Thursday, October 14, 2004
What country are we in now? Saturday morning
That seemed to be the question of the day, I can't even count how many times we asked each other this. We bounced back and forth between countries all day, and often had no idea which one we were in. Our tour guide did a good job of telling us where we were, we just kept forgetting!
We left breakfast and drove into Liechtenstein, pausing on the roadside to look at the Gutenberg Castle. The guide shared some info about it while were able to take some photos, and then on we went for a quick tour of Maienfeld, the town that Heidi lives near in the book. Very beautiful village, and surrounded by vineyards in the valley. Then there are meadows leading up into the mountains, absolutely what you picture when you think of Switzerland. We then drove up a mountain so we could get out and enjoy a view of the valley (or "walley", as our tour guide pronounced it).
It was amazing up there, you could see the valley below and hear the cow bells. It is surprising to see the cows all the way up there, soon they will come down for the winter. It sounds like it is quite the festival, the cows even get to wear flowered hats for the trip down. Here is a short movie clip so you can hear the alpine cow bells, it may take a little while to load. From there the bus headed slowly and carefully back down the mountain, navigating many hairpin curves, into the City of Vaduz in Liechtenstein. We had the option of walking around on our own, or taking a tour on the Citytrain, which included a visit to the winery, and a free glass. We thought that would be more fun than wandering around on our own, it is a fairly small town. The train ride was fun, if you followed the link, the fellow in the picture was our tour guide. The winery was interesting, and we got our souvenir glass. It was filled with some very dry wine, supposedly a very famous and respected wine. We passed on buying more of it, and got back on the train for the rest of the tour. We were able to get a good view of the Castle Vaduz, where the Count and his family often reside. They were there at the time, this was known because they fly a particular flag when they are present. Afterwards we had some time to look around in some of the shops before we boarded the bus again to head into Austria. We were going to hit all three countries before 1 pm! (No wonder I'm still tired)
We left breakfast and drove into Liechtenstein, pausing on the roadside to look at the Gutenberg Castle. The guide shared some info about it while were able to take some photos, and then on we went for a quick tour of Maienfeld, the town that Heidi lives near in the book. Very beautiful village, and surrounded by vineyards in the valley. Then there are meadows leading up into the mountains, absolutely what you picture when you think of Switzerland. We then drove up a mountain so we could get out and enjoy a view of the valley (or "walley", as our tour guide pronounced it).
It was amazing up there, you could see the valley below and hear the cow bells. It is surprising to see the cows all the way up there, soon they will come down for the winter. It sounds like it is quite the festival, the cows even get to wear flowered hats for the trip down. Here is a short movie clip so you can hear the alpine cow bells, it may take a little while to load. From there the bus headed slowly and carefully back down the mountain, navigating many hairpin curves, into the City of Vaduz in Liechtenstein. We had the option of walking around on our own, or taking a tour on the Citytrain, which included a visit to the winery, and a free glass. We thought that would be more fun than wandering around on our own, it is a fairly small town. The train ride was fun, if you followed the link, the fellow in the picture was our tour guide. The winery was interesting, and we got our souvenir glass. It was filled with some very dry wine, supposedly a very famous and respected wine. We passed on buying more of it, and got back on the train for the rest of the tour. We were able to get a good view of the Castle Vaduz, where the Count and his family often reside. They were there at the time, this was known because they fly a particular flag when they are present. Afterwards we had some time to look around in some of the shops before we boarded the bus again to head into Austria. We were going to hit all three countries before 1 pm! (No wonder I'm still tired)
