Lichtenstein

We have had good luck with small countries over the years--the Vatican is amazing, and our visit to San Marino was one of the highlights of our 2023 trip to Europe. So we were excited to take the chance to spend a day in Lichtenstein on a day trip from Innsbruck. So we got up early, hopped on a train for two hours to Feldkirch, Austria, then took a bus for 45 minutes down to Vaduz.

Immediately we ran into an issue. It was hot. Not outrageously hot, but hot enough to be uncomfortable in the sun amidst all the stone buildings. The town itself is rather picturesque, spread out on a foothill near the headwaters of the Rhine. The prince still lives in the castle above town. The place appears quite prosperous, given the high prices in Swiss Francs.

We were hungry, so we popped into a restaurant for lunch. Afterward, we walked over to the road train, which seems to be the main activity for tourists. It drove us around town for 40 minutes and described the castle, the form of government, the football stadium, and the assembly building, then dropped us back at the start.

Lunch in Vaduz.

Road train around town!

The state Assembly.

After the road train, we decided to try a couple of museums. There is a well-regarded modern art museum in town, but we were interested in the history of the place so we skipped that. Instead, we popped into the Treasury, which holds the valuables of the state. Unfortunately, those weren't much--a replica of the prince's crown, a large Faberge egg (which is maybe exciting for people into that kind of thing), and various other trinkets and jewels. 

Next up was the national museum, which we hoped would have a lot of history and explain the uniqueness of the country (San Marino had an excellent museum explaining its history). And Lichtenstein HAS an interesting history--after picking the right side during a Habsburg political dispute in the 1600s, the area was raised to a principality and ruled directly from the emperor, with no feudal lords in between. After the Napoleonic wars triggered the dissolution of the empire, Lichtenstein had no one to report up to. They quickly made nice with the Swiss, made good decisions to stay out of the mess of the world wars, and remain a principality to the present day.

But we learned none of this in the museum. First, it was a national museum, and included animals, clothing, and archaeology as well as history. Second, the exhibits were all in German, without an English translation. You can get by translating a few blurbs using Google Translate, but this quickly becomes tedious when you don't know exactly what you are looking for. We ran through the whole museum, and the special exhibition on the Nazi era (and how Lichtenstein avoided annexation or invasion) was quite interesting, but we learned much less than we hoped.

After the museum failures, we decided to do something fun to fill the time before our 7 PM return train, so we wandered over to a mini golf course that was free with our day pass. It was fun, still very hot, but helped pass the time pleasantly. One last funny moment happened when we got on the train back to Innsbruck and found an old train with no air conditioning--so we headed off at 90 kph with windows open and hair blowing in the wind.

The day wasn't a failure, we saw what is there, it was fine, but it was not the highlight of our trip the way that we'd hoped. On to Salzburg and Vienna next!

A few Days in South Tyrol

South Tyrol, in Italy, is one of those places in Europe with a quirky history and a fascinating present. Detached from the Austrian Empire as part of the "carrot" that pulled Italy in on the side of the Allies in World War I, it remained part of Italy after World War II on condition that it be granted a significant amount of autonomy. So, today, we have the semi-autonomous province of South Tyrol, full of Italian citizens mostly speaking German, flying Tyrolean flags everywhere we have gone.

Geographically, the place is also amazing, nestled in the Dolomite Alps with cities in the valleys and villages dotting the higher elevations. There is a network of white-knuckle roads, cable cars, and alpine trains that let tourists and locals move from one area to another, and there appear to be a large number of working farms still in the region. It is the wealthiest province in Italy and it shows--the towns are spotless, charming, and expensive.

Heading up the mountain above Bolzano in a cable car.

We considered doing a hut-to-hut hike with the kids, where you basically choose a valley or two and stay for a few days in the highlands, hiking from one "refugio" to the next, spending the night and eating and drinking there. But it was hard to plan with the kids, even harder to plan with the weather, and in the end we decided to stay in an apartment in Bolzano and take day trips to various valleys and mountains. That has worked well.

The weather has been tricky. Before we left home, the weather in this region was fairly cold and rainy, with highs in the valleys in the 50s and periodic rain showers. So we brought sweatshirts, raincoats, and hiking shoes. Those reports were misleading, though--we arrived in Bolzano on Jun 18 to 80F temperatures and no rain. Even at the highest elevations we haven't needed sweatshirts, and, while a few dark clouds pass by in the afternoons, we have not been rained on.

Over the four nights we stayed in Bolzano we went "up the hill" all four days, beginning with the cable car in the middle of town, up the mountain, onto a train across to the next little village, where we struggled to find dinner while watching the mountains changing color in the sunset. It was spectacular, a little disappointing (we ended up with a fast-food type pizza for food), but a good introduction to the possibilities.

On day two, we attempted to take a bus to the village beneath the Val Gardena, but after 45 minutes with no bus we gave up and took a different bus to Castelroto. Thenice tourist lady gave us a map and suggested a hike up the mountain. It was a tough hike, rising 400m to about 1800m elevation, but with pleasant weather and mostly through the trees. At the top was a refugio where she assured us we could get food, but when we arrived we found several hundred Germans (or at least German speakers) drinking beer, singing along to a Bavarian band, and taking up every seat in the place. It was quite a surprise, but it turned out that they had all taken the cable car up (presumably along with the hundred kegs of beer). We decided to hike down the other side of the mountain to a separate town, where we caught the bus back to Bolzano.

On day three, we tried to use our passes to take a free cable car near Muhlbach, only to arrive and find that it was no longer running. So again, we improvised (and spent a lot of cash) to go up a separate cable car near Valles, where we found, at the top, a well-maintained path and some spectacular views of the Austrian Alps, still glaciated. Because of the elevation and cloud cover (about 2000m up) this was the lowest temperature we experienced on the trip (and we still were in t-shirts most of the time).

The view toward Austria.

But day four was something special. We finally got the bus to Ortisei, and then spent a ton (almost EUR200) to take two cable cars up the mountain. The Val Gardena is a UNESCO site, and what an amazing place. The Seceda cable car takes you up to 2500m elevation, and it feels like the whole world is laid out at your feet, with bare rock sticking up all around you. We spent the whole day hiking around, slowly, along with hundreds of other people scattered around the mountain. It would be incredible to sleep up there and see the stars, but we'll have to save that for the next trip.

View to the east, from the valley just below the Seceda cable car station.

View to the west, from the cable car terminal.