Liechtenstein

We went to Liechtenstein, just so that we could say that we were there!

Vaduz, Liechtenstein- the largest city in Liectenstein, population 5,500.

Vaduz Castle 

Liechtenstein (pronounced lick-tin-shtine) is a micro-country doubly landlocked by Switzerland and Austria- meaning that it is completely surrounded by both countries- and has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world with a 100% literacy rate.  It is the 4th smallest country in Europe measuring just 62 square miles- 11 sq miles smaller than the largest city in my home state of South Dakota!

We literally saw every tiny mile of Liechtenstein, from the tippy top of the Alps to the very bottom, from one end of the country to the other, and back again.  We wandered around our very first Easter Market, bounced from town to town, and hiked trails surrounding Vaduz castle.  
Every town was clean and quiet, even though there were a ton of tourists all over the place seemingly doing the same things as us, it was still quiet with almost no traffic.  And there was parking all over the place (which is the absolute most stressful aspect of touring Europe with an American spec vehicle- parking- almost always a f**king nightmare, so when you find a parking spot big enough it's like finding the holy grail)!  We had so much fun and could not believe how BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL it was!  

Hiking down to Vaduz city.

Me in front of the government building. 

Liechtenstein Parliament building with Vaduz castle above it.

Funky looking hot dogs. 

 If you wanted to hike from Balzers this is how long it would take you to hike to these places. 

Hiking on the trails and Babe has to stop and read every single sign about Liechtenstein- those informational signs along trails are made for people just like my husband.

 Our American car enjoying the scenery.

The weather was absolutely perfect!  We spent the majority of our time hiking and bouncing all over Liechtenstein before heading to our hotel.  When I booked the hotel I really had no concept of where it was located in regards to everything else- everything is so close to each other in such a tiny country that it seemed like it was one long town- what I really wanted to make sure of is that our hotel was actually in Liechtenstein and not in Austria or Switzerland, so as we made our way to our hotel (and stopped a bunch to take a million pictures) the road took us up to the tippy top of a mountain and then through a long tunnel, when we came out the other side it was as if we were in a completely different world.......

Our hotel!

We were truly at the tippy top of the Alps and it was spectacular!  I had unknowingly booked a ski resort for the night and it couldn't have been a better way to round out our time in a pretty great micro-country, even if we aren't the skiing type.  

Liechtenstein had been on our list of places we wanted to see for a few years now, but it always fell to the bottom of our list depending on how we wanted to spend our travel money or what other trips we might have had in the works at the time.  We came really close to canceling this trip in anticipation of a big trip to Ireland we have coming up in a few weeks, I am so glad we didn't cancel this time!  

Frohe Ostern, everyone!  

He is Risen!