OK, I take back all I said about this being a sleepy rural berg. It’s a happening country, and not just in Vaduz, the capitol. We drove from Vaduz north to the town of Schellenberg and then back south to the Old Bridge, a north-south distance of about 16 km. Remember, the whole country is only about 27 km long, so we did well over half of it. In doing so, we drove up against the Austrian border on the east and actually walked into Switzerland over the New Bridge on the west.

Liechtenstein’s GDP is on ready display. Every building is modern. Construction is going on everywhere. Try as I might, I couldn’t find a quiet little village. Schellenberg came close to being small and rural but even it was thoroughly modern.

Did we visit the old town for some 17^th and 18^th or even 19^th century architecture? Not to be found. This place seems to be in the “tear it down and rebuild it right” mode.

And don’t get me going on the traffic! Stop and go going toward Schellenberg. It’s as bad as driving in Munich or Salzburg or for that matter Route 1 in Saugus.

We didn’t get on our way until nearly 10 AM. We slept in a bit and I made an egg (from the farm) scramble with potatoes, onions, tomatoes and Guyer cheese. We drove downtown and found a parking spot (it takes EasyPark on your phone) and walked to the nearby information center. Following their suggestions, we visited the Treasure Chamber, Liechtenstein National (history) Museum and then, rushed for time, we went to the bus terminal to take the 35-minute City Train Tour and finally the Old Cinema.

The Treasure Chamber is a climate-controlled room with objects acquired by the princes over the years. There were some interesting 16^th century firearms, a pistol being about the size of an AK-47. There was a whole raft of Easter Eggs, one of which was a genuine Faberge from St. Petersburg plus a number of others from Russia. Even a moon rock given to the prince by the USA.

The history museum was quite nicely done, much of it dealing with church and political dealings from the 12^ththrough 17^th centuries. Back in the day there was no Liechtenstein, just a bunch of ill-define pieces of geography owned by one prince or another. These were traded like Monopoly deeds whenever someone needed money or got beaten in a battle. Christianity overcame pagan religions fairly late – sixth century or so. It’s enough to make your head spin trying to make sense of it all. It all came together as a single principality in 1719:

“The principality of Liechtenstein, consisting of these two lordships, was founded in 1719 and remained part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was included in the Confederation of the Rhine from 1806 to 1815 and in the German Confederation from 1815 to 1866. In 1866 Liechtenstein became independent.” Encyclopedia Britannica.

The Confederation of the Rhine means Napolean and when he got beat, Liechtenstein was sucked up by the Germans who finally cut it loose in 1866, probably not knowing what else to do with it. Liechtenstein claims to be the country with the oldest defined borders of any country in the world – over 300 years.

The City Bus ride was a set of cars pulled by a vehicle made to look like a railroad engine. It was bumpy, hard to see out of and the audio description was hard to understand. The movie, however, was quite interesting. It gave a tour of the Vaduz Castle, the home of the current prince and his family. Since the castle is closed to the public, this was a good way to understand what life is like up there. The castle’s foundation and walls were built in the 12^th century but like most buildings in Liechtenstein, it’s hardly original. It was modified many times. It was rebuilt after the Swiss Confederation burned it down in 1499 and has been modified at least four times between 1904 and the early 1930s.

The Principality of Liechtenstein is a constitutional monarchy headed by the Prince of Liechtenstein. In practice, the prince and an elected 25-person legislature, share power equally: Either side may veto any law passed by the other. Hans-Adam II, a guy about my age, is the current prince. He’s handed off much of his executive responsibilities to his eldest son and heir apparent. Hans-Adam II dabbles in art, buying up pieces his old man was forced to sell at the end of WWII when the country and the family were in dire financial straits.

So after that it’s 2 PM and we’re hungry. My plan was to find something up in Schellenberg but what little driving in town we did didn’t yield much hope. I parked in a random parking lot and, lo and behold, across the street was a grocery store, something Judy had wanted to find. So, we bought paper towels and bread and orange juice for breakfast and two Magnum double raspberry ice cream bars and a bag of popcorn. Luncheon is served!

The grocery store was about the size of the Common Market in Melrose. School had just let out and like the Common Market there was a steady stream of kids, moms and grandmoms coming by to pick up an ice cream bar. Made us homesick.

Back to town and a parking lot, what we hoped would be close to the Old Bridge that links Liechtenstein with Switzerland. Turned out to be a forced march in 85 degree sun for ¾ of a mile but we made it. Liechtenstein and Switzerland have close ties. Switzerland handles many of Liechtenstein’s administrative functions and so there is no border formality between the two.

Back to the farm for a shower and then off once again to Vaduz for a quick photo op in front of the Parliament building, the Government building and the cathedral. Our plan was to walk down the pedestrian thoroughfare and pick out a place for dinner. Not a good plan. First, half or more of the places served Italian food, of which we’d sworn off after Carter left us. Second, this is the first night of some Vaduz music festival and every restaurant was booked. We ended up doing pizza.

Tomorrow, we hope to get a reasonably good start for the hour-thirty trip to Zurich. We’ll only be there overnight, leaving the following afternoon, so we’ll have to get our tourist shoes polished up. Niece Amy has recommended the world’s first vegetarian restaurant, her favorite fondu joint, a chocolate shop and a high-end watch store. We’ll come home fat, poor and happy I’ll bet. Dumb goes without saying.