. There are a few paths up but the easiest to recognise would be the one from Hotel Engel. Just follow the signs there.

Along the way, you'll find these boards bearing information on Liechtenstein.

The view of Vaduz.

Along the way, there were many cars going up and Uncle Tan was hoping the Prince would be in one of the cars ;p


Argh!!! Why is it that the buildings we've visited are always under renovation? I know the castle 700-year old castle needs a face lift, but why now?

We could only admire its magnificence from here and not any nearer.

A peek into the garden next to the castle.

The castle's front porch area.
The mist...

We met a nice Japanese guy who offered to take a picture of us whilst he was walking down and saw us trying to use a tree trunk as the tripod stand :>

By the way, he was just wearing berms and a polo-shirt..."cool" sia...








I hope this poor fella didn't get blinded by Uncle Tan's numerous flashes.


This is the city bus which will take you round Vaduz in 35 mins. We wanted to take this since it was raining pretty heavily but the timing were time and again delayed. So we gave up.


A miniature of Schloss Vaduz located near the Town Hall.

We had a good filling lunch at Hotel Engel.


This tea looks so much like a soup. The yummy onion soup is good for a cold day.



This poulet curry with rice is tasty too, just that it doesn't really have the curry taste. Although it's breast meat, the meat is tender and has a nice grilled taste. With a generous portion of the meat, of course Uncle Tan had to help me finish it :)

The Rathaus or Town Hall
In front of the Town Hall are 3 bronze statues of the wild horses, made by a contemporary Swiss sculptor, Nag Arnoldi, a failed dentist technician who became one of Switzerland's best sculptors.

View of Schloss Vaduz from the main street, Städtle.

This interesting modern-looking building is the Parliament building, Landtagsgebäude.

The National Museum

St. Florin Cathedral - the city's Parish Church built between 1868 and 1873 in neo-gothic style.

The Liechtenstein Bank. There's a small branch in SG too.
Liechtenstein is also known as a tax haven with low business tax. Hence, many companies are registered there and they're twice the number of its population!


Decided to check out the oldest house in Vaduz, the Red House despite the rain.

The Red House

Our feet were soaked with rain water when we reached there.

There are no border controls between Liechtenstein and Switzerland. So you don't need to carry a passport around unless you want to get their souvenir stamp at a fee of CHF 3 :) That's their ingenious way of expanding the income opportunities in a time where countries were increasingly moving away from stamping passports. You can get your passport stamped at the Tourist Office, or the Couch Terminal (where you can take the City Train) where they have the Info Desk that can also do the stamping.


Er, yes, we are crazy enough to get the stamp, partly because I like the "Princely" crown ;>

The crown is actually made up of 5 symbols, representing the monarchic system of state and Liechtenstein's entrepreneurial Princely House. And they called it the "Liechtenstein Brand".



Something interesting:

In June 2003, the state tourism agency decided to give a boost to the country's tourism by offering to rent out the country to businesses and other organizations for conference hosting, weddings, or other events. The company will be given keys to Vaduz and be offered team-building and tourist activities, including attractions like wine-tasting, tobogganing, and full access to one of the country's royal castles. It costs $375 a person, but it has to cater for no fewer than 450 people. Therefore, the minimum cost is approximately $170,000. Prince Hans-Adam II exploited this renting system by threatening to sell Liechtenstein to Bill Gates if he was not given more power. He was given the power he asked for, but he later claimed that he was in fact joking.

And because of this, Liechtenstein, together with the person named, Karl Schwarzler, was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Economics in 2003 for this unique enterprise of renting out the entire country for corporate functions.

For those who wanna have the wedding of their lifetimes (or several lifetimes), you might wanna consider holding your wedding here :)