Saturday 4 July 1998

Slideshow Pictures

Finally we had found Liechtenstein. Drove into Vaduz, which is only about one or two kilometers from the shopping center we had stopped in. Drove through town and found Hotel Gasthof Loewen, which is on the north end of Vaduz, at 5:15 p.m. Fabulous old building. The receptionist was a lady, who could have been cast as, a stalag guard in a WW2 movie. Big lady, no smile, with her hair tied in a bun. Very efficient. "You will be in room 321, front door closes at 12 o’clock, breakfast is from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.." I fought the urge to click my heels and extend my arm.

The hallways had beautiful dark hardwood floors and decorated with wonderful antique furniture. Our room was at the southeast corner of the building, facing the Prince’s palace and overlooked part of the small vineyard which belonged to the hotel.

The furnishings were exquisite antiques. On the table was a plate of fruit and fresh flowers.

The beds were ornate antique with down comforters, rolled up neatly. Rachel’s bed however was not very impressive, a cot at the foot of the main bed.

The bathroom was totally tiled, even the mirror frames, art deco with very heavy free-standing sinks. A very large makeup mirror, which impressed Rita, a scale and of course a hair dryer.

At the hotel, in the garden, there was a wedding taking place. Everybody came with a Mercedes, Porsche or some other expensive car. Ladies in their beautiful gowns and gentlemen in their finery were walking down the street to the hotel.

After freshening up we went for a walk through Vaduz, not a great feat. Rita bought some postcards and stamps at a gift shop, then we started walking back towards the hotel. We stopped for dinner at an outdoor restaurant. Rachel had French-fries, which were different: small lemon yellow , I had sauerkraut with pork.

 After dinner we went back to the hotel. Rachel decided to stay in the room to beautify herself while Rita and I went for a drive.

We drove to a ski resort in the very southern end of Liechtenstein, and then decided to tour the north of the country. We were back in about half an hour, Rachel was still in the bathtub.

Sunday 5 July 1998

Had a buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant which was again decorated with beautiful antiques. We were the only people in the restaurant. Notice the bar on the left side of the picture. Yes that is Booze. Several hotels in Europe had a bar for breakfast.

Even the waitress made only a brief appearance, and as we found with other people in the country not overly friendly. They seemed to be warm to each other but, very formal to outsiders.

This was one of the nicest hotels we stayed in on our trip, also the most costly. 330 SFr $323 CAN.

We left the hotel around 9:25 a.m. Rita wanted to mail the postcards she had bought the day before, so we drove around looking for a red mailbox. Couldn’t find a red mail box anywhere so we returned to the hotel to ask the receptionist were we could mail the postcards from. It was across the street about half a block away at a bus stop. It was yellow. Filled up at 1.15 SFr, $1.14 CAN. Shortly after crossed border to Austria.