Liechtenstein

Winding roads upwards

The 28th of May was a holiday here and we have little time left for running around in the mountains before heading back to Sweden, so we took the opportunity for a day-trip and headed to Liechtenstein. We decided to make a day trip to Lichtenstein and a hike there.  A visit to this small country has been on my wish-list for awhile. In 2001, I had crossed the country on the train to Austria, but never had the chance to stop (trains don't stop there). We had to take a bus from the closest Swiss town across the Rhine to the capital of Vaduz (just over 5 000 inhabitants). The buses are new and have children's voice announcing the bus stops - very cute!

From Alpspitze you can see the greater part of the whole country of Lichtenstein

We hiked to the top of Alpspitze just outside of Gaflei, a small town high above Vaduz. The path was steeper than I had imagined but the views were great. We ended up high above the Rhine valley and could see the whole country stretching out around us - literally! Liechtenstein has a population about 36 000 people covering an area of just 160 square km (62 sq. miles). We passed a sign pointing to the geographic center of Liechtenstein so we are pretty sure that we were seeing it all.

Summit Cross of Alpspitze, 1990m 

Hiking is not as easy at 34 weeks pregnant but I surprised myself a bit made it up and down the 550m vertical without too much trouble. I was not running and jumping down the mountain meadows like Andreas of course, but still quite happy.

Waiting for the bus at a resturant with a view

The whole hike took a bit longer than anticipated and we missed the bus that runs every 2 hours. But waiting was a good excuse to sit in the resturant and enjoy the view. Maybe our last mountain hike this year and it was a good one.