Weeks 19 and 20 - Trip to Liechtenstein/Austria

Last Saturday, we started driving east for our trip to Swiss bordering countries 3 and 4: Liechtenstein and Austria.

The Principality of Liechtenstein (or Fürstentum Liechtenstein in the local German) is the 218th largest country in the world (according to the CIA World Factbook), with 62 square miles (160 sq km), about 0.9 times the size of Washington D.C. The tiny constitutional monarchy, sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria, has 35,000 residents and has the world's highest per capita GDP. First, we visited the capital "city" Vaduz. The highlights of Vaduz include the Postmuseum (Liechtenstein is renowned for its intricate postage stamps, which are miniature works of art. Many of the dies used to imprint the stamps are hand carved using a magnifying glass.) and the Schloß Vaduz, the residence of the country's royal family. You can't visit the castle, but you can hike up to it and enjoy a hawk's view of Vaduz.

After our hike up to the castle and back down, we ate at one of the restaurants in town. We had a delicious Traminer wine from the Prince's winery. Ken had enormous pork medallions, while Margaret ordered what she thought was a salad with two normal-sized cheese sticks. She was wrong. In addition to her salad, she received the largest piece of fried cheese she (or Ken) had ever seen. In a fit of poor judgement, she ate the entire thing.

After lunch, we drove to the town of Malbun to catch the daily falconry show at one of the town's inns/restaurants. We were in a bit of a rush on the drive up to Malbun (not wanting to be late for the show), but a narrow tunnel just before Malbun caught our attention; it was just barely wide enough for two cars to pass, and with a semi-circular cross-section, a truck would have to drive down the middle leaving no room for opposing traffic. After the falconry show, as we left Malbun, we noticed a traffic light outside the tunnel.

In K's haste, he apparently missed the light on the drive up, thereby explaining how such a narrow tunnel manages two-way traffic; it doesn't (at least not simultaneously). After the tunnel, we continued our journey into Austria, to stay in the Tirolian city of Innsbruck.

The night we arrived in Innsbruck, despite the enormous block of cheese M was still attempting to digest, we went to the vegetarian restaurant Chez Nico where M had made reservations. We had one of the most fun and inventive 7-course vegetarian meals (which started and ended with a course of strawberries and tomatoes-salty at the beginning, sweet at the end), and tried a delicious Austrian wine.

On Sunday, we were awoken at 5:30 am by the sun beaming in our hotel room window. After an awesome breakfast at the hotel, we drove from Goëtzens, where we were staying, into downtown Innsbruck. Our first stop for the day was the Alpenzoo, an amazingly large collection of alpine animals.The zoo took several hours to explore, and exhibits included snakes and lizards, fish, birds, ferrets, elk, deer, bear, and goats.

As we were looking for lunch, we saw the famed Goldenes Dachl (Gold Roof) in the old city square, and the beautiful Dom zu St. Jakob. The afternoon was primarily dedicated to the Volkskunstmuseum (Folk Art Museum) and the Hofkirche. It seems that every region we visit has a folk art museum, so it is becoming a bit of a family joke to see what "art" each of these places holds. ("Oh neat...more tiled stoves...oh look, another copper bundt...I don't think I've ever seen such an impressive shoe horn!") The Hofkirche is a fabulous tomb for one of the Austrian emperors, Maximilian I; very impressive and a bit morbid.

On Monday, we continued to drive east to get to the sprawling city of Vienna. This city is certainly fitted out properly as the capital city of an empire: amazing architecture, fabulous artwork, numerous theaters, etc. Monday night was capped off with a slice of the Original Sacher Torte from the Cafe Sacher.

Tuesday, we got up bright and early to visit the Hapsburgs' Schönbrunn Palace and its grounds (including one of Europe's finest zoos). From the Gloriette (a summerhouse with Roman ruins) on top of a hill, you have an excellent view of the lemon yellow palace and the seemingly endless city.

Wednesday, we visited the Kunsthistoriches museum (the Met in NY is probably the closest US equivalent). The museum building itself is amazing, and the decor and architecture were awesome (not the style, but the splendor reminded M of the Louvre in Paris). The museum houses a wonderful antiquities collection, as well as painting by the likes of Titian, Bruegel,

Raphael, Rembrandt, and Rubens. (Yeah, we didn't know who some of those guys were either.) We just managed to get to the Schatzkammer, the Viennese Imperial Treasury, before it closed. We also took in a Mozart/Strauss concert. Vienna is incredible. We could have easily spent much more time here, but we have an itinerary to keep.

On Thursday, we started driving back west toward our final stop: the city of Salzburg. We visited Schloß Mirabell, and its grounds, the Mirabellgarten. Salzburg is really known for two things by the rest of the world: it is the site of much of the filming of The Sound of Music, and it is Mozart's birthplace. Mirabellgarten is beautiful with intricate plantings and picturesque fountains; whilst there we treated by an English school choir to a medley of songs from...you guessed it...the Sound of Music.

On Friday, we toured Fortress Hohensalzburg, the largest medieval fortress in Central Europe, in the morning. After lunch, we visited the beautiful Salzburg Dom and spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing drinking Vienna-style iced coffee or cold Austrian beer.

Saturday, we drove home.

Lessons learned:

1. Einbahn means one-way in German.

2. Traffic in Vienna is horrendous.

3. Austria is the home of several good beers.

4. M likes ice cold radlers: beer and lemonade...mmm. Perfect for a hot day.

5. Summer time is tourist time. It was a little shock to our systems to hear so much American English.

6. K can only handle one foreign language. Though he learned German in school, the French he's been learning over the past 3+ months is displacing it. He kept trying to say things in German, but French words came out. Apparently the speech-controlling part of his brain has just two settings, English and Not-English, and lacks the ability for more "subtle" distinctions, like between French and German.

7. The Italian-Indian-Austrian combo restaurant is very popular in Salzburg (we passed by at least 4 of these restaurants). Also of note, you can get some quite good Indian food in Salzburg.