Day Four: Triesenberg to home via Vaduz and Zurich

It was another bright sunny day when we woke up in Triesenberg this morning. The forecast suggested that there was going to be some pretty heavy rain and thunder as the day progressed though so we made a comparatively early start, having breakfast and checking out of the hotel around 9am.

The plan for today was to walk from Triesenberg to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. This was another walk which the Liechtenstein tourism website had graded a 2 out of 5 for difficulty, but that was for walking it in the other direction, i.e. uphill towards Triesenberg. We were going to be walking downhill, so I was hopeful that it really would be an easy walk  

It certainly started off in a promising way, as we walked through the village on a small road.

It wasn't long before we had some brilliant views down to the valley below.

As we walked further away from it, we could see that Triesenberg is actually quite a big village. Apparently it has a population of around 2,600.

Vaduz only has a population of around 5,500, despite being the country's capital city!

Although it was a sunny day at this point, we could see there were some clouds starting to creep in.

Slightly disconcertingly, the path took us right under the load hanging from this crane...

...before leading us into the forest.

We walked through dense woodland for quite a long way.

It was mostly a nice path which was easy to follow  There was one point towards the end when we lost it and had to walk on a nearby road instead.

By that point we had almost arrived at what is often described as the most popular sight in Liechtenstein: Vaduz Castle.

The castle is the official residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein.

It's in a beautiful location, although I'm not sure I'd want to live in it; it looks like it might get a bit cold and draughty!

Most of the things I've read about Vaduz have suggested walking up from the town to see the castle. It felt like we'd chosen the easier option by walking down to it from Triesenberg instead

The path continued downhill after the castle, taking us to a viewpoint where we could look out over the town.

It looked built up, but not huge.

The route then led us down through what looked like a rather posh residential area of Vaduz.

Before long we were in the town centre itself, looking back up at the castle  

The centre of Vaduz is pretty small, so it didn't take us long to explore it. We found the town hall...

...plus the cathedral of St Florin.

This strangely shaped building is Liechtenstein's parliament.

We'd exhausted the sights of Vaduz by this point and we were starting to feel a bit peckish, so we decided to catch a bus a few stops down the road to Liechtenstein's only McDonalds  There was barely anything open in Vaduz on a Sunday, so this seemed like a good bet for getting some food.

After we'd eaten we were then able to hop on the bus to Sargans from a stop a few hundred metres away from the McDonalds. The weather had really taken a turn for the worse at this point and the rain was torrential when we got off the bus in Sargans around half an hour later. We barely saw any of the view as we travelled back towards Zurich on the train, with all the mountains covered in clouds. But when we eventually stepped off the train in Zurich we did find that it was dry there at least, so we decided to have a stroll around  

Zurich was prettier than I'd remembered it

We found the Fraumünster church...

...admired the colourful buildings in the squares...

...and got a glimpse of the Grossmünster too.

From there we started walking alongside the water.

The sky was starting to brighten up a bit and the lake looked really pretty.

There were some lovely flowers on the lakeside promenade...

...and some great views back towards the city too.

There were lots of people out and about for a Sunday evening stroll...

...and we even found some ducks  

The sky began to darken again though, so soon it was time to turn around.

We got a little bit damp on our walk back into the centre of Zurich.

But we did get to see some ducklings in the lake  

The rain eased off a bit again as we got closer to the main station.

Then it was time to jump on a train towards the airport for our flight home. Unfortunately the flight has been delayed, so we're not quite sure what time we're actually going to make it home, but that doesn't change the fact that we've had a really lovely time in Liechtenstein. I think it might just be my new favourite "small" country