Mystery of the day

Who thought it would be a good idea to use this particular picture in promotional material for the country of Liechtenstein?

Liechtensteiny blues

After not leaving the country in over a month, our wanderlust brought us to Liechtenstein on Saturday afternoon. It took about an hour and a half to get there from Zurich by train and then bus. We decided to head for the capital, Vaduz (who knew Liechtenstein was big enough for more than one town?), since it contained a few interesting-sounding museums and such.

We arrived around 1 pm and headed straight to a restaurant that promised Liechtensteinese (is there a real adjective form of this word? Anyone? Anyone?) specialties, which turned out to be strikingly similar to Swiss food: meat, potatoes, sausage, cheese, spatzle, beer. Actually a lot of things about Liechtenstein are strikingly similar to Switzerland: the Swiss Franc is the official currency, High German is the official written language, and an incomprehensible dialect is what they actually speak. Plus it's generally clean, safe, and orderly, at least from what we saw.

After lunch we wandered around town and checked out a couple souvenir shops (which sold as much Swiss stuff as Liechtensteinian stuff) before heading to the art museum. The guidebook promised a fabulous collection owned by the benevolent royal family, but the lady selling tickets practically begged us not to go in as she explained that the entire upstairs was closed since they were changing the exhibit and it really wasn't worth our 8 francs. We then wandered towards the Landes Musesum, which featured an exhibit on Ötzi. We are big fans of Ötzi, but we learned all we need to know about him at a similar exhibit in Bolzano, Italy, two years ago. At least there were several outdoor sculptures throughout the town for us to enjoy.

So our attempts at museum visits were thwarted. No matter - we had already learned over lunch that the real fun in Liechtenstein lies not in its actuality, but rather in its concept. The tourist office had provided us with a fascinating little statistical booklet all about the country, which led us to some deep, profound thinking about what it would be like to be from such a teeny, tiny land. What would it be like to travel the world as a Liechtensteiner, introducing yourself as from a country that no one knew anything about? A country that made Switzerland look really big? A country where you knew every single citizen by his/her first name? We entertained these questions and more as we hopped on a bus and high-tailed it out of there. Conclusion: listen to the guidebooks when they all but scream at you that a particular country is not worth the trip.