Goodbye, Appenzell! There’s a very slim chance we’ll ever see you again, but we took lots of photos to remember you, so don’t feel bad, OK?
The agenda for today was all about Liechtenstein, but it was a travel day which required strategic planning to make sure we did not have to haul our suitcase and the two hiking packs around while exploring the city of Vaduz on foot. So we took a series of trains, one of which included a crazy guy ranting at everyone in German. We really had no idea what he was saying, but I think we looked at each other like, “Is this guy off his rocker?” And honestly, the answer seemed to be yes based on the reactions of other people around us. Amber: “Now our experience is complete.”
Once we split from crazy guy, we stopped at Sargans train station. Why stop in Switzerland when our destination was in Liechtenstein? Because that station has luggage lockers where we could stash all the big stuff and transfer a few key items to a more typical backpack for the day. From there we took a bus from Sargans into Vaduz to go exploring.
One of the first things you notice in Vaduz is the castle part way up the mountainside to the east. I had forgotten that it’s not open to the public because it is the actual home of the current prince, but we decided to climb up anyway. Some of these slopes rivaled our hike from yesterday, but this climb was over much quicker. We were able to get close enough for a good look at the castle as well as some great views out over the top of Vaduz and the valley on either side.
Yes, we climbed up there.
View from partway up to the castle.
We got a little closer than this, but that’s too close for a good picture!
We spent more time walking around the city finding some caches. Nothing too complicated today, but the most interesting took us to a covered pedestrian/cyclist bridge over the Rhine River between Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Imagine that…a bridge between two countries where you can freely walk back and forth with no fence to pass through and one to approve your presence!
Smooching across the border.
I see the light…
Next it was time for lunch. We picked a place called Made in Italy, partly just to see if it measured up to what we remembered from 2010. The owner was clearly Italian, so of course it was great!
By then it was just about time to leave Liechtenstein and head for our next hotel. But before we left, I wanted to get a pressed penny. Well, of course it wasn’t a US penny, it was a €0.05 coin. And rather than costing $0.51, it set us back €4.05 (about $4.50)! With that taken care of, we caught the bus back to Sargans, grabbed the rest of our bags, and boarded a series of hot and crowded trains that weren’t much fun. By the last train of the day, we were finally starting to cool down again when we met another couple from the US on their 18 day honeymoon. And I thought 12 days was going to be expensive…
We wrapped up the day with dinner at our hotel in Lauterbrunnen. Pizza for me and Rösti for Amber. Very tasty! We also realized the weather outlook for the next few days doesn’t look great for visiting mountain tops, but that’s why we came prepared to be flexible. It looks like the agenda for tomorrow will be more hiking, this time around Lauterbrunnen Valley.
The famous Rösti. This variety with cheese, bacon, and a fried egg. I’ll have some of my own eventually.