It's unseasonably cold and wet here in Switzerland... many locals are complaining, saying that this weather doesn't usually come until November or December. Lucky me, it came early! Its 40°, and raining... so once you're wet, you feel 10 times colder. I planned my trip around this, and I wasn't expecting such conditions so the best I can really do is layer up! My northface jacket helps with the water since its rain proof, but my legs have nothing other than jeans to save them!
Even in the cold and wet, Switzerland is beautiful. Today I went out to Liechtenstein, which is a tiny country between Switzerland and Austria. We went to the capital, Vaduz. It takes 3 minutes of walking to get from one end of Vaduz to the other. There are 5000 people living there, making it Liechtenstein's largest city. If you don't count the Vatican (sorry, I don't!) then Liechtenstein is the 5th smallest country in the world. They use the Swiss currency, Francs, and speak Swiss German, but have their own government, passports, etc.
Swiss German... what? I learned that when speaking, the Swiss in the German area of Switzerland use different words than the actual German language. The language, Swiss German, cannot be easily written, so in written communication, they use real German. Swiss German is only for talking. Neat, right?
The people of Liechtenstein make a LOT of coocoo clocks, as you can see in my photo. This was just one store of many. I braved the elements and walked around Vaduz a bit before finally deciding that if I continued, I'd die of frost bite. The wind was kicking, making everything worse for the people on the tour.
As we drove back to Zurich, the rain quieted, the clouds lifted, and the sun began peeking out. I was finally able to get some photos of the terrain. The snow is already at quite low altitudes, which is very unusual for this time of year, but it sure makes the mountains exceedingly beautiful!
On my way back to the hostel, I passed a McDonald's that had a sign "1 franc hamburgers!" I'm sorry for being such an American, but c'mon... the cheapest thing to eat here is closer to 10 franc so I welcomed the opportunity to get something cheap. In every country I go to, I check out the McDonald's prices... that is one place where you are getting the exact same thing no matter where you are, so you can easily compare prices! A McChicken meal in Opelika, $3.70. Same thing here? 11.3 CHF which is $12.75. And of course in Europe, you don't get big drinks with free refills! Wow!
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