We planned to visit Liechtenstein and also Austria as they were in easy reach from Switzerland and I wanted to visit both places to see what they were like. We didn’t spend that much time in Austria but it is definitely somewhere I want to go back to and do properly.
We headed off for Liechtenstein on a route that would take us through the canton on Appenzell Innerrhoden which is basically the most traditional canton in Switzerland. To put it into perspective, they only allowed women to vote in 1991 whilst most Swiss cantons had done this decades earlier.
It sounds really silly but we couldn’t figure out how to get to the car free centre of Appenzell but what we saw next had us completely captivated!
As we were driving through the main town trying to find somewhere to park we saw a load of goats walking through the town along with cows and locals dressed in traditional outfits. At first we wondered whether this was just a tourist thing but it turns out it was an Alpabfahrt (Alpine descent parade)! My boyfriend lived in Switzerland for over 10 years and has actually never seen one so it was a case of being in the right place at the right time!
The Alpabfahrt marks the start of Autumn in the Alpine regions of Switzerland and sees the cows coming down to lower pastures after spending the summer at high altitudes. The cows have decorations and bells that fill the town with ‘music’. It was an incredible experience to be a part of!
Our next stop was the tiny microstate of Liechtenstein which is one of the two doubly landlocked countries in the world. Liechtenstein is so tiny that the Swiss army accidentally invaded it when visibility was poor!
Let’s be honest, there isn’t a great deal to do in Liechtenstein. It is known as a cheap place to ski (well compared to Switzerland anyway!) and the capital city, Vaduz is where most of the museums are. We found that we could do everything we wanted to within an hour (which is great as the first hour of parking in the city is free!!) As you walk around Vaduz you can see the castle looking over the city!
Some people like to walk up to Vaduz castle but we drove up to see it (parking is free!). Liechtenstein is governed by their monarch and the castle cannot be visited as it is where the Princely Family reside. Imagine living in a proper medieval castle!
Liechtenstein is definitely a box ticking exercise for pretty much everyone who visits but it is actually a lovely and calm place to be and worth a visit if you’re nearby.
This brings us on to Austria! When I was planning this trip I knew I wanted to try and visit Austria but wanted the full on mountains and ski town kind of experience but the problem with Austria is that everything is so far away! I had my heart set on Innsbruck which ended up being 4 hours away from our air bnb which quickly had be be reconsidered so I went back to the original plan…Bregenz.
Bregenz is on Lake Constance (aka Bodensee) and can be reached from Liechtenstein in under an hour. The main draw of the city is definitely the lake. There is a floating opera every year that takes full advantage of the lake. I didn’t really enjoy our visit to Austria as I was still suffering with an infection and ended up struggling to walk a bit but I don’t particularly recommend Bregenz as a stop off point. When we got back to Germany I saw a post on Instagram of nearby Feldkirch and instantly knew I’d visited the wrong place!!!
Sorry Bregenz…
The Adventures of Kathryn 