Day 13 – Liechtenstein, Etc.

In his Switzerland guidebook, Rick Steves highlights Ebenalp for “wonderful views” and a “hills are alive” atmosphere. Our stay at Berggasthaus Ebenalp ichived up to the billing, and we loved the quiet night away from cars, lights, people, and noise in general. After getting our bags packed, we enjoyed having the dining room to ourselves again or breakfast. Emmie wasn’t a fan of her bread and Nutella combination, but Noah chowed down on his cereal. We made the return trek to the cable car station, and the kids had fun riding the lift down the mountain. We even saw a mountain goat!

We loaded into the car and drove to the nearby Kronberg alpine coaster for a little fun. Popular in the region, the alpine coaster sported a rail which tows each car to the top of the ride before releasing the driver to control the speed of their own descent back down the mountain. Noah rode with me, Emmie rode with Brian, and we all four had a blast. So much so that Brian went back and bought tickets for another ride. We switched kids and did it all over again! The kids spotted a playground and were able to burn off a little energy before heading to Liechtenstein.

We added Liechtenstein to the itinerary primarily to say that we’d been there, and to get our passports stamped by the tourism office. Since our visit to the country was at lunch time, Brian identified a pizza place that he wanted to try called Potenza in Liechtenstein’s capital city of Veduz.

While the restaurant looked extremely fancy on entry, we were seated in a corner table conveniently located next to a screen which hid a little room that was full of toys. The kids enjoyed their private playroom, while Brian and I enjoyed some relative peace and quiet as we waited for our pizzas. The super-thin crust pizza was good, though we did not devour it quite as thoroughly as we did at Kaffi Krus in Iceland. (Noah only managed three pieces.)

We did a little souviner shopping, and I tolerated Brian’s obligatory ice cream stop before we found the tourism office. (Editor’s note: How often do you get to eat ice cream in Liechtenstein?) With passports stamped for a fee (surely a steady source of income for the country’s tourism office), we stopped to try on the royal crown for portraits before finally heading to the Apotheke.

After a day or two in the region, it was made very clear that I am very allergic to Germany and its neighboring countries. Unfortunately, we only started to discover the severity of my reaction towards the middle of the day on Saturday. With the weekend on the horizon in France, and the entire country of Switzerland seemingly closed on Sundays, there was little hope for immediate allergy relief. Monday in Liechtenstein, however, provided us with the opportunity to finally get some medicine and, hopefully, some relieve from the sneezing, itchy eyes, and runny nose!

After seeing strawberry stands on the side of the road for the past few days, Brian finally stopped and purchased a box of fresh strawberries. Noah and I were full, but Emmie is always up for strawberries, and she and Daddy enjoyed their snack then and there in the adjacent parking lot.

We then entered our seventh and final new country of the trip, Austria. After a two-hour drive, we found a spot to park and bought our tickets to the Highline 179 bridge. One-hundred-fourteen meters high and 406 meters long, the recently-opened bridge was our first Austrian destination. As the days remaining in our trip are declining, so is our tolerance to long hikes, thus we were not tremendously excited about the “15 minute” uphill hike through the woods to the bridge’s entrance. (With kids, we pretty much have to double any walking time estimate.)

Noah thought the view from the bridge was great, but Emmie got a little nervous in the middle and wanted to be carried, a request to which I complied. After a quick-turn around we crossed back to the other side of the bridge and made another steep (but shorter) hike up to the ruins of Ehrenberg Castle. We took a few photos but didn’t spend an extensive amount of time at this castle as it was very weedy and a gentle rain had started up. We lugged ourselves back down the mountain managing not to get super-wet as the trees provided some decent rain cover.

As we had opted not to experiment with the coin-operated, cold rain-water only showers at the hostel, I was desperate for a shower at this point. We checked into Gintherhof, our home for the next two nights, and I took a shower while Brian drug the kids to check out the local grocery store. When Brian returned, we were told about the evening treat in the guest house common room, a cherry cake. Noah loved his pieces, as long as they didn’t contain cherries, but Emmie abstained from the food fun.

We then headed to the local McDonald’s for some quick, easy, and “know what to expect” food. Brian’s fascinated by the menus at foreign locations of fast food chains, and the Reutte, Austria, McDonald’s was no exception. We ordered the “Chicken Cheese Box,” which consisted of 9 chicken McNuggets, 5 mozzarella sticks, and 4 supposedly “premium” seasoned chicken strips. Brian tried the “Grand Royal” sandwich, which was advertised as being made from all-Austrian beef. He reports it was decent but would have been equally happy with a classic Big Mac.

After dinner, we ran the kids through the shower and the kids were tired enough to go to sleep quickly. Our morning tomorrow starts early with breakfast at 7 a.m. before perhaps our most aggressively-scheduled days of the trip.