Vaduz to Interlaken (Switzerland)
We woke up in Piding and enjoyed our German breakfast of meats and cheese. Lots of meats and cheese. John ordered a black tea and was given an earl grey, well everyone knows earl grey is not breakfast tea. You can't put milk in it, although we saw some Germans doing just that. Satisfied in the knowledge as Englishmen we knew more about tea than these European lot we set off towards Lichtenstein. As we were on the road we checked the documents for the car and saw that potentially we couldn't drive into Lichtenstein. We probably should have done this before with Andorra. John rang the branch in Paris and asked if we could, we were willing to pay extra if insurance cover was the issue. The Parisians said it wasn't possible, they had no agents in Lichtenstein. We couldn't really understand this, Lichtenstein isn't Chad or Angola and companies usually like taking more money. Suspecting Parisian laziness (we now think the problem with the car was with National Car Rental not Holiday Autos) John rang National in the UK. They were extremely helpful and checked with National international and got back to us in 5 minutes. Apparently we could go to Lichtenstein and it wouldn't cost us a penny extra. Motto of this story never trust a Parisian.
It was about a three hour drive through the countryside before we arrived at Vaduz, We crossed three boarders on route. Leaving Germany we entered Austria and then even crossed into Switzerland before eventually getting to Lichtenstein. Vaduz the capital was just across it boarder with Switzerland. Lichtenstein is the only remaining Absolute Monarchy in Europe. The Prince has the power to dissolve Parliament at will, however the royal family are loved by their populations as their business sense has created one of the highest GDPs in all of Europe. Living standards are high and we saw a clean, neat, modern capital. The fair was in town too so the entire population of the town was out and about, all 5000 of them. We went to the public buildings of note, the Parliament building, the Cathedral, the Town Hall. The place had a very affluent feel, we felt that when we ordered sandwiches that cost way too much. Still it was preparing us for the expense of Switzerland. After sandwiches we drove up to Vaduz Castle which sits on a cliff overlooking Vaduz and all of Lichtenstein. It is the castle of the prince of Lichtenstein, was very imposing. As we loitered outside a well dressed man, woman, and child come past us and said 'Hello' in German. All three entered the castle after waving to the guard outside. A bit confused we looked up the royal family of Lichtenstein and discover that the man was the son of the Prince. You wouldn't see the heir apparent wondering around without guards in the UK!
Leaving Lichtenstein we head for Interlaken Switzerland, its a long drive over mountains and through tunnels. After a brief time on the wrong side of the road we remember we are not in the UK and they drive funny in these foreign parts. We arrive in Switzerland almost straight away, Lichtenstein being quite a small country but need to traverse nearly the whole of Switzerland to get to get Interlaken. For the first time during the trip we hit traffic, we hear sirens ahead and we grind to a halt. Up ahead we see a man dressed in military uniform run ahead of us. The traffic starts to roll again, and we see the trouble. There is a Renault Clio on its roof. No sign of how it got there, the only indication of damage was a broken back window. As we were crawling before this incident occurred, this accident was so fresh there weren't any emergency vehicles at the scene yet (although we could hear them coming) we believe it wasn't involved in a collision. So how had this Clio come to be on its roof upside down, the3re was a bridge very close to it, we think it must have gone over the bridge landing on its back. There was no one in the Clio and saw a shaken woman milling about so we reckon they were OK. Strange times, we thankfully past it before the entire plethora of emergency vehicles arrived and shut our side of the road.
We arrived to Interlaken after a rather hairy drive involving some pretty crazy Mountain driving in the dark. John managed rather well and I only thought we were going to die a few times. John said that he hadn't had to concentrate on driving like that since just after he passed his test. Found a hotel overlooking the lake, dumped our bags and went on a quest for fondue. With a recommendation from the hotel receptionist we went on out way looking for the Bear restaurant. Sat down an ordered Starters and Fondue - Everyone speaks impeccable English here. We asked for the recommended drink for Fondue which was white wine. We wondered what we would be brought to dip in the cheese. Some meat perhaps? some vegetables as well? We were presented with a vat of hot cheese and some bread cut into squares. Bread to start - no problem. We worked our way through the bread and awaited the next dipping food to arrive. More bread was placed onto our table. We then understood why no-one else was eating fondue. While it is a traditional dish, an exciting dish it is not. At least it explains why not every one in Switzerland has Scurvy. After working our way through the second basket of bread we gracefully declined the third. We had had rather enough bread and cheese for now. Saturated fat levels were plenty high. We had strange noodle looking stuff with ice-cream for desert it was called Vermicellis and we don't really know what it was made of although we have a hunch it was hazelnuts as it was 'special nuts from the tress that arrive at this time'. Paid with our Swiss notes that looked like they were coloured in with a crayon.
Got back to our hotel and watched a strange (Swiss?) German version of 'You Bet' where some of the wonderful acts included a man picking up stamps with his spit and another where a man blew over about 40 bottles of water. One presenter looked like a dodgy Dr Who and the female presenter was high on the eye candy ratings. And that's all we did that day.
Travelling:
Piding - Lichtenstein 210 Miles
Lichtenstein- Interlaken 131 Miles
Total: 341 Miles
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