In praise of small countries – Liechtenstein and Luxembourg

Some time ago, I decided that I wanted to visit all of the smallest countries in Europe. Why? Like there has to be a reason. Why not? Don’t you want to visit them too? It’s good to have life goals and mine are all travel-based!

Vatican City is the smallest country in Europe, with an area of less than half a square kilometre. Next are Monaco, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra and Luxembourg. I’m sad to report that San Marino still eludes me, but rest assured I’ll get there.

The great thing about a small country is that you can see quite a lot of it in just a short trip. Everything is close together. And these places are not on the top 10 list of ‘must-do’s for millions of tourists. So the locals tend to be glad to see you, and you can get a bit of peace and quiet away from all those pesky people with their selfie sticks. No, I don’t own one.

I saw my chance to get to Liechtenstein when we were planning a driving trip to the Italian Lakes. “We can just pop over the border and have a night in Vaduz”, I suggested casually. Tony looked unimpressed, “And why would we want to do that?” Erm…

The fact that I collect old books by Dornford Yates in which rich guys drive around the back roads of Liechtenstein in their Rolls Royce catching criminals was not going to cut it for Tony. I had to think of something else. “Apparently there’s a really great Indian restaurant there.” We were in.

As we crossed the border, I pretended to be in a Rolls, spotting bad guys behind every tree. The countryside was lush and green, with mysterious-looking forests. Adventure was in the air! As a cyclist, Tony was busy marvelling at the smooth road surfaces. Oh, and looking forward to his dinner.

We stayed at the Park Hotel Sonnenhof in Vaduz. It’s lovely and gets five star reviews, and so it should – it’s expensive. You should know this before you go – Liechtenstein is the richest country in the world so it’s not cheap to visit, hence we only stayed one night. The hotel has a Michelin starred restaurant, which of course I didn’t get to try, because (a) I’m married to a Yorkshire man, and (b) I had already promised him a curry. Such is life. Michelin starred breakfast was impressive though.

Vaduz is the capital of Liechtenstein. Remember that, it might come in handy for a pub quiz one day, or Pointless! It has less than 6,000 inhabitants. It’s very pretty but tiny. And there was literally no-one there when we stopped off in June. The town is in a steep valley with the Prince’s castle up on the hillside. Our hotel was up there too, so we got some decent exercise just going to the shops. Not that there are many shops.

As for the much-hyped Indian restaurant, the Schlössle Mahal was also perched up on high with a lovely view over the town. There was no-one there apart from us, but the food was great, and we had a good old natter with the owner. He had nothing better to do than chat, with a big old empty restaurant, and he was keen to sing the praises of his adopted home. Living in Liechtenstein is amazing, it seems, even with only two customers per evening.

Even though it’s very scenic, I get it that not many people reach Liechtenstein. It’s tucked away and you never hear about it. The locals are obviously too busy counting their money to make any headlines. Luxembourg, on the other hand, is easy to get to and quite a big cheese in the EU. We flew direct from Heathrow in just over an hour. Why does no-one go there?

We went to Luxembourg with my parents, Mum being the only other person, apart from me, who had read about how gorgeous it was. As I’ve said before, there are amazing deals to be had in these overlooked corners of Europe. It cost about 60% of what we usually pay for a weekend break.

Luxembourg City is the capital (another useful fact). The whole population is just over 600,000. That’s coniderably more than Liechtenstein, but less than Leeds! It’s the second richest country in the world, so there must be something about these small places… Public transport is free and more alcohol is sold than anywhere else in Europe. I repeat my question, why does no-one come here?

Luxembourg City is stunning to look at. The Old Town sits up on a plateau overlooking deep gorges, with numerous bridges providing vertiginous views. Below the cliffs runs the river Alzette with riverside walks and red squirrels scampering amongst the trees. The lovely old houses of the Grund district are clustered along the river banks, interspersed with pubs and restaurants. It’s pretty idyllic.

Up in the Old Town, there are views galore and meandering little lanes to explore. The ‘casemates’ is a system of tunnels hewn into the rock of the city’s cliffs, originally part of a huge medieval fortification. Perfect for a rainy day, you can stay dry whilst admiring the views from various spy holes.

I always need to talk about food. In a city where almost 50% of the inhabitants are foreigners, you’re guaranteed to find a good selection of restaurants. But I do like to go local, so we tried Mousel’s Cantine, where huge pork knuckles and horse meat are the specialities. Perhaps not ideal for a pescatarian like me (I think Mum was a bit shocked by the gory menu too) but there was some fish on the menu so I didn’t starve. The atmosphere was great, who doesn’t love a bit of oompah music when in Europe? And the next night we had a delicious Italian at Onesto in the Old Town. No complaints at all.

I hope I’ve managed to convince you to try out some of the smaller, often overlooked corners of Europe. I could tell you about other petite countries I’ve loved, but I don’t have time today, I’ve got to work out how to get myself to San Marino…