A Memorable Few Days (Innsbruck, Sargans and Vaduz)

This post is about a trip I took one long weekend in November, which I think was probably the trip I enjoyed the most during my time as a British Council Teaching Assistant in Austria. As I mentioned in my post about my trip to Vienna and Bratislava, I have a "bucket list" plan to visit all the countries in Europe as well as all the continents in the world. I visited Slovakia for the first time that weekend, and in November I was able to also tick off Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Three new countries in two months is not bad, in my opinion!

Because Switzerland and Liechtenstein are actually quite a distance away from Kärnten, I broke up the journey with a stop in Innsbruck on the way there and the way back. It was a really charming city, and it started snowing while I was there which was exciting! (Although it basically didn't stop snowing in Austria ever since, so I got used to it eventually. :D)

Here are my best pictures:

A couple of views from my hotel room in Innsbruck. I loved how mountainous it was.

A church that caught my eye on my way into the city centre

The most famous sight in Innsbruck: Goldenes Dachl

The Christmas market!

Stadtturm

Heibling House

Das Neue Rathaus

Triumphpforte



Landestheater

A couple of pictures from the Hofgarten. I had never seen a red squirrel in real life before, so it was amazing to get so close to one!

Hofkirche

Dom St. Jakob, the main cathedral in Innsbruck.

A view of the colourful houses by the river


After my first stop in Innsbruck, I took the train to a small Swiss town called Sargans near the border with Liechtenstein. It seemed very different from Austria - the accent was unusual and some of the vocabulary on signs, etc. was new to me. And maybe this is weird, but I was also excited at getting to use a new currency!

Sargans is not big but it does have some beautiful mountains and a castle, which I went to see on the evening I arrived.

This is a nice church on the way up the mountain towards the castle...

The castle. There were some incredible views from up there...

The following morning I took the bus into Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. I expected it to be a big busy city with lots of offices and things going on, but it was actually very small and really really quiet. Which I liked, as it was nice to be able to explore the city without having to fight through crowds of people! While I was there I visited the art gallery, which had paintings by many famous artists, and the museum, where I learned a lot about the history of Liechtenstein and what life is like there.

Here are my pictures:

Vaduz Castle

Rathaus

The Parliament Buildings

The Cathedral


I really enjoyed these few days of travelling and sightseeing, and it felt like a real adventure to travel such long distances by train. In the future, I would definitely like to go to Switzerland again in particular, perhaps to a big city like Geneva or Zürich. We'll see, maybe during the final part of my Year Abroad!