Liechtenstein, Small Unique Affairs

Liechtenstein, Small Unique Affairs

created by Iwa sobara, Excutive summary by Stanley Subari

Compared to other small countries like Monaco and Vatican, Liechtenstein country is not so much known. Sure, you'll wonder where the country? How vast territory? Or how many people?

Two weeks ago after a study tour of the campus is complete, I and some friends travel to a country named Liechtenstein or in German so-called Fürstentum Liechtenstein. From the city of St. Gallen in the eastern tip of Switzerland, we headed to a town called Vaduz in Liechtenstein, a distance of only 68 kilometers.

 

Once there, we do not think that a country like the capital city of Vaduz is no different than a district in an area in Indonesia. The city which is above the altitude of 455 above sea level. It has an area of 17 square kilometers and is inhabited by about 5200 residents. The atmosphere in the day Saturday in early spring in the town of Vaduz was very quiet. From the railway station adjacent to one of the city in Switzerland, we rode a bus into downtown.

 

Because these spontaneous travel plans we are doing, so we do not know where to go. In downtown Vaduz we see a tourist train "City train" that could bring the tourists looking around the city. Looks a lot of tourists from Asia, like India or the East Asian countries. We decided to try the city train. Of the three series of carriages, in addition to the four of us there were three other passengers, one female pretty flawless in India, and two men. Daniel, the train driver welcomed us warmly.

On this trip we can enjoy the scenery, the city traffic and the old city of Vaduz. From our downtown invited along rural-countryside beautiful. A few moments later, we arrived at a place called the Red House. This house is one of the oldest buildings in the city of Vaduz. At the back of the house we can find the wine maker or Wein. Inside the warehouse there is a vault which can hold about 20,000 liters of wine.

This place is the most fitting place to see the castle of Prince Liechtenstein. Inside the castle the Prince Hans Adam II and Princess Marie run the throne. Resident Liechtenstein is owned by one of the oldest aristocratic families in the world with some of his kingdom. Because inhabited by the Prince family, this castle can not be visited.

 
 

Elsewhere, we could see the vineyard owned by prince "Herawingert", which has particularly spacious 4 hectares. The vineyard is a vineyard of the most traditional and most important in Vaduz and is considered the heart to the kingdom of wine production since 1712. This garden is now owned by the Prince. 

 

From this estate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay find excellent quality wines. Every drop of wine here is very expensive price. Therefore, farmers should be careful to blackmail.

 

The population of Liechtenstein as a whole is about 35,000 people and total area of approximately 160 km square. The country has been around since 1719 and since the year 1806 became a royal sovereign monarchy. In accordance with the constitution of 1921, the kingdom is a hereditary constitutional monarchy based on democratic and parliamentary system. Rights and obligations of people to be protected by the federal state parliament consisting of 25 people.

Although stand-alone, I still feel that Liechtenstein is one of the cantons in Switzerland. How not, here we use the Swiss franc currency for transactions. The language used was mostly the standard German or German-Swiss.

 

After we finished invited to tour the city train, Daniel then asked our origin. When he knew that we were from Indonesia, he was told, not a few Indonesia tourists every year who come to Liechtenstein. They are usually not very fluent  in English let alone German. Therefore, they have difficulty to understand the  tour guide that plays through the CD on the city train. For that reason, Daniel asked me to make a translation of the manual and make it on the CD to be played  when the Indonesian tour group use the services of his city train.