The hills are alive! (Aah!)

Wednesday morning, we woke up at a lovely little hotel with a great breakfast spread in Innsbruck, a small Alpine town in the western arm of Austria that to me was entirely reminiscent of Mont Tremblant in Quebec, in the sense that Mont Tremblant was completely designed to look like a place such as Innsburck. We wandered its streets for an hour or two, mostly marveling over huge mountains towering over the charming little buildings.

After a quick train ride to Feldkirch, Austria, we set out to achieve the day's main objective: visit the micronation of Liechtenstein. Though for most intents and purposes it's part of Switzerland (down to using the currency), Liechtenstein is in fact its own country (I have the stamp on my passport from the tourist office to prove it!) with its own bus system (aptly titled the Liechtenstein Bus), capital (Vaduz, where we spent our time), and history (there's a whole museum!) to enjoy. Half of the visit, of course, was marveling that we could see Switzerland from Vaduz's main street. The other half entailed a very brief tasting at the Prince's Winery and visits to the National Museum (complete with an English audio tour to teach us how such a tiny little state comes to be) and the Post Museum. Apparently Liechtenstein is known for its postage stamps, but the museum was only one room and fairly dull besides (though, fortunately, it was also free).

We caught the Liechtenstein Bus out of Vaduz to Buchs, Switzerland, which, after a couple of transfers and more marveling that we could drive through an entire country in less than an hour total, got us to Luzern, Switzerland. More on that in a bit.