Philatelist's Haven

This morning we visited the Principality of Liechtenstein, a 35 minute journey from Grabs across the Rhine Valley, with one slick bus change in Buchs. The return trip cost CHF 4.20 - equal to the cost of a cup of coffee at high street prices here. A very reasonably priced excursion to another country. 

Liechenstein features  regularly on Swiss weather maps as one of the consistently hottest places in the country. It functions much like a Swiss Canton with its own elected government and institutions, but it uses Swiss currency, has a constitutional monarch, the Prince as head of state. It has its own legal code, even its own Archbishop, whose flock is the size of a large UK parish.

In the 20th century, this small state rose from rural poverty to become a international banking and tax haven. It's a lot larger than Monaco with its 60 sq miles of mostly mountainous land area, but its population at 30,000 is roughly the same. There's good skiing in winter, some high tech engineering businesses, a famous postage stamp industry, endless streams of day visitors, and private banking industry. All of these work to make its population unusually wealthy.

There's not much more to the town centre of Vaduz, the capital city than a high street of rather dull late 20th century shops offering all the prestige high value brands, some curious public art, and a few stylish new art galleries. Standing next to the Parish Church of Sankt Florin, which doubles as a Cathedral, is a 19th century government building in the Austrian imperial style. This is now flanked by a new building clad in yellow brick, its simple lines in daring contrast to its neighbour. The open precinct in front of them contains an array of lime trees, planted in five straight lines running for over a hundred metres, a hundred trees in all. Probably each is planted in a growth restricting container to make this artificial grove of trees manageable in the public realm. It looks striking in summer, offering a shady area within a large open space, but the trees are not evergreens. Apart from looking good in summer, it's hard to imagine how this area will function in winter.

We wandered the main street, bought ourselves some post cards and stamps, and a picnic lunch. Then we climbed up the footpath to the Palace. It's on a promontory overlooking the town, about six hundred feet above the plain. The first stage, past the houses on the slower slopes is all steps. Then the path becomes a series of long gradients, with occasional views through the trees, and punctuated by a succession of information panels giving the history of the royal house and principality, an account of its social and economic geography, religion and political constitution. This is very well set out in German, French and English, clear and simple, a super resource for visiting school parties to use on their ascent. At the top there is a viewing platform, and a place where we could eat our picnic lunch. 

The road to the castle runs close by, so we were able to walk up to the outskirts of the palace and take in the scenic location before descending. The castle is not open to visitors, it's the private home and work place of the Prince and his family. Having reached our goal and sent our handful of postcards, we returned to Grabs, feeling unusually tired after our steep climb in one of Switzerland's hottest places, today and any day.