Principality of Liechtenstein

The border between Liechtenstein and Austria was manned by the Swiss, and Liechtenstein uses Swiss money. Border control charged 50¢ to stamp our passports, if we happened to want the Liechtenstein stamp as a souvenir. Liechtenstein does not have the remoteness of San Marino and Andorra, but it does have the beauty of this mountain area, quite different from those other two. In this case the weather, the first day we visited, was so bad we couldn’t see too much of the reported beauty.

The Castle of Vaduz, the home of the ruler of this rather tiny country, sits high on the hill above the Capitol city of Vaduz. We drove and walked around the town, then up to the castle, still in use by the ruling family. Not a fancy place like some castles are, but it looks very nice, and it is sturdy.

We talked to a man at the Post Office who said it has rained almost every day for six weeks and the crops are rotting in the field. Potatoes, peaches, apricots, apples, and even bananas (they don’t grow them here) are very expensive in the grocery stores. Since the fruit is not in good condition, and they won’t let us pick the fruit we want, it doesn’t pay to buy any.

It was easy to find Liechtenstein’s campsite that night, it was just outside of town. But in a country this small, “everything” is nearby.

One of the things we remember best was the wonderful, tasty, rolls we bought for dinner, at a small bakery in town.

Another year we spent a few hours just walking here and there, enjoying this beautiful little country surrounded by mountains. By the way, we stopped again at that same bakery and bought some of those exact same rolls. We found that while they were very good, they did not compare to what our memory says they tasted like, a couple of years earlier.

Boy, we’ve found that to be so true, so often, at bakery after bakery, in country after country. We often say, ”Wonder what the baker had for breakfast?” and “Which year did he make the mistake, the year it tasted so good, or the year it tasted normal.”

Come to think of it, maybe it’s just the state of our taste buds, and how hungry we are, from one time to another.