Liechtenstein - an abbreviated intro.

The most common question I get when referring to Liechtenstein is: 'but, where is it?'. Most people think it is a city in Switzerland, but actually it is not. It is a very small country, a principality (Fürstentum) that is land-locked by Austria and Swizerland. 

 The Swiss-Liechtenstein border on the Rhine.
Being a kiwi, it is endlessly fascinating to experience border
crossings that don't involve aeroplanes, passport control and
months of planning..

The resident population of Liechtenstein is about 35 000, but thanks to being the homeland of some large multi-nationals like Ivoclar (below), that makes most of the world's false teeth, this swells by at least that amount every day. Perusing the number plates of cars in the Ivoclar parking lot, we saw a mix of Swiss, Austrian and even German plates, with only a few 'FL' (Fürstentum Liechtenstein) ones.

At the moment my Liechtenstein adventures have been mainly focused around letting the jetlag subside and trying to dredge up whatever German may be in my brain so that I can perform essential tasks like.. decode the indecipherable error messages on my sister's coffee machine. Between me and the 5 year old translator (Miss J), we decided that it was telling me to 'press the button', which was .. not exactly specific. The graphics didn't really suggest an easy solution either. After much frustration, a 'reboot' did the trick.

Apart from arguing with the appropriately named 'Saeco', I'm making the most of being warmly welcomed,

and hanging out with my sister.

More adventures to follow..