False Teeth

Now that our big travel day (planes, trains and automobiles) is behind us and we had a good nights sleep, we are ready to enjoy Vaduz, the capital city of Liechtenstein.  

View of the Swiss Alps from our room this morning.

This country is about the size of Carmel (62 square miles) - one of the smallest countries in the world with a population of about 37,000 people.  Liechtenstein is a heredity principality with a parliamentary democracy.  It has the worlds lowest crime rate - its last murder was in 1997 and its prison only holds a couple inmates.  We're guessing it's like Mayberry R.F.D. with Sheriff Andy and Barney Fife! 

They are into their own unique postage stamps and many are represented along the pedestrian walkway.


Liechtenstein Government building.

The country religion is Roman Catholic and since today is Sunday, there are very few stores and restaurants open which is a little bit of a challenge.  Our hotel has complimentary breakfast included which was a good start for us.  It is a nice day today and so we started walking along the main pedestrian walkway to see the beautiful cathedral built in1868-1873.

Cathedral St. Florin

Church services were going on so we quietly snuck in and watched for a few minutes.  Since German is the language of this country, we didn't get much out of the church service but enjoyed seeing the inside.  


We continued to stroll around and catch views of the Vaduz castle perched high on the mountain overlooking the city, the Rhine River and Swiss Alps.  It beckons us to come and see it closer but it is the private castle of the Prince of Liechtenstein and is not open to the public and his family lives there.  According to our taxi driver, some 30 people live in the castle that has 100 rooms. 

The castle nearly straight up the cliff from the pedestrian walkway.

For lunch we searched around to find a place for sandwiches and found a grocery store and scored some chips and sandwiches.  Stomach's full, we boarded the Vaduz City Train Tour for a guided ride around the city. Along the way we got a good glance at the castle and the Red House - one of the oldest houses in Vaduz - dating back to 1338.

Rotes Haus / Red House


Vaduz City Train Tour

After our tram tour we went to the 'Old Cinema' which was very nice and comfy in red velvet seats to watch a movie on the history of the country and the castle.  Very informative and the only way to see the inside of the castle since it's only open one day a year - August 15th. 

The 'Old Cinema'

Next stop - let's think? What can we do next before heading back to our beautiful hotel on the walkway.

Time for our afternoon Gelato!

Getting your passport stamped in the tiny country is also quite a tourist attraction that most do not know about but, Bill found it in the research he did so we got ours stamped.

Very rare passport stamp for both of our passports.

At last we finely reached a point where we got a pretty good view of the Liechtenstein Castle high above the city.

The Castle high above the city.


So about now you're wondering what's the deal with the title of this blog - FALSE TEETH?  

Well, we learned that Liechtenstein is the world's leading manufacturer of false teeth.  They account for 20 percent of total sales of false teeth worldwide.  They produce 60 million sets yearly (get your teeth into THAT statistics!).  We guess we needed to get false teeth from someone, why not Liechtenstein? 




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