Mitchenstein in Liechtenstein

I thought that writing the dates in Icelandic would be a nice touch – hey, we could all do with learning a little Icelandic.

Anyway, I thought I’d jump on the band wagon and include one of those maps that highlights all the countries you've been to. Unfortunately, I haven't worked out how to do that yet. But I did generate it all the same. I thought I’d been to quite a few countries, but looking at the map, I guess I still have quite a lot to do… I guess Liechtenstein and Luxembourg don’t take up that much space. A trip to Brazil, taking in Russia and Greenland is perhaps necessary (You'll see the map itself in good time).

I reckon this would be a good time to tell you some of my Liechtenstein facts. I don’t get that many opportunities to talk about Liechtenstein, so, if you don’t mind, I’m going to seize this one. Some of my information is from my own knowledge and some comes from the fantastic ‘Neither Here Nor There’, by Bill Bryson (always give your sources!). That’s a great read. Yeah, there are a few bad words in the Hamburg chapter, but anyone who’s been there won’t be surprised by that.

Now, people don’t spend that long in Liechtenstein (even its Royal Family managed to avoid it for 150 years). This became evident when a busload of American tourists arrived in Vaduz (the capital) and were told that they had twenty minutes to look around. We stayed in Liechtenstein for three days – we realised that was a little out of the ordinary when on the third day we walked into the tourist office and were met with the words ‘Are you guys STILL here?!’

I loved Liechtenstein – although one guy got a little angry with me over the Liechtenstein-England game that had taken place a couple of months before. He was angry that fear of English hooligan football fans meant that the Swiss army had to be on duty at the game – ‘The first time foreign troops had set foot in Liechtenstein for X-hundred years!’

These are my facts that make Liechtenstein so cool:

1. In the above-mentioned Liechtenstein-England game, one of the home team’s key defenders had to miss the game because he needed to pick his grapes.
2. Last time Liechtenstein went to war, their eighty men managed to avoid the enemy and return with eighty-one men, after having picked up a friend along the way.
3. Women didn’t get the vote until 1984 (obviously I don’t find this cool, but you must admit that this is pretty late!)
4. Liechtenstein’s political parties are so similar that they share a motto.
5. Liechtenstein has more companies than people.
6. It is the world’s largest producer of sausage skins and false teeth.
7. Little Liechtenstein has four train stations in total – however, no trains stop there.
8. Liechtenstein’s national anthem has the same tune as ours.
9. The McDonald’s restaurant sells Rolex watches.

These are all the facts I have about Liechtenstein.