A couple of weeks ago I spent a day in Vaduz, the capital city of the Principality of Liechtenstein. I was always intrigued by this small state and it had been one of my places that I had to visit. Liechtenstein is a country landlocked between Switzerland and Austria whose area measures a tiny 160 square kilometres (that's half the area of Malta!). This makes it the 4th smallest state in Europe and the 6th smallest state in the world. Considering that the population of Liechtenstein is only 36,000, you can imagine how eager I was to meet my first native. The landscape is identical to Switzerland and you do not even realise you are in a different country when you get there. This is unsurprising because Liechtenstein has a great relationship with Switzerland, sharing its language, currency and also its railway line among other economic and trade agreements.
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| The Prince of Liechtenstein winery with a view of Vaduz castle in the background |
Vaduz is a very small city and it doesn't take much time to go around it all by foot. We started our day by visiting the Prince of Liechtenstein Winery where we got to taste some good wine. Liechtenstein's wine is not exported (they do not produce large enough amounts for export) and therefore it is quite rare! And if you still believe in finding a prince and live your own fairy tale happily ever after, then Liechtenstein might be a good place to start looking - it is governed by the Prince who also enjoys administrative power together with parliament members and has the veto, giving him the power to block any motion from passing. The people of Liechtenstein really love their monarch and I remember reading somewhere an episode where a referendum was called (Liechtenstein is a direct democracy like Switzerland) to remove the Prince's veto, yet the people still voted strongly in favour of the Prince keeping his authority. The Princely family is also a very young family and they lead normal everyday lives like ordinary people so it is not unlikely for you to bump into a member of the royal family whilst out shopping, and probably not even realising it. The only difference is that the Princely family resides in a medieval castle and is filthy rich, owning wineries, banks, palaces in Vienna and a 22,000 masterpiece collection among many other things (estimated worth at $5 billion).
For the ladies - the Prince's nephew has just turned 18 and is third in line to the throne, just putting it out there for you).
Here's some more awesome numbers for you. Liechtenstein has won 9 Olympic medals (all in alpine skiing) making it the country with the highest medals per capita. There are also more companies registered in Liechtenstein than there are inhabitants (almost 80,000), due to the country being a tax haven and having very strong financial services (there are also 16 banks in the country!). The country specialises in manufacturing high-end products and has a very strong industry making it an extremely wealthy country with a very high standard of living. Our guide also told us that there are 46,000 jobs which means that they actually need people from Switzerland or Austria to fill them up and unemployment is one of the world's lowest at 1.5 %. But you can't just decide to move to Liechtenstein unfortunately; the only way to get a residence permit is to marry a local, so what most foreigners do instead is cross the border every day to work.
What perhaps fascinates me the most is how Liechtenstein has somehow managed to remain an independent country and not been ruled over by anyone else, or if anything merged with Switzerland. Apparently the territory of Liechtenstein was purchased back in the 18th century so as its owners could acquire the power and title they desired (you needed to own land to be able to achieve that). Liechtenstein's sovereignty was then awarded by Napoleon as a result of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in the early 19th century. Sounds pretty complicated to me and still doesn't quite answer my question as to how the country managed to hold its own and remain neutral throughout the world wars which ensued but that's all I understand.
We then spent the rest of the weekend in nearby Konstanz in Germany, where we also spent a day at the Bodensee Thermal baths, part of which involved us having to strip naked in mixed changing rooms to enter the sauna, a very normal German practice and it served as a real test of friendship for all of us. Although it was not my first experience at such baths, it was understandably a bit intimidating for the others at first. Now I can assure you we will be best friends for ever and that we know each other a little more closely than we perhaps would have ever imagined.
Tschüss!
For the ladies - the Prince's nephew has just turned 18 and is third in line to the throne, just putting it out there for you).
Here's some more awesome numbers for you. Liechtenstein has won 9 Olympic medals (all in alpine skiing) making it the country with the highest medals per capita. There are also more companies registered in Liechtenstein than there are inhabitants (almost 80,000), due to the country being a tax haven and having very strong financial services (there are also 16 banks in the country!). The country specialises in manufacturing high-end products and has a very strong industry making it an extremely wealthy country with a very high standard of living. Our guide also told us that there are 46,000 jobs which means that they actually need people from Switzerland or Austria to fill them up and unemployment is one of the world's lowest at 1.5 %. But you can't just decide to move to Liechtenstein unfortunately; the only way to get a residence permit is to marry a local, so what most foreigners do instead is cross the border every day to work.
What perhaps fascinates me the most is how Liechtenstein has somehow managed to remain an independent country and not been ruled over by anyone else, or if anything merged with Switzerland. Apparently the territory of Liechtenstein was purchased back in the 18th century so as its owners could acquire the power and title they desired (you needed to own land to be able to achieve that). Liechtenstein's sovereignty was then awarded by Napoleon as a result of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in the early 19th century. Sounds pretty complicated to me and still doesn't quite answer my question as to how the country managed to hold its own and remain neutral throughout the world wars which ensued but that's all I understand.
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| Not something you experience every day! |
We then spent the rest of the weekend in nearby Konstanz in Germany, where we also spent a day at the Bodensee Thermal baths, part of which involved us having to strip naked in mixed changing rooms to enter the sauna, a very normal German practice and it served as a real test of friendship for all of us. Although it was not my first experience at such baths, it was understandably a bit intimidating for the others at first. Now I can assure you we will be best friends for ever and that we know each other a little more closely than we perhaps would have ever imagined.
Tschüss!
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