Little Liechtenstein

The Principality of Liechtenstein is a tiny German-speaking country located between Switzerland and Austria. Liechtenstein is only 160 square kilometers in size, which is incredible if you consider that my hometown of Calgary is over 725 km²!

Given Liechtenstein’s small size I had only allotted a couple of hours for my visit, but in hindsight I wish I had planned to spend more time in the area as it was surprisingly beautiful. I also had not researched Liechtenstein’s tourist attractions in advance so I simply took advantage of my rental car to drive around exploring myself.

My first stop was in Balzers, which is a village of 4500 located near the main highway that runs along Liechtenstein’s Western border. Balzers was a great place to stop as I was immediately treated to the site of a beautiful castle built atop a hill. Unfortunately, my Canon S100 camera broke that day, so the only picture I have of the Gutenburg Castle was taken from the poor quality camera on my old Asus tablet.

Gutenburg Castle in Balzers

From Balzers, I drove through the town of Triesen and saw a crazy looking road on my GPS that I just had to drive. The road twisted up the  side of a mountain to the town of Triesenberg. Not only did I feel like a rally car racer while driving up to Triesenberg, but the entire journey offered incredible views out over the mountains and I spent a long time at the top just sitting by the side of the road absorbing it all in.

Crazy Road to Triesenberg

I really enjoyed my short time in Liechtenstein and would love to return and spend more time exploring the principality’s incredible landscapes.