Schaan 1 (part 2 tomorrow)

Here are some pics I've taken in my walks around Schaan, which is the most populated town in Liechtenstein.

The town is overlooked by the steeple of the St Laurentius church, which may or may not be featured against an impressive mountainous backdrop, depending on the weather.

 The last few days have been cloudy and with thunderstorms. Watching lightning fizzle around the Alps is better than any manmade lightshow.

Here are some more pics from my wanderings. 

Residential housing (if you are hearing 'the sound of music' playing in your brain, that's totally ok, and completely appropriate):

The Theatre Am Kirchplatz (TAK):

Camels and zebras - apparently not locals; there was a visiting circus:

The Waldorf School

Shops:

Today, I finally made it to the best coffee shop in town - Demmel Kaffee (you may recall from this post, that The Programmer and I loved their espresso cups so much that we bankrupted our travel budget to own some.

What could be better? No matter which side of the world I'm on, it's a guaranteed happy moment if I'm sitting in front of a great espresso in an actual roasterie. Not only that, but the owner, Peter, who has met me exactly once and speaks good English, welcomed me like a long-lost friend, and set me up in a window seat so I could re-caffeinate, watch the world go by and feel good about life.

Feldkirch Wildpark

Just over the Austrian border from Liechtenstein, is the mediaeval town of Feldkirch. We headed there by car yesterday, but not to visit the town. We went in search of Der Luchs.

Feldkirch wildpark has a lot going for it, not the least of which being that it is entry by donation and has a large, shady kinderspiel area for kids to go feral. The park features lots of animals typical of the region, including many types of goats - as would be expected so close to the Swiss Alps. Check out this horny beast!

Being summer, there were lots of friendly babies.

The path wanders through a mature forest and at certain points it is possible to get a good view of famous buildings in Feldkirch.

This is Schattenburg, a castle lately famous for housing a fantastic restaurant, where the Wiener Schnitzel is bigger than the plate it comes on.

And yes, we did find ourselves a Luchs (Lynx). Two, even. Mission accomplished.

Today, I have plans to finish up my tour of the Kulturweg in Schaan and then head to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. My Kulturweg walk kept coming unstuck by virtue of the fact that it is actually not well signposted. I found myself wandering aimlessly until I came across another signpost which inevitably pointed me back in the direction I had just arrived from. I gave up and headed to the Italian coffee shop, La Golosa. At least they speak Italian there and I don't have to mess around with my 'Ich's' and 'spreche's' - which, when put together in a sentence by my mouth just seem to come out like a long-winded sneeze.

More tomorrow!

Im Palast

On the way home from Spieleland (yesterday's post) we stopped for dinner at the Im Palast restaurant. This is located in a mediaeval palace in Hohenems, Austria - quite close to the Liechtenstein border.

Apparently it has a hausgeist (ghost). We didn't see him, but we did see the biggest beer I've ever encountered outside of a coming of age party.

Funky beer glasses seem to be a feature of the restaurant. Here is the bro-in-law with his one.

While eating, we were 'serenaded' by some sort of wild beer party going on in a pub across the road. It seemed to be a loud mix of German Folk Music and American Rock Classics, all sung at loud volume by what sounded to be a large crowd having a sehr gut time.

Over in the biergarten, we were eyeing up the menu. Seeing too many unfamiliar words, I cheated and asked for an English version. I was pleased to see that all over the menu were little boxes explaining how much care they take to use spring water and various specialised, healthy condiments, such Himilayan rock salt.

Sistasana and I ordered the 'wheelbarrow', which was a seafood dish for two. It arrived in a wheelbarrow, which is probably the traditional mediaeval way of delivering fish.... (?)

I forgot to photograph it before we dug in, but the selection was impressive - perch, salmon, tuna and prawns, on a steamed rice with veges.

We had a little language problem when, in attempting to order white wine, we actually ordered the white wine foam - a sort of sauce for the fish. 

As you can see on the Im Palast website (www.palast.at), one of the cool things that happens at this palace is mediaeval nights, where you party like it's 1499. Lots of meat on the bone and wine goes down with a side of authentic palace atmosphere and properly dressed serving wenches. I'm not sure if we will get to do that this trip, but it's been put on the 'to-do if time and budget allows it' list.  Maybe (if the wine is flowing like it should) we will see the hausegeist! I hope he is not camera shy. Ghost pics would add that little extra something to my blogging.

Spieleland (Playland)

The last few days have been totally mad, with no time to even download the bazillions pics on my camera, let alone blog, but here I am (phew), actually sitting down.  It has also been h-o-t, around 35 degrees celcius, and I'm getting a very interesting t-shirt tan on my previously winter-pasty self.

Yeterday we drove to Ravensburger Spieleland, which is in Liebenau, Germany, about 1 hours drive from Liechtenstein.

As you would expect, it's a massive park where you can set kids free to do lots of super fun things that involve going fast, crashing into things, climbing thousands of stairs and getting wet. If the child in question is under 8 years old, it is usually necessary for a parent or Aunty to also be speeding, climbing, crashing or getting soaked.

The queue was really short, and as we arrived after 2pm, the cost was €17 (it is about €24 for a full day, but the locals generally get a season pass).  It was at that point that I remembered something.... I had no euros, only Swiss Francs, which Spieleland do not accept. Luckily Sistasana and the bro-in-law rescued me. :) Liechtenstein and Switzerland are not part of the European Union, although they do interact with EU countries via all sorts of treaties. As such, like the UK, they have retained their currency, the Swiss Franc.  In talking to the locals, it is obvious that their currency is a point of real pride. Tourists should just practice the 'when in Rome' rule (or, in this case 'when in Liechtenstein') - Francs in one pocket, Euros in the other.

We started with a late lunch at the cafe. The schnitzel/salad combination was suprisingly good quality for a theme park (about 10 steps up from the sad offerings that I experienced at Movieworld in Aussie).

Then it was on to an exhausting few hours, which involved such things as taking a 'magic carpet' down the curly slide to the left of this space-ship looking complex of fast slides. Miss J was keen to try the nearly vertical one in the middle, but just as I'd worked up my courage for it, the assistant told us that you couldn't do it as a tandem, and Miss J was too small to do it on her own. This resulted in a proper tantrum at the top of the slide, but the bad mood dissolved into earsplitting delighted squeals at the first speedy turn of the curly tube slide.

Other activites were more relaxing, such as the fantasy boat ride.  This had a theme of pirates and Cap'n Blue Bär, who is a mascot of the Spieleland.

There was also a flying bee ride (which did not require an adult sidekick)

The pedal boat, however, did need someone with legs long enough to reach the pedals. This was definitely my least favourite part of the day. Pedalling on a shade-less lake in 'hot-as-hell' temperatures is not my idea of fun times. I also managed to crash the boat, through a natural lack of nautical skills and a very confusing steering system which consisted of a single lever that you push right or left. You can imagine how easily one could mess that up.

Having determined that I can't drive a pedal-boat, I was thrilled to discover that I do possess mad skills at driving a purple hippo.

It was also awesome to get some wind and water after walking around feeling a bit sticky and sweaty. If you make it to Spieleland, I'd recommend multiple turns on the purple hippo. This is just what we did, going out the off-ramp then jumping the fence directly back on to the on-ramp. The assistant turned a blind eye, helpfully giving us the full instructions every time we turned up at the gate. We purple hippo'd pretty much until closing time at 5, then headed off to dinner at a haunted Austrian castle (more about that tomorrow).

Travel Food

Halli Hallo, yes, that's a very delicious pic, oder? One of my favourite things about travel is encountering the foods of a different place or culture. Even the simple task of supermarket shopping becomes full of wonder and excitement.  I always want to try everything. I'll be posting later on Sanaworld about how I do this without letting my ass get enormous.

Some of my most loved foodie things about this part of the world are: pastries (as above) and bread - things which do not feature heavily in my regular life. The variety in the Liechtenstein-Switzerland area is astounding and they are fresh baked every day in the Bäkerei and most supermarkets.  With the bread particularly, there is a treasure chest of organic and wheat-free varieties, as well as traditionally fermented. I was musing over Dunkelbrot (mm.. I wonder what this one is made of..?), when Miss J grabbed it from my hand, placed it in the trolley and said 'that means dark bread, you will like it, can we go now?' I believe I may have been loitering past the patience level of a 5-and-a-half year old.

Other favourites I have become reacquainted with this week:

90% Lindt. You just can't get this in NZ. I will be bringing a bunch of it home with me, including some for a Sanaworld blog giveaway.

Bircher Muesli in a pot:

Organic yogurts and quark. You can get organic yogurt in NZ, but the selection is limited. Cherry is oh-so-yum. Organic quark is not something I have seen in my homeland at all. Even getting non-organic quark is a little difficult sometimes:

I also found coloured eggs, which I've never seen before. They are pre-hardboiled, for picnics in the alps and so on.

I was also once again awed by the processed meats selection. This photo represents about 1/4 of the chilled area devoted to all things salami, prosciutto and kaiserfleish in the local Coop. Meats and cheeses are a very big deal in this region, far more so than I ever noticed in other parts of Europe.

The local sodium consumption must be off the charts.

Today my plans include walking the Kulturweg, which takes in the arty parts of Schaan, which is the most populated town in Liechtenstein and, according to tourismus.li, the most cultured. I'm sure today will also contain quite a bit of German language cartoon watching, bike riding, food cooking and caffe trinken in the sun. Can't complain... :)

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..

From 'Yesterday', Yesterday.

I’m writing this post from Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport, but at £9.99 minimum wi-fi charge, I certainly won’t be sending it from here! I’ve been to Heathrow before, but it’s only this time, as a transit passenger, that I’m appreciating how enormous it is. It’s a 10 minute bus ride from the landing runway to Terminal 5, and at no time during that journey did the three of us on the bus leave the airport, or in fact officially enter the UK. In transit, you are considered a risky specimen and must remain segregated until you have been scanned, controlled and possibly swabbed for biocontaminants and explosives.

Apart from size, the other salient point about Heathrow, Terminal 5, is that no-way-in-hell can I even think about doing any shopping here. I’ve been gazing in the windows of Prada, Gucci and Harrods, but the only price tag I saw said ON SALE £1100 - true, the dress was to-do-for, it was probably a serious bargain.  Looking as I do right now, I don’t really feel spunky enough anyway to go walking my $20 travel pants into a fine shop where the staff, the layout and even the floor tiles ooze daunting amounts of glamour. Even if merely window shopping, I’d prefer not to be looked upon as a piece of fluffy stuff that should be swept out the door ASAP. And I AM fluffy, because the (comfy and necessary) Air NZ blanket left wild pink fuzz all over my black clothes! And you know that the pink-fuzz covered couture look adds so much to that essence of well-traveled sophistication that I’m attempting to cultivate (giggling allowed).

I am not sure exactly what the NZD to Pound exchange rate is right now, but there is a fair chance that my lunch/dinner/snack (my body and brain have ceased to care which mealtime we are at) cost me upward of $30 in my home currency – ouch. At least I pulled together a healthyish option without having to think too hard. Salmon salad, an apple and an elderberry jelly from Pret a Manger. Of course I forgot that one way to pile on the pounds in England is to sit down (I’m talking about the fiscal ones, although I suppose it could also be true for the wobbly sort). Charging you extra to eat-in is something unheard of in NZ.  Maybe we just have a more favourable bum to chair ratio?

As you can see by my iPod, I have actually traveled backward in time and am currently in yesterday, which feels.. slightly jetlaggy. I should feel worse than I do because, apart from getting you to where you want to go, long-haul has little to recommend it. Perhaps the placebo juice helped after all, even though I only had enough for the first leg of the trip if I drank the recommended amount. My route so far has been Christchurch to Auckland (1 hour) then a three hour wait. Next flight Auckland to Hong Kong (about 10 hours), where we were anticipating 1.5 hours in the amazing airport while the plane refueled. However, the first 1 hour and 25 minutes involved getting ‘processed’ and relinquishing any liquids over 100ml. In the five minutes before getting back on the plane, I power sholpped an iPod armband with free training app. for an unknown amount of kiwi dollars (it was 300 Chinese dollars), and replenish my just-confiscated water for another unknown expense. The next flight was Hong Kong to London. I was seated next to a very pleasant teenage girl that spent the whole 12 hours sniffling, coughing and sneezing into tissues. I tried not to breathe. I spent a lot of time chatting with the stewardesses, one of whom admitted to me that she had never been game to fly from Europe to NZ as it was ‘the longest flight you could possibly do’. Indeed, and it’s not over yet!

There are now two hours before my last flight, which is to Zurich. This is a relatively short flight – about 2 hours and my mission is to stay awake. I’m also eyeing up the Chocolate Box shop just *over there* for a hopefully affordable present for the fam. I’d love to take some pics in here, but I got enough dirty looks just foodcamming my Pret a Manger, and would hate to attract the attention of security. I’m sure they are used to kiwi’s causing havoc, but I’d rather not get my mums camera confiscated at this early stage of things. Maybe I’ll risk it on the way home.