Vaduz

We decided to drive into Switzerland and possibly even complete the drive to Geneva, our one and only stop for the country. At the border crossing we tried and were unsuccessful in purchasing the highway sticker. In order to use the highways in Switzerland you need to have a vignette, otherwise you face a 100 Swiss franc charge and you have to buy the vignette. We were going to stay off the highway, but with us wanting to get to France for warmer weather, we don’t care anymore. We also think the 40 Swiss francs for the vignette saved us in gas because the back roads wind around mountains. We know this because that is how we did the majority of our drive to Vaduz. Yup, change of plans. Vaduz is not in Switzerland. It is the capital of Liechtenstein. An extremely small country (5th smallest, 32,000 pop.) measuring only 6 km wide and 25 km in length, and it is still ruled by a monarchy. What I found crazy is that there are over 80 thousand businesses listed for this country which is more than double the population. It is the only country in the world to be named after the people that purchased it. Its last military engagement in 1866, 80 soldiers left and 81 came back (the extra being a new Italian friend). Until 2005 the cows were fed hemp to keep them mellow and producing better milk. On the countries national holiday, the King invites everyone to his castle for wine and beer. They speak German, but apparently are very Swiss, they even share the same currency, the Swiss franc. However, we didn’t spend much time here. The night we free camped in another designated area and the following day we visited the tiny capital. There are apparently 2 things you should do here, send a post card because the postal stamp is dentures (Liechtenstein is the largest manufacturer of dentures in the world) and go hiking (over 400 km of trails). We’ve mentioned the weather we have been having in the Alps previously, so we decided to just send a postcard home. The main hike sounded cool though. The capital is surrounded by mountains and has the castle towering over it. It was very cool to be there even if at times it seemed to be like a ghost town. There are only 5000 people living in Vaduz after all.