Vaduz

The sun is shining and the air is crisp and clean. We leave the apartment by 9am in our quest to reach every town in western Europe in 5 days. With coffee in hand we get to the train headed to Sargans which is nothing more than a pivot on the track that will bring us to Buchs. Here is a tiny town of farmers and textiles and one very important bus stop. It's important for a couple reasons. A) It is our ticket into Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein and B) If you don't get the bus it will be a very long walk. I knew Vaduz was going to be small, but it is amazing that such a place can sustain any form of business, let alone a wealth banking community and thriving wineries. There are exactly two streets in Vaduz. One through the center of town and one on the other side of town... approximately 50 meters away. We bought some chocolate, a bazaar meat sandwich, couple of postcards and headed up to the castle. The Vaduz Castle is well known as one of the last fully working castles that is still governed by their prince throughout all of Europe. The walk up the small street is perhaps more gratifying than the castle itself. Newly harvested vineyards line much of the walk providing a few morsels that farmers left behind. We took full advantage of these moments and inhaled grape after grape all while snapping picture on top of picture.