In the world of travel it pays to be flexible and able to change either travel dates (if possible) or even destination, and that’s exactly what happened to us this summer. A couple of weeks before our scheduled trip to Krakow in July we were told that the flight had been cancelled, with no obvious reason being given and no convenient alternative available. And so after a bit of searching we decided on a few days in Zurich instead, which would be a new city for us to explore along with the possibility of doing a train trip out into the beautiful Swiss countryside. We then realised that we could also include a visit to Liechtenstein, a tiny nation of around 39,000 inhabitants, and one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world (the other being Uzbekistan).
We were staying in a hotel just a couple of minutes walk from Zurich Hauptbahnhof (main station) and it was very easy to buy tickets from the machine for the frequent service along to Sargans, one of the nearest railway stations to Liechtenstein which doesn’t actually have a station within the country itself. You can buy a through ticket to Vaduz, the capital, which includes the bus from Sargans, alternatively you can buy a ticket on the bus for around 6 Swiss Francs. The tickets we bought would have been cheaper had we bought them in advance and used a particular train, but for various reasons (not least of which being the fear of yet another flight cancellation) we preferred to keep our plans flexible. My daughter was able to travel on a Child Day Pass for 19 Swiss Francs so that did save a bit of money.
The train that we caught had come all the way from Frankfurt, it was fairly quiet and we were able to move seats as necessary throughout the journey depending on which side had the best view! And it was definitely one of those trips where the landscape gets increasingly dramatic, starting with views over Lake Zurich and becoming more mountainous as you approach your destination.
The journey took just under an hour, and on arrival in Sargans it was very easy to find the bus we needed right outside the station. There are two buses to Vaduz, the 11 and the 12E, the 12E is slightly quicker but both take around half an hour to the central Vaduz Post bus stop. We got bus 11, which goes up through Liechtenstein and ends over the border in a place called Feldkirch in Austria, which has a railway station and provides another way of accessing the country by train. There is an open border between Switzerland and Liechtenstein with no controls of any kind, the only indication that you’re entering a different country is the flags on the bridge across the Rhine.
Part way through the bus trip we stopped at a school where lots of children aged around 7 or 8 got on. There seemed to be no adults to supervise them and the children got off individually or in little groups at various stops along the route, presumably heading home after a morning session at school. It was fantastic to see them travelling independently and making use of local public transport rather than just being ferried around by car, and in this very rich little nation it reminded me of the following quote (said to be from Colombian president Gustavo Petro, although there seems to be uncertainty about this) – “A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars, it’s where the rich use public transportation”.
The actual centre of Vaduz is quite small, but with various museums and easy accessibility to nice walks there is plenty to keep a visitor occupied. We chose to go into the Post Museum which has free entry and a large collection of stamps. There is also the LandesMuseum about Liechtenstein itself, an art gallery and some other smaller museums, we didn’t visit any of those but they did look interesting.
To get a view of the surrounding area from a higher vantage point we took a short walk up to a building known as the Red House, in an area full of vineyards with black velvety grapes, and from where you can see the mountains that comprise a large area of this small country.
We considered walking down to the little riverside stadium which is home to the Liechtenstein national football team, but the clouds were gathering and we opted for the bus back to Sargans instead, which turned out to be a wise move as the heavens opened soon afterwards. On the way back we had the excitement of a double decker train, something of a novelty to those of us from the UK where they don’t exist. Apparently some even have a family carriage complete with play equipment, which my children would have loved when younger.
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Liechtenstein. For those who like outdoor pursuits I would imagine that there are plenty of opportunities for hiking, climbing, cycling etc, but even for those who prefer a more sedate day out there is the opportunity to really appreciate the surrounding mountainous scenery. As with Zurich, we found we could pay by credit/debit card everywhere, and as might be expected from a journey within Switzerland all the transport was very punctual. It has definitely tempted me to do further train travel there in the future.
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