Happy National Holiday, Liechtenstein

Posted: November 24, 2014 by luxembourgmeetstheworld

Liechtenstein is just over 160 square kilometers, so it’s basically very small. It is the smallest and at the same time the richest of the German speaking countries. As it is so small and located in the Alps, only a small surface of the country is made for living. The rest consists of mountains. Liechtenstein isn’t a member state of the European Union, but of the European Economic Area and of the Schengen Area. The capital is Vaduz.

For God, Prince, and Fatherland!

This is their motto, in German „Für Gott, Fürst und Vaterland“. When we decided to visit Liechtenstein on the 15th of August, we didn’t even know that this day is their national holiday. So this was really surprisingly.

Once we arrived, we immediately got into the conviviality. Everything was decorated with their official logo, people were dressed up and at every corner you could buy drinks. It was really beautiful to see the natives celebrating their day.

Vaduz Castle

We wanted to visit the Vaduz Castle (in German Schloss Vaduz). So we climbed up the mountain to get there. It is the palace and official residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein.

While we were doing our pictures, an old man came and talked with us, he told us that in the evening will be a big firework and that the Prince of Liechtenstein invited his whole folk to come and eat with him in his castle that day. This sounded really strange to us, because here in Luxembourg, the grand duke never does this. If I would live in Liechtenstein, I’d participate in that dinner every year – but that will never happen.

Firework

We were told that in the evening would have been a big firework, so we couldn’t miss that. In Luxembourg, we have our firework the evening before the National Holiday. Since the firework was nothing new for us, I have to admit that the Vaduz Castle was really well decorated during the firework, as you can see on my pictures.