A Day In Liechtenstein
Nick Bourne gives us an insight into the European microstate Liechtenstein, after a recent visit to the country.
19 Aug 2011, 14:30
Have you ever visited Liechtenstein?
My traveling companion accuses me of planning to go to Vaduz, the capital, to open a bank account with one of the Liechtensteiner banks with favourable interest who will put the money offshore or something. She stops just short of examining my rucksack as I set off with a 50 Euro note and a credit card. I get to the station in St Anton and successfully negotiate my ticket to Feldkirch, which is on the Austria/Liechtenstein border. From here I need to get the Liechtensteiner bus into Vaduz, only a few short miles away.
I have my passport as there is Border Control but we are flagged over and immediately it becomes obvious that even compared to prosperous Austria this is a notch up – large, modern, prosperous houses on the outskirts of Vaduz, and prosperous businesses, restaurants, shops, large banks, service industries in the centre. Globalism has hit here too and I am not remotely tempted by the Subway or the McDonalds, though patriotic duty might have led me to buy BP petrol had I had a car with me.
In the centre I decide to take the tourist bus around the town and its outskirts. Everybody else seems to have had the same idea and we pile on to the train that sets off through the streets of Vaduz past the Philatelic Museum, past the Art Museum, past the modern Parliament building (twenty five members represent the whole country), past government buildings and up into the hills above Vaduz. Vineyards proliferate around the outskirts and we are told that the country produces a passable Pinot Grigio and the English translation, which sometimes falters, tell us that buying a few bottles is an opportunity we shouldn’t fail to miss. This advice I am keen to follow.
We go close to the Schloss, the castle that is the home of the ducal family and then back down into Vaduz and past the football stadium with a capacity of 6,000 for the national team, and by the River Rhine which marks the boundary between Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
On my tourist train trip through Vaduz I was adopted by a German family. My German these days is pretty non-existent although I did pass the GCSE (or ‘O’ Level as it then was). With their English and my very limited German we conversed. At first I was truly startled to hear that a girl called Heidi had been shot nearby. I then realised that this was the film of the classic children’s novel written by Johanna Spyri and filmed just a few miles from where we were traveling.
Once back I decide to opt for a visit to the Philatelic Museum. The Liechtenstein collection is well set out and there is also an enticing display of letter openers, an exhibition that will run for the remainder of the year. Step forward Kurt F Bouchel of Liechtenstein who has collected 2718 different letter openers since 1991, and for his troubles collected a letter from the Guinness Book of Records. It is an interesting collection.
Liechtenstein is a modern country despite its Schloss dating back to the 12th Century. Since 1990 it has had a seat in the United Nations. I had expected a quaint city of ski lodges with explosions of petunias in neatly presented window boxes. Not a bit of it. This is a thoroughly modern town and country populated with banks, shops and service industries. It has well recognised names like Guinness and Spar and McDonalds, and many English named businesses that would not seem out of place in Cheltenham or Oxford, such as Hugo's Taste the Difference. This micro state must be surely, if not the smallest member of the UN, then certainly amongst them. It must also be one of the pleasantest member states to visit………… and no I didn’t invest the 50 Euros in a Liechtenstein bank.
The author
Nick Bourne
Nick Bourne is the former leader of the Welsh Assembly Conservative Group.
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