They were delicious! After some free samples we just had to buy a bag. The really cool thing is that they hand out double bags: one side holds the hot nuts and the other side is for putting the shells in as you walk down the street and eat them.
November 25, 2006
Liechtenstein Trip
Liechtenstein - 62 square miles - This microstate of 34,000 is located on the Rhine River between Switzerland and Austria in the Alps.
When we went there Darcy thought it was the smallest country in the world and I thought San Marino in Italy was the smallest, but we were both wrong. The Vatican City in Rome is 0.2 square miles and is the smallest city with 770 non-permanent residents.
When we were in elementary school Liechtenstein was the smallest country in the world. Five years ago Liechtenstein was the fourth smallest country and today it is the 6th smallest country in the world.
If you are interested in learning about all of the smallest countries, click here: Smallest Countries
Liechtenstein is only about a 40 km. drive from us. When we drove into it we realized that you could see Switzerland on the right and Austria on our immediate left. As soon as we entered the capital city of Vaduz you could see the prince's castle high above the city.
The prince and the House of Liechtenstein date back to the 12th century. The family seat is Liechtenstein Castle at Maria Enzersdorf South of Vienna. The family served Austria as politicians, generals and diplomats. In the 17th century the family was raised to a princely rank. Napoleon in 1806, out of respect for his adversary, granted Liechtenstein sovereignty by letting it join the Rhenish Confederation.
The princes always lived in Vienna up until 1938 when Prince Franz Josef the 2nd took up residence at the Vaduz castle. The current reigning prince is Hans Adam the 2nd who took over in 1989 when his father died. His wife Maria, Countess Kinsky, and the prince have four children. One of their sons married Duchess Sophie of Bavaria in 1993 and had a son prince Josef Wenzel in 1995 who is the succession to the throne.
We visited this little shop for postcards but it had amazing Christmas decorations. There was a Christmas ball the size of Jerret's head and the owner said that they used to have one the size of a basketball. We've included pictures of these in the album on the website.
All of us took a walk down the main street that was filled with iron sculptures of a man on a high chair, horses, and kids at play. We entered a 3 floor toy store/art supplies/gift shop that had amazing things. Darcy and I will visit it again before the kids birthdays because there was oodles of Lego, Harry Potter paraphernalia, and little plastic collector animals. We shut the place down! The man actually shut the lights out on us, which helped us get Jerret away from the Lego : )
Darcy experienced a pretty cool thing on main street, take it away Darcy:
I walked up and started talking to two street vendors who had a large metal fire pot, with red hot coals burning inside. I couldn't contain myself as I broke into song: “chestnuts roasting on an open fire”!
They
were delicious! After some free samples we just had to buy a bag. The
really cool thing is that they hand out double bags: one side holds
the hot nuts and the other side is for putting the shells in as you
walk down the street and eat them.
We
learned the origins of roasting chestnuts. A very, very long time
ago, in the Northern parts of Italy and Southern Switzerland,
chestnut trees were abundant and grew in huge forests full of them.
When times were tough, they tried eating them and found out that they
are a healthy food supply. They have a texture similar to a stiff
baked potatoe, and they have a subtle taste of their own.
They asked, “don't they do this in Canada?” and we said “Yes in Stanley Park in Vancouver, is the only place we know of.” Funny thing is, we walked past it a few times in Vancouver when we lived there, and never even tried them.
We look forward to our next times in this lovely little country.
Lisa and Darcy Allen
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