Vaduz Liechtenstein, Appenzell Switzerland

Travelled:129km

Stay: Appenzell Switzerland-free parking near pool and river N47.3267 E9.4179

Visited: Vaduz Liechtenstein 

We drove an hour or so on the motorway to the stadium parking area in Vaduz Liechtenstein. It is one of the smallest and wealthiest countries in the world in the Rhine Valley between Switzerland and Austria with a population of 37,000. It is a constitutional monarchy headed by a prince and uses low corporate tax to entice companies resulting in there being more registered companies than citizens! We went to have a look at the old bridge over the Rhine measuring 135m built in 1901.

 In the middle was the Swiss/Liechtenstein border which begged a photo opportunity.

From here we got a good view of the castle perched on top of a steep hill where his royal highness lives overlooking the capital city.

We walked to the centre and strolled along the main pedestrian street. There is a mixture of old and modern architecture. We walked past the 1933 Rathaus, the 2008 Parliament building and the impressive Government Building before having a look at St.Florin church. 

We then doubled back and returned to the motorhomes, paid our 0.50chf parking fee then took off on the motorway to Appenzell.

It’s a lovely little town at the foot of the Alpstein mountains with plenty of ornately decorated colourful buildings. 

We tasted some local produce whilst following the tourist map around the centre... almond marzipan sandwiched between gingerbread, a roll with pear, fig and walnut. 

We finished with a beer from the brewery and then ventured back to the motorhomes and took a refreshing dip in the river before calling it a day. 

Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany

Travelled : 169km
Stay:Germany - Lindenberg im Allgau, aire, free parking, no services.  N47.60080 E9.87636
Visited: Vaduz Liechtenstein,

There are days when travelling like we do, you start the day planning to go in one direction and end up going somewhere completely different. Although Switzerland is a beautiful country with so much to see and do, the overall feeling for us travelling in Bluey was that it was just getting too hard to find parking spots to stop and visit the bigger towns. Even in country towns they want you to pay for parking and to stay overnight was just getting too hard to find. Along with the shocking wet and cold weather we had quite frankly lost our mojo.  That is why we ended up driving through 4 countries today. Starting in Switzerland this morning we ventured into Liechtenstein and drove around the capital, Vaduz. Apart from the Royal castle on the hill, the church and a couple of other older buildings, it is a modern town. 

We used the free service point and parked for the free first hour and walked to see the old wooden bridge over the Rhine being the border between the 2 countries.  The currency here is Swiss francs.

The wet weather has brought out these huge snails. 

 From here we made out way back into Switzerland and on our way to St.Gallen we stopped in the small village of Trogen,  admiring the architecture. 

We then followed the road down along side the tramway into St.Gallen.  

It appeared to be quite a large town with a pretty centre, but once again the parking opportunities for Bluey were minimal and in the end we counted our losses and continued on towards Lake Constance. We were hoping to find a spot near Arbon but it was not suitable. 

Lacking the motivation to face another large town we opted to go to a quiet aire in Germany. Before we left we spent our remaining Swiss francs in Lidl and then drove along the lake and through Austria. 

After parking up we had a pleasant time chatting to fellow motorhomers before having a stroll through the town. We are looking forward to a day staying put tomorrow and hopefully recharge our batteries to carry us through our last 4 weeks.